How to use GrooveForge 2.6.2

Launch price on release: €39
Future regular price: €59 (planned)
No increase date set.

Coming later. This product is not available for purchase or new downloads yet.

EXPORT DRUM STEMS: choose current pattern or full song, then an output folder. GrooveForge creates a new subfolder containing seven stereo 24-bit WAVs, named by lane and tempo, with identical start points and lengths (including silent lanes). Export uses the audible arrangement, kit/sample pack, style and output gain. Progress and cancellation use the existing export controls. MIDI Only mode requires selecting an audio kit first.

GrooveForge generates editable drum patterns, complete arrangements and MIDI. Its internal kits provide audition and WAV export. This guide matches the 2.6.2 Windows MSI.

Song duration and bar counts

Choose 4/4 in the meter selector for four beats per bar. Meter changes redistribute the generated song immediately. A 3:00 target at 90 BPM produces 68 bars / 3:01.3 in 4/4, or 90 bars / 3:00 in 3/4. Duration rounds to the nearest complete bar so the ending remains on a bar boundary.

The line above the song sections shows total bars, actual meter, BPM and the duration shared by full-song preview, MIDI and WAV. Hover over a section to see its bar count and range. The Genre Average entry always shows the genre's own target, independently of the currently selected duration preset. Imported clips and fixed Drop Maker arrangements retain their authored length.

For the production workflows (sample packs, projects/recovery, meters, MIDI import and setup advice), read Production workflows.

Install and choose a sound source

Install GrooveForge-2.6.2-Windows-x64.msi and restart/rescan the DAW. The default machine installation places the app under C:\Program Files\EgoB\GrooveForge and the plug-in under C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\GrooveForge.vst3. Keep the existing installation scope when upgrading.

Open the Standalone, or place the VST3 before a drum instrument in the DAW. Choose Studio, 808, Dusty or Electronic for internal audition. When using an external instrument, route GrooveForge's MIDI to it. If the host does not support that routing, drag exported MIDI into the arrangement instead.

The bundled library contains 42 CC0 recordings from Virtuosity Drums and Michael Fischer's TR-808 collection. Use Studio for acoustic detail, Dusty for a darker acoustic sound, 808 for longer drum-machine hits, and Electronic for tighter kicks, claps and cowbell. Studio and Dusty switch between soft and hard recorded hits at velocities 75/76. Provenance and the included licence texts are listed in the sample manifest.

The 4/4 styles use 21 original two-bar phrases across seven genres. Generate again to hear the new phrases; compare with the same seed and kit. Existing saved note edits stay intact until you regenerate, while the updated internal kits change the sound of projects that use them.

Make and refine a groove

1. Choose a genre/feeling and adjust density, energy, syncopation, swing, variation and humanization. The same seed lets you compare dial changes.
2. Generate a pattern. Use EXPLORE... for a deterministic Beat Roulette recipe or a WTF Surprise starting point.
3. Press Start Preview. Pause holds position; Stop rewinds. Pattern preview loops, while Full Song preview stops at the arrangement end.
4. Edit the grid, including velocity and microtiming. Lock lanes or bars you want to keep, then use Mutate or New Fill on the remaining material.
5. Compare the A/B1-B4 alternatives. Keep a copy before broad regeneration.

There are seven independent lanes: Kick, Snare, Closed Hi-Hat, Open Hi-Hat, Cymbal, Crash Cymbal and Percussion. Closed hats choke the internal open-hat voice. MIDI mapping stays separate from the internal kit's sound character.

Arrange a full song or make a drop

Choose a clock-time duration and Classic, Verse/Chorus, Club or Minimal structure for a full arrangement. The result follows musical bar boundaries at the active host tempo, so the musical duration can differ slightly from an arbitrary requested number of seconds.

MAKE A DROP creates a 16-bar setup/drop/release arrangement, selects its eight-bar hook, and prepares four alternatives. Its creator export includes the hook WAV, a 9:16 visual/cover, browser preview, Groove DNA and GF1 code. An MP4 is added only when a local FFmpeg encoder is available. A missing encoder does not turn a browser preview into an MP4.

Export the result you are hearing

Choose the intended pattern, full song or supported selection scope. Drag PATTERN MIDI or FULL SONG MIDI into the DAW, or save the MIDI file. Pick General MIDI, Ableton Drum Rack, Addictive Drums or a custom map to match the receiving instrument. Audition a few hits after changing maps.

Select an internal kit for WAV rendering, then use the scoped WAV export/drag control. The internal renderer does not record an external drum instrument; render that instrument in its DAW. Wait for the export job to finish before moving or opening its output.

Save presets or DAW state to preserve the work. A GF1 share code reconstructs the supported deterministic recipe; it is not a substitute for every external instrument setting or a complete DAW project.

Troubleshooting and platform notes

• No sound: check the internal kit or external MIDI routing and the host's audio output.
• Wrong drum sounds: check the receiving instrument and selected MIDI note map.
• Unexpected changes: check lane/bar locks and whether a queued change activates Immediately, Next Beat, Next Bar or Next 4 Bars.
• No MP4: verify local FFmpeg availability; MIDI, WAV and browser/cover output remain separate from video encoding.

Interface appearance

Use the Theme selector near the top of the window to choose Original, Graphite (charcoal panels and teal accents), or Copper (warm brown panels and amber accents). The choice is remembered for this app on this computer. It changes only the interface; audio, saved projects, and rendered visual colours keep their existing settings.

Production workflows

These instructions match the 2.6.2 Windows MSI. Install the current package to use the updated samples, styles, themes and meter-aware song duration.

Create, edit and import

Choose the meter beside SETUP, then use GENERATE or BUILD. Supported meters are 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8 and 7/8. BPM always counts quarter notes. The compound groupings are 3+3 eighths in 6/8 and 2+2+3 in 7/8. Changing the meter selection immediately redistributes a generated duration-based song. Imported clips and fixed Drop Maker arrangements retain their authored length and meter. Generation, bar editing, preview boundaries, MIDI metadata and WAV lengths use the actual bar duration.

The summary above the sections shows their shared total bars and clock time. For 3:00 at 90 BPM, 4/4 gives 68 bars (3:01.3) and 3/4 gives 90 bars (3:00). Targets round to the nearest whole bar, and sections divide that same total. See the how-to guide for kit choices and export scope.

The main surface keeps creation, shaping, preview and the seven-lane grid visible. LANES + ADVANCED contains personality, mutation/fill details, lane locks/probabilities and custom MIDI notes. In the grid, use arrows to select a cell, 1–7 to select a lane, Space to toggle a hit, Delete to remove it and Control+Z/Control+Shift+Z to undo/redo. Focused-cell descriptions expose lane, bar, sixteenth, velocity and timing. Native screen-reader certification remains pending.

Use REMIX MIDI... or drop a .mid/.midi file onto the editor. Choose the first bar, bar count and original or sixteenth-quantized timing. The current MIDI map assigns pitches to lanes with General MIDI fallback. MIDI decoding runs on a worker; if the groove changes while decoding, the result is rejected with a retry message. Successful import creates an editable arrangement and retains the previous complete state for Undo/Redo, including after project recall.

Import supports PPQ files up to 8 MiB and 64 selected bars. The earliest tempo is used; later tempo events are reported and ignored while quarter-note timing is retained. Supported fixed meters are accepted; changing meters and SMPTE timing are rejected. Paired note lengths, velocity, trailing silence and original microtiming are retained within the import bounds. Unmapped notes are counted and ignored. Duplicate triggers at the same lane/tick are deduplicated.

User drum samples

Open SAMPLES and choose a lane to map a WAV, AIFF or FLAC file. Each of the seven lanes can override the selected internal kit. Save the mapping as a .grooveforgekit file; presets, host state and projects also retain it. These documents reference samples rather than embedding them.

Samples decode on an owned worker. Supported inputs are mono/stereo, 8–192 kHz, up to 30 seconds and 64 MiB per source file. The decoded pack has a 64 MiB ceiling; retained banks have a 128 MiB ceiling. Native-rate samples use playback interpolation. Preview, saved/dragged WAV and Drop Maker retain an immutable active pack for the operation. Wait for loading to finish before starting preview or audio export.

Missing, changed or corrupt files show SAMPLES ! and a per-lane issue. Their original path and content hash remain in the mapping; the affected lane falls back to the internal kit. Relink same sample checks the original content hash. Use Map / replace sample to accept different content, or Use internal kit to remove the override deliberately. Moving a project does not move its sample files automatically.

Projects and recovery

PROJECT provides New, Open, Save, Save As and the ten most recent files. .grooveforgeproject files retain exact music, arrangement, history, A/B slots, locks, mapping, sample references, preview position and export scope. PROJECT * indicates unsaved changes; moving preview alone does not dirty the document. Save/Open use worker-owned file operations and transactional replacement.

Standalone autosaves dirty work every 30 seconds into a three-copy recovery ring. A normal close offers Keep editing, Close with recovery, or Discard and close. Recovery entries appear in the Project menu. Recovering creates an untitled dirty document so Save asks for a destination and cannot overwrite the explicit project you were using. Damaged recovery files are quarantined.

Unreviewed recovery copies survive a clean close and suspend automatic recovery rotation until you recover or explicitly discard them. Closing new dirty work while older recovery is unresolved retains one additional current-work copy. Recovery never writes over an explicit project file. In VST3, the host remains responsible for session recovery; standalone autosave is disabled there.

Setup and export

SETUP explains audition versus MIDI-only routing, current sample rate and buffer size, MIDI mapping, custom-pack issues, disk space and export choices. Run local checks measures bounded one-bar generation/rendering and tests temporary-folder writes on a worker. Press CANCEL CHECK to ignore the result. Music/device changes invalidate stale results. Reports are previewable and saveable locally, with no full paths, samples, MIDI content or telemetry. Recommendations are read-only; they do not change host or musical settings.

Audio-device changes pause standalone preview and display recovery guidance; select a working output in Audio Settings and deliberately start preview again. MIDI/WAV drag files prepare asynchronously. Wait for READY before dragging; cancelled or superseded work cannot publish its artifact. Use Save if a host does not accept file drops.

See the development evidence for tested behavior and the acceptance work that remains open.