AKAI XR 10 Drum machine Magic

5 Things I Like to Use the Akai XR10 For When Creating Beats

The Akai XR10 is one of those pieces of gear that I keep coming back to.

It's not the most fashionable drum machine, and it's certainly not the easiest machine I've ever used. But that's part of its appeal.

Mine is the Japanese 16-bit version, and what I really like about it is that it doesn't sound like a modern drum machine trying to sound old. It has its own character.

The sounds are punchy, slightly strange, and full of personality. Once I started using the XR10 alongside my samplers, synths and other bits of hardware, I realised it was capable of much more than simply providing the drums for a track.

Here are five things I particularly like using it for.

1. Building Beats Around One Great Drum Sound

Sometimes I'll start a track with nothing more than a kick or snare from the XR10.

There are some really strong sounds in this machine, and I find that they can dictate the direction of a beat surprisingly quickly.

I'll choose a kick that has the right weight, find a snare that has a bit of attitude and then start building around them.

I don't try to make everything perfectly balanced at this stage.

I'll often let the drum sounds sit slightly too loud or too aggressive while I'm developing the groove.

That's part of the fun.

The XR10 has a very particular punch to it, and once you've found the right combination of sounds, the rest of the track can almost build itself.

2. Using the XR10 for Big, Slightly Weird Percussion

One of the things I really like about the XR10 is that it doesn't just give me predictable drum sounds.

There are plenty of percussion sounds that can be used in much more unusual ways.

I'll take a percussion sound, change its pitch or decay and see what happens.

Sometimes a sound that I wouldn't normally think of as a drum suddenly becomes a great rhythmic texture.

I'll use these sounds underneath more conventional drums, rather than necessarily making them the main event.

That gives a beat a slightly odd character that I really like.

It's one of those situations where an older piece of hardware can be more inspiring than having thousands of samples sitting in a folder.

3. Making the XR10 Sounds Even Stranger

The XR10 becomes particularly interesting when I stop treating it as the finished sound source.

I'll take a drum or percussion sound from the machine and record it into one of my samplers.

From there I can pitch it, chop it, reverse it, degrade it or process it through other hardware.

This is where the XR10 really starts to fit into my modern workflow.

I'm not trying to recreate the sound of an old record.

I'm taking a distinctive sound from an old machine and using it as raw material.

A single XR10 snare might end up becoming three or four completely different sounds after I've processed it.

That's much more interesting to me than simply loading another modern drum sample.

4. Using Its Limitations to Create Better Rhythms

One of the things I've learned from working with older drum machines is that limitations can actually be useful.

The XR10 doesn't give me the huge visual interface of a modern DAW.

I can't endlessly zoom into a waveform or manipulate every tiny detail of a beat.

Instead, I concentrate on the rhythm.

I'll program something simple, listen to it, change a few notes and then leave it alone.

That process makes me think more about the groove and less about perfection.

Sometimes I'll deliberately leave a slightly unusual timing or pattern in place because it gives the beat a bit of human character.

5. Running the Finished Drums Through Other Gear

This is probably my favourite way of using the XR10.

I'll create a basic pattern, record it and then start passing the drums through other pieces of equipment in the studio.

The SP-505 is an obvious choice for me, particularly when I want to use its Vinyl Simulator or other effects.

I'll also run sounds through the TL Audio Fat Track when I want some analogue character before recording them back into the DAW.

This is where the XR10 really makes sense to me.

It's not trying to be the entire studio.

It's one characterful stage in a chain of machines.

The XR10 provides the raw drum sound, the sampler can destroy and reshape it, the analogue gear can colour it, and the DAW becomes the place where everything finally comes together.

Why I Still Like the XR10

The Akai XR10 is a strange little drum machine in the best possible way.

It doesn't have the instant recognition of some of the famous Roland machines, and it doesn't try to imitate them.

That's actually one of the reasons I like it.

The sounds have their own identity, and that makes them useful.

For SampledelicSounds, I'm always looking for sounds that have some character already built into them. I don't necessarily want something that sounds perfect straight out of the box.

I want something I can work with.

Something I can sample, manipulate, distort and turn into something else.

The XR10 is brilliant for that.

It's an old 16-bit Japanese drum machine, but I find it fits surprisingly well into a modern production setup.

And sometimes the best sounds come from the machines you weren't expecting to become part of your workflow.