GrooveGrid is a software groovebox, sample editor, and sample librarian — built to work standalone or as a VST3 plugin alongside your DAW. It has a step sequencer, chord awareness, a handful of sound engines, and a searchable sample library. The manual has the full breakdown.
It's early in its life and I didn't put all this work in just to create another DAW and I see no reason why I'd even try to create a feature complete DAW. There are LOTS of good DAWs. This is a jumped-up software groovebox with a sample editor, but it does have a direction.
It's also early software. There are bugs and rough edges, and a lot of the near-term work is just stabilizing what's already there.
This started because I was willing to trade a more refined system like Ableton, which is still my primary DAW, for something that would be easier to work with on just a laptop when I have the time and not feel like I was missing any core needs. Samples for loops, drums, and ambience. MIDI for hardware and VSTs. I added Plaits so that there's at least a little substance and sound generation right out of the box.
But really, I created GrooveGrid so I could start putting the features I like from various pieces of gear in one place, working together.
I like messing with samples. I like simple step sequencers — 808/FL Studio style — because ideas come together quickly. I like my Intellijel Metropolis. I don't like that it doesn't store presets (or that I'd have to spend ~$600 for the Metropolix) or have a bit more depth, but that interface is killer. I like the Octatrack's slot/slice based triggers and its approach to retriggers that make you think more like programming a tracker than using a drum machine.
I also like CV randomness. I like using the Grids to get an easy evolving drum pattern. I like Pamela's New Workout and being able to randomize Sample and Hold loops. I like my Trigger Riot's intersecting Euclidean sequencer. I like my Rene's cartesian sequencer. I like per-track clock dividers and multipliers like the 4MS Quad Clock Distributer — Ableton has something similar but it's not per-track, so it's not the same thing. I like things that generate random voltage like the Wogglebug.
I like generative music.
Not that kind of generative
Not AI. Not neural networks. Not "type a prompt and get a beat." Algorithmic tools — math and music theory doing the heavy lifting. The stuff that makes eurorack fascinating, minus the wall of modules and the patch cables.
The problem with eurorack is that these really good ideas are trapped in a world of mostly experimental monosynths. Most people who'd love a Grids or a Marbles will never encounter them because they don't want to spend $2,000 on a starter rack and learn to think in control voltages. Even though there is VCV rack, the learning curve is high. If this is where you'll first be interacting with those types of generative concepts, it's quite a ways down the road from where you started. And then, the environment lends itself mostly to monophonic synth sounds. Great for a wicked bassline but trickier for harmony and chords.
GrooveGrid already understands harmony. It reshapes patterns when you change the chord. That's the foundation that makes the generative direction interesting, and I plan to find ways to introduce more of it.
Where I think this goes
I don't want to make a bunch of specific promises, because some of these ideas are concrete and some are still just directions I'm thinking in. But broadly:
I want the sequencer to be able to evolve on its own. Not just individual patterns looping with some randomness — the whole ensemble of tracks shifting over time. Chord progressions, pattern density, sampler slots — possibly even fully generated algorithmic patterns as the point of origin. NDLR has something along those lines, but with an interface that isn't as hospitable as a full-size monitor with Metropolis-like slider value entry.
The goal isn't to replace the act of programming sequences, it's to create a set of tools that help you come up with ideas quickly and get more mileage out of your good ideas early and then give you natural variation so that you can hear your ideas take on a different shape quickly, just like a good self-playing modular patch.
Who this is for
If you've ever wished your patterns would surprise you without falling apart, this is for you. If you've looked at eurorack's generative modules and wished that kind of thinking existed in a more conventional sequencing environment, that's exactly what I'm working toward. If you just want a solid groovebox and don't care about generative anything, that's fine too — the sequencer doesn't force any of this on you, and I'm not going to be upset if this isn't your cup of tea. I tried MANY apps to get to the point where I felt like music ideas were even coming together at all, and at one point I had 3 apps I really liked (Maschine, Ableton, and FL Studio) and NONE of those really had the kinds of generative tools I was looking for (though honorable mention to FL Studio).
You should never feel like there is one correct tool. It's always the one you enjoy using the most.
Sign up for early access if I haven't lost you yet.
— Chris