The XR10 is a PCM-based drum machine released by Akai in the early 1990s, featuring a wide-range of sounds which can be manipulated via simple envelope shaping. This XR10 was modified by the good people at CircuitBenders.co.uk, who excel at installing clean and tactile patch bays to vintage drum machines. These modifications, in their own words impart ‘savage distortions, strobe gating and nasty aliased pitch shifting which take the sounds to a whole new level of unexpected sickness’. The wide range of sounds on offer have been further enhanced by the Elektron Analog Heat +FX, mainly the Heat block (analogue drive/distortion/fuzz, noise gate, EQ, filters) as well as the Compressor and Bit blocks, where applicable. Elements of the Mod block (Envelope Follower and LFOs) are also used at times, to add movement and character to certain sounds.

This sample pack features 224 one-shot samples covering the full range of sounds on offer - to start, the pack includes all 64 of the original, unprocessed XR-10 samples should you wish to emulate the machine (RAW), then there are the circuit bent and Analog Heat-processed samples - 32 bass drums (BD), 64 percussive sounds (PC), 32 effects (FX) and 32 tones (TN). The samples range from muted to crisp and raging and demonic, and everything in-between. These sounds can be used in all kinds of music, from techno to hip-hop, drum and bass to house. All individual samples are provided in both 24-bit and 16-bit versions to maximise compatibility with samplers, and are all presented at 48khz sample rate. Each individual sound has been uniquely tweaked with dynamic EQ'ing and careful limiting they sound really full and alive right out of the box, but allowing enough headroom for further processing down the line.

There are also five sample chains provided with the download, including .ot files designed for use with the Elektron Octatrack (pre-sliced sample chains), which allow for the sounds to be used from several big samples rather than lots of individual ones. These sample chains are presented in 24-bit and 44.1khz sample rate so they work better with the Octatrack, though the samples will work nicely in any sampler such as those from Native Instruments, Akai, Roland, Elektron, Korg, Pioneer, Synthstrom and 1010 Music, as well as all DAWs.

There are also sample chains formatted to 16-bit, 48kHz to be ready for the Elektron Digitakt -these chains contain the same samples, however they are cropped in places to take up less space on the limited Digitakt storage.

Finally, there is an Ableton Live Drum Selector rack (will work in Live Suite 11.2 and above) which allows you to program a pattern and change the sample with the turn of an encoder, as well as alter decay, pitch, distortion, compression and more with ease.

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