Recording the Output of Another Plug-in

Recording the output of another plug-in allows you to save the sounds that you created with other plug-ins, software or hardware, exactly the way that you set them up. This can be particularly useful if a plug-in does not allow you to create presets, for example.

Prerequisite

You have added two tracks in the Steinberg DAW, one for the plug-in from which you want to record, and one for Groove Agent.

Procedure

  1. In Groove Agent, select the program for which you want to record the samples.
  2. Open the Sample Recorder.
  3. In the plug-in header of Groove Agent, activate the Activate Side-Chain button.
  4. Route the output of the instrument track to the side-chain input of Groove Agent.

    Alternatively, you can also add a send on the mixer channel of the instrument track and route it to the side-chain input of Groove Agent.

  5. In Groove Agent, set Record Start Trigger to MIDI Note-On and use the Port pop-up menu to specify a MIDI port and channel for the recording.
  6. Set Record Stop Trigger to MIDI Note-Off.
  7. Set Sample Mode to Auto Next to create multiple sample recordings.
  8. Set Mapping to As Played to map the samples automatically to the keys that correspond to the notes on the source instrument track.
  9. Copy the note events of the plug-in track to the Groove Agent track, so that they both receive the same MIDI notes.
  10. Click the Record/Record Enable button to enable recording.
  11. Start playback in the DAW.

    As soon as the first note-on message is received, recording starts. When the note is released, recording stops. The Sample Recorder automatically reverts to its record-enabled state and starts recording again as soon as the next note is received.

    Note

    You can also record samples by playing the notes manually. In this case, proceed as described above, activate the Record-Enable and Monitor buttons for the plug-in track and the Groove Agent track, so that you can trigger both tracks at the same time, and then play the notes on your keyboard.

Result

Groove Agent creates a sample for each MIDI note that is played and maps it to the corresponding pad.