#GROOVE AGENT 4 VS SE SOFTWARE#

GA5's increased velocity layer limit is made good use of (some sounds have up to 20 velocity layers) and a good collection of presets configure GA5's mixing options to deliver a wide range of acoustic drum styles. It was sampled with high-end equipment in an equally high-end room. This is based around a combination of Pearl and Yamaha drums and predominantly Zildjian cymbals. GA5 certainly ticks that box and the highlight is a new acoustic drum kit simply called The Kit. Of course, the first thing most potential new users or upgraders might look for is new sonic content. The ease with which you can audition, for example, a number of different kick or snare sounds in place, while your project is in playback, is incredibly useful. It does take a little while to get your head around what's possible, but the new Load Panel is both flexible and powerful. While this doesn't do much to counter the 'compact' nature of some of the controls and buttons, it does mean that you can, for example, make more room for detailed sample editing or for the pattern editor.Īs well as acoustic and electronic drums, GA5 also includes percussion instruments via the Percussion Agent.Second, the UI now offers an integrated browser (called the Load Panel) which can be docked or floated.

First, the UI is now fully resizable, whether used stand-alone or as a plug-in. However, GA5 brings two significant UI changes that, in different ways, help on this front. That's great for existing users familiar with the interface but, equally, means that it can still be somewhat daunting on first encounter. The overall look of GA hasn't really changed. In short, for users looking for a single solution for all their drum needs, GA4 was already a good bet and, in retaining that core functionality, GA5 remains so. Multiple audio outputs are also supported. You can, therefore, build your own kits - acoustic or electronic - within Beat Agent.

If you want additional content, Steinberg have a series of genre-based expansion packs for sounds, patterns and styles.įor the Acoustic and Percussion Agents, the user gets plenty of mix options for tweaking the sounds (although not direct access to editing the samples themselves), while the Beat Agent provides very detailed sample editing, support for velocity layering, sample import and excellent options for slicing audio loops. There is also a very neat Style Player system for easy triggering and performance creation as well as a comprehensive MIDI pattern editing environment. As well as a substantial collection of sounds, there is an excellent set of 'styles' (collections of preset MIDI patterns) in various musical genres, and these can also be assigned to a pad system for triggering. In brief, that means you get three different drum Agents - Acoustic, Beat and Percussion - any combination of which can be loaded into the four Agent slots in a single instance of Groove Agent. However, the core functionality found in v4 - and summarised in the June 2015 SOS review - remains intact. The focus here will obviously fall on the new and improved features in the v5 release.

#GROOVE AGENT 4 VS SE SOFTWARE#

With software as deep as Groove Agent, any review is only likely to scratch the surface of what's possible. So, if GA4 was the 'ultimate drum studio', where do you go from there? With Groove Agent 5 now with us, what have Steinberg done to take their flagship drum tool to an 'even more ultimate' status? Status Quo

With a very deep feature set, and multiple 'Agents' covering electronic drums, percussion and acoustic drums available within a single instance, it certainly staked a pretty good claim for the 'best all-round drum tool', combining elements found in the likes of virtual drummer products such as Superior Drummer/EZ Drummer and virtual MPC-style drum machines. GA4 was certainly a very significant change from previous GA-badged virtual instruments. How do you improve on the ultimate drum studio? Steinberg attempt just that with the latest version of Groove Agent.īack in 2015 Steinberg tagged Groove Agent 4 as the 'ultimate drum studio'.

Groove agent 4 vs se