In June 2002, Paul Kellett and I presented a couple of new ideas to Steinberg. Our drum machine draft was received with great enthusiasm, and two months later Mats-Erik Björklund started recording the drum sounds. A team of 13 drummers provided the 54 included styles, and at Frankfurt Musikmesse next year, this was Steinberg’s new tool:

 

Numerous drum kits and percussion instruments were recorded especially for Groove Agent, complete with dry and wet representations that you can mix between. Each style has 25 variations, each with their own fill and half tempo rendition. Plus the ability to exchange any drum sound with another sound – on the fly!

With all the positive energy we spent on this drum tool, it’s very rewarding to see how users have taken the concept of an easy-to-use virtual drummer to their hearts. Groove Agent is become one of Steinberg's best selling VSTi-s ever.


At winter NAMM 2005, Groove Agent 2 was presented to the world. We had put our thinking hats on again and provided 27 more musical styles and a handful newly recorded drum kits, plus a bunch of vintage drum machines. GA2 contains everything the first version had, so it’s totally backwards compatible.

The latest addition to the Groove Agent series is Groove Agent 3. Now we've added another 27 "classic" Groove Agent drum styles plus an all new live recorded section called Special Agent featuring the incredible Rasmus Kihlberg on drums. Now the "live feel" is more present than ever. On top of that, there's an new Percussion Agent and a modified output section with 12 outputs and built­in effects, all housed in the new Dual Mode that enables two drum modules to be controlled simultaneously.



Groove Agent is sold, distributed and supported by Steinberg.
© Sven Bornemark 2001-2007

Listen to an example:
Prince Busy by Figge von Wachenfeldt
"By the way of sound, there’s plenty of variation amongst the acoustic kits, all with adjustable ambiance, and the overall quality of drum recording is excellent"
Paul White, Sound On Sound July 2003
"It’s ideal for those moments when you get a flash of inspiration, and it offers enough adaptability to allow you to get your song moving quickly and with little fuss – great for the bedroom guitarist, or anyone who’s fed up with messing about programming rhythms"
CM, Computer Music August 2003
"As it stands, Groove Agent is a fine, creative, useful, and often downright inspirational instrument, a definite Key Buy"
Craig Anderton, Keyboard September 2003
"By using Automation and carefully adjusting the Complexity slider and clicking the Fill button, you get astonishingly realistic results"
Mats Nermark, Fuzz September 2003
"It’s also an excellent drum sample player; the sounds in Groove Agent are so much better than those in most drum plug-ins I’ve tested – you’ll have to spend considerable sums on external drum libraries to beat the Groove Agent sounds"
Carl Dahlberg, Musikermagasinet October 2003
"Groove Agent is an excellent tool, both when you need a drum rhythm quickly and when you need help to find a groove that suits a particular style"
Basse, Instrument OnLine October 2003