Feature:
The additional 2 modules, Special Agent and Percussion Agent, I haven't found useful as yet, least of all the Special Agent. I would have preferred more drum patterns in the main Groove Agent. It's nice to be able to add your own sounds, and of course, having 12 stereo outputs makes tracking and mixing a lot easier. In earlier versions there were only 4 outputs, and that meant multiple instances (with various drums muted), and duplicate midi tracks, or multiple pass to audio track; a pain. Also, to really get a final drum track, I find it necessary to go in and edit the timing of the fill triggers, add accents, and sometimes add individual instruments, like extra snare hits or crashes. This is really easy to do though, and is worth the effort. Many people ask me who played the drums on my recordings. That's the best reason to use Groove Agent I can think of.
Quality:
This doesn't really apply, but comes with a printed manual! :)
Value:
For the money, it has a lot of playability.
Desirability:
I'm used to it, it's easy and sounds good.
Sound:
Can't fault the drum sounds for the price. Also, the ability to add your own drum samples is nice in this version.
Ease of Use:
Couldn't be any simpler. Choose a pattern, hit Run. Although, Groove Agent sometimes gets a bit happy with the fills, adding them where they shouldn't be, or doubling up a fill so it runs into the next measure. It's not all the time though, and it doesn't ever seem to happen when mixing the drums down to an audio file, but that's not real-time, so maybe that makes the difference.
Support:
I've only contacted support about Cubase, and that went well.
Overall:
I will probably invest in another drum VST in the future, just to give myself a few more options sound wise. Probably will get more of a sampled drum set like BFD that can be driven by the midi out of Groove Agent.
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