Released in the early nineties, the XR-10 was the first Akai’s non-sampling drum machine, a programmable units equipped with loads of preset rhythms and 65 PCM samples recorded at 16 bits resolution. Designed to deliver professional sounds to the masses, the XR-10 sounds big, full and punchy and, thanks to the subtle amount of aliasing and noise, also nicely rough at the same time. Its samples array is a strong selection of gritty kicks, razor-sharp snares, acoustic gated toms, electro percussions and old school big drums used in loads of New Beat, Synth Pop and Italo Disco records.