OK I'm gonna do something different
today: I'm gonna do a gear review. I just purchased the Groove
Machine from Image-Line software (the Fruity Loops guys) and I just
used in on a remix, and I've been trying to integrate it into my
regular (OK irregular) work flow. So without further babbling, on to
more babbling!
The Groove Machine's layout should be
instantly familiar to anyone who's ever used any of the Roland
grooveboxes or Korg's Electribe series. It gives you eight
drum/sample parts and five synth parts to play with. Each of these
parts can be routed to individual tracks in your DAW when used as a
VSTi, or routed to different hardware outs depending on your audio
interface. There's actually a parameter in the setup page in stand
alone mode for an audio input, but after posting about this on
Image-Line's forum, I received a reply that it's just the same setup
code they used for their Deckadance DJ software and they have no
plans to run live audio through the Groove Machine...yet.
It comes with a great set of drum
samples, but it's easy to load your own. Each sample part can layer
four individual samples, and each sample has it's own set of
parameters. Levels, panning, pitch, a basic envelope and even
filtering are available for each sample in the part. Even timing
delay, inverting & reversing the sound. Another handy feature is
offsetting the start of the sample, clipping off the sample from the
top for a mellower sound. (Non-destructively I might add.)
The synth parts are just as easy to
edit. Layering up to three waves, each transposable +/- three
octaves, as well as a noise generator and some sync, FM and ringmod
effects. The software comes with a handful of decent waveforms that
definately lean to the synthetic. Don't go looking for a lush piano
sound, it ain't here.The phase offset of the second oscillator is
tweakable, along with the amount of unison voices and stereo spread
and detune of the voices. And of course it can switch from poly to
mono.
Each part has its own set of knobs and
sliders for the tweak-happy. You get a resonant filter switchable
between lowpass, bandpass and highpass, two envelope generators and
two LFO's The envelopes and LFO's can be assigned to the filter,
modulation, frequency, or level. Topping this off is a standard ADSR
envelope for levels and a master knob for overall level.
If the sample and synth parameters
weren't enough, then you have the effects. Ten different ones for
each part. Let me make this clear: TEN EFFECTS FOR EACH PART. All
five synths and all eight sample parts have their own effects bank.
Apparently they don't like to share. Each effect has two parameters
that can either be adjusted by knobs, or by dragging the mouse in the
x/y grid similar to a kaoss pad.
The sequencer can be used a couple of
ways. You can play live via midi into it, you can use the the buttons
at the bottom like you would step edit a regular groovebox, or you
can take the easy way out and right-click your mouse on the buttons,
which pulls up either a piano roll screen or a drum grid, depending
on which part you have selected. Note length is determined by a
horizontal slider on the front panel, I'm sure this was done to help
sequence steps groove box style from the front. But it's kind of a
pain when you want to use the piano roll.
Now one nifty bit of the piano roll or
drum grid editing is that if you right-click on most of any of the
knobs or sliders on the main screen, it swicthes to the piano roll
screen with a level at the top editing field to adjust the level of
that control. Filters, effects, LFO rates, envelope depths,
sync-modulation, pretty much everything is fair game. Wait a minute
lemme go check something....
...OK I just solved my note length
problem. By right-clicking on the note length slider, You can draw
the note length per step. And you can keep doing this for each
parameter over and over. I've adjusted note length, a filter
envelopes attack and decay and echo level for a single part.
Each “groove” as they call it can
consist of eight pattens, which can be up to eight parts each. By
hitting the “Edit Mode” button, (which you also have to hit in
order to start step editing groovebox style,) you can copy patterns
by selecting the one you want to copy, hitting the copy button,
selecting the pattern you want to copy to and hitting the paste
button. This also works copying a part from one bar to another.
Alternatively you can copy a busy pattern and then selecting parts to
cut out by using the clear button.
A fun little gimmick is the Stutter
buttons. That loops a section of a pattern for a quarter-beat,
three-eighths, a half, three-quarters or a whole beat. Also by using
a midi controller you can hold down the quarter-beat button and hold
one of the others, you can get reverse patterns, or in the case of
the three-eighths button a one-eighth note loop! One thing I've
noticed in practice is that the pattern doesn't return to the spot
you left off when you started looping. It continues playing silently
under the loop and falls back in place when you let go. So if you
hold down a whole beat button for a count of four, when you let up
it'll be in the next bar. This is a great way for improving fills.
I mentioned using a midi controller,
because lets face it half the fun of a groovebox was hammering at the
buttons like the lab monkey trying to earn a treat. Sadly this is
where I think the Groove Machine falls short. Mapping a controller is
easy enough. Press the key/button, or move the knob/slider you want
to map, then click on the parameter you want to control. Up at the
top right of the main screen it should display the midi control and
the parameter. Click on the arrow leading from MIDI to CTRL and their
linked. Seems easy enough. The only problem I have with this is this
control works only with whatever part you have selected. Want to use
a bank of faders to use as a volume mixer? Can't do it. Want to have
a single button to act as a mute for each part? Can't do it. The only
way to control a parameter directly without having to select the part
is via the a bank of five knobs at the top of the Groove Machine's
display. Move one of the five knobs, hit the big LINK button, then
move a knob or slider you want to control. Link the knob at the top
to a midi control like any other parameter, and it's done. Problem is
five knobs aren't enough.
Another thing is you can't have one
midi command control two parameters. So using a single knob to
control multiple effect parameters isn't possible. Also remember the
stutter buttons? Having to hold down one while holding another to get
a reverse effect? Mapping both to one control seems like a
no-brainer, but it's not possible. Oh and mapping a note to the play
button on the sequencer? You have to keep holding it in order for it
to play. If your using the VSTi version this isn't an issue as it
starts and stops with the host. But trying to use this as a stand
alone instrument is pretty annoying. I can't even find a parameter to
make it recognize midi channels! I'm switching patterns with my
MidiFighter on channel 3, I go to play on my Midi keyboard to record
a synth part with midi channel 1, and the pattern changes!
Image-Line have done their homework
and made this an incredible software version of a hardware groovebox.
As a VSTi I loved working with it. It was easy to get drums going,
program synths and lay out a pattern structure. But in terms of
modern software flexibility it's TOO much like a hardware groovebox.
The midi implementation has a looooooooooooooooong way to go in order
to be useful as a live instrument by itself. I got a few other
gripes, the tap tempo button in standalone mode is not midi mappable,
and though you can save your grooves with the drum samples, it
doesn't save the standalone tempo!
So as it stands right now, its VSTi
version yes, Standalone no. Maybe I'm being a little greedy and
wanting too much from a ver 1.0.1 program, but I had high hopes of
just using this to bang out demos without having to crack my DAW
open. Oh well. There's always 2.0.
