Part 2
Hi Rumdrum,
Great stuff! Just the idea of loading kits with and without patterns still seems to be confusing. Let me try to explain:
A preset that you load in the MediaBay consists of
- A drum kit with individual settings for tuning, attack, decay and so on.
- An individual mixer preset for this kit
- A pattern group with grooves or Styles mapped to the pads
The latter one is optional as you have already noticed by activating or deactivating the clock symbol in the MediaBay.
So it is not just a groove that you load.
If you just want to have a specific kit with a neutral mix just load one of the init presets. You can also save one of the init presets as default so it will directly be loaded when GA starts.
So now let’s say you have loaded a preset with patterns into the first slot of the Agent rack. The instruments or the kit in the first slot will be playable via MIDI channel 1 by default. The patterns are global though and will be played on all MIDI channels.
Now you want to load an additional kit in the next slot of the Agent rack. There are different use cases for this:
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You want to load a kit with grooves that complements the first kit, i.e. a percussion kit. You select the second Agent slot and load a preset. You will now have the instrument sounds on MIDI channel 2. The patterns group will be mapped on the same 16 notes as the patterns of the first Agent in order to play them simultaneously. The patterns of the first Agent will only play the instruments of the first Agent though. The patterns of the second Agent will only play the patterns of the second Agent. Still they will be triggered with the same notes and in all MIDI channels regardless of the selection in the Agent rack. If you don’t want to have them triggered by the same notes you can just move the patterns of an individual Agent onto a different group. So you have all patterns of Agent X on group 1 and all patterns of Agent Y on group 2. If you want to listen to single Agent’s pattern you can deactivate the pattern of the other Agent in the pattern overview page or mute the Agent in the Agent mixer.
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The second use case might be that you want to load a kit without patterns in order to fatten the sound of the first kit. In this case you deactivate the clock icon (“load kit with pattern”) when loading a preset to a new Agent slot. The patterns of the first Agent will still be there and will still trigger the instruments of the first Agent. The instruments of the second Agent will be triggered with MIDI channel 2 and are not attached to the patterns of the first Agent. Still you could copy or load the styles of the first Agent to the second Agent on the pattern overview page in order to let the same groove be played by both Agents. Or maybe just mute all pads but the snare or kick to fatten up your sound. Or you could load a sample of yours to the Beat Agent to customize your Acoustic Agent sound.
What I am trying to explain is, that you can always load kit without grooves. The pattern overview page shows you exactly, which Agent is loaded with patterns and which without, where the patterns are mapped and which patterns are played simultaneously.
Thank you Matthias. It deepens my understanding and I understand the thought behind why the interface is built like it is. My desire would however be to separate kits, mixer and grooves completely, (but that is me). So when you load up an “Agent” it is always empty (no option to load kit, mixer and grooves all together at all as default). The kit then should have some presets (still without grooves), but where the mixer and plugins are different. Then grooves should load individually but with a suggestion in the browser which kit/preset it was intended for. When you have put together everything to your liking, THEN you should be able to save the entire setting. I think this is a much more comprehendable interface, and the feeling of being a “composer/arranger” increases. Now Steinberg is the composer for me and “everything” will turn out to sound the same out there, but agian; that is me.
I also think you should not have the “overlap” in section 2 (G#0 to G#1). This will only confuse if one try to play a GM groove in Cubase with a default GA. GM may have single hits in that section but played in a default GA setting it will trigger groove start. If I would build the GA interface I would not have the switching between Patterns and Instruments. Yes, I know this limits the number of keys you can have patterns (or limit single hits, especially for the electronic kits)), but this is what I prefere. Or better still: To route grooves to MIDI B as default and utilize the whole key range for patterns in B and single hits in A, hence forcing the user arrange for MIDI B to access the patterns. I would anyhow like to se “Sticks” moved out of this section to one of the empty keys in a higher section, or at least to have an alias of it there.
Could you also tell me the answer to this: When loading a groove to a pad you get some graphical symbols on the pad that seem to place the groove on a special part of the pad. It is a symbol with two squares in the middle of the pad, and with three in the bottom. Has this anything to do with the four Agents?
One last thing; Is there (or will there be) a MIDI player inside GA? It is a audio file player, but I can not locate a MIDI player.
Could you also tell me the answer to this: When loading a groove to a pad you get some graphical symbols on the pad that seem to place the groove on a special part of the pad. It is a symbol with two squares in the middle of the pad, and with three in the bottom. Has this anything to do with the four Agents?
If you drop a MIDI file on the middle it will replace the pattern that is on the pad.
If you drop multiple MIDI files on the bottom of the pad the MIDI pattern will be mapped consecutively on the pads to the right-hand side.
One last thing; Is there (or will there be) a MIDI player inside GA? It is a audio file player, but I can not locate a MIDI player.
I guess you want to prelisten the Styles, right? Just click through the style library while Groove Agent is running and the patterns will automatically be played with the current complexity and intensity settings.
No. It is more when using the browser, say for hundreds of loops/grooves I have created myself. When building a pattern on the pads to know which to choose. There is a player for adudio files (lower right in the interface) but I can’t seem to locate one for MIDI files. I have to move a MIDI groove to a pad and then listen (and repeat until I am satisfied). Ist this right?
Matthias need to message you my man. I have some ideas that you are going to like. Sorry to post again. Thanks.