How To: Record/Play with AKAI professional XR20 Drum Machine 

Right on man, the machine is versatile and fits in for so many different uses!

@@IndustrialIndustriesWorldRadio Indeed!!

Thanks man! When I made this video I had bought it in a whim and wasn’t aware of how to say it. I like how it’s annoyed people how I said it. Haha Yeah this thing is very versatile at least for me. I got a lot of use of it before I moved on to recording solely on computer

Glad I could help!

You’re welcome! Glad it helped

I’m so glad it helped!

Hmmm, I never had that problem. Could be a problem with what you’re running to hear the audio from it (headphones, amp, audio interface)

@@IndustrialIndustriesWorldRadioyeah it mostly occurs when going back and fourth between the preset and user drums and pressing play… weird

Hey man, I did a video on half of your question here. At some point I’ll show how to create a whole beat from different patterns on a video in the future. So much to explain by text, I’ll rather show. Which I’ll do at some point to help you all out. But for the moment I hope my other video helps you. God bless and thank you. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KpsHWDRGDiY.html

After you've made a beat; how do you start a new beat after you've saved that one, I mean where to start??? I've just got mine today and am lost! I want to start working on a new pattern for a totally different beat.

Start to finish

@@trealwilliams1563 first, go to AKAI website, there you can download for free the XR20 user manual. It is short and very well written manual. Read it. It explains everything.

😂🤣 total noob talk am I right!?

I’m not sure as I have never tried to hook a midi keyboard to anything else besides an audio interface.

If Logic Pro works like any other DAW, I would say hook the machine to your computer through an audio interface using a midi cable and in logic have it search for the drum machine to use it as a controller to make beats over what you already have. My best guess. Hope that helps and good luck man.

Thank you my bro said the same I may need a interface with the sam plug in but it’s worth a try

@@meish7251 no problem man, yeah an audio interface is what you’ll have to get to connect outside gadgets and microphones to your computer to make all the magic happen.

It depends on what you’re planning on doing, for live shows it’d be great as an instrument to rap/play to when a drummer isn’t available but you want to have instrumentation in your performances. As a stand in drum machine for recording demos it’s great, lots of different samples and options but if you were to be making music on the computer I’d look into investing in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Reason or pro tools to make beats as arranging them and building on it would be much easier than using a tangible drum machine. So it’s perfect for some things and not so perfect for others but I still enjoy having it around as a go to drum machine when it’s needed for sure.

Nope, not through the machine alone

Thanks Eric! Ahhh yeah, I was made aware by plenty of folks lol Funny some of them know how to pronounce it right but can’t operate the thing to save their lives 😂

I did a video on that, this is the link to it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KpsHWDRGDiY.html

I’m located in the St. Louis area. I don’t have classes or anything. I do plan to start a series of music tutorials starting from the beginning of songwriting to having a finished song and what to do after that. Stay tuned!

@@IndustrialIndustriesWorldRadioDUDE I WILL PAY YOU AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS VIDEO CHAT WITH ME. AND GET ME STARTED ON THE BASICS. BECAUSE THIS DAMN THING ISNT WORKING. THANKS BRO.

Well damn man! I’m out of the area now but when I get back home I’ll get in contact with you. Just send me an email at industrialindustriesworldradio @ gmail (dot) com

Yeah, you could. Just plug in some headphones so you can hear what you’re doing.

I’ve never attempted that, but my guess would be to load your samples into an SD card and load it into the drum machine.

@@IndustrialIndustriesWorldRadio Thank you for your attention Would you like to put the sd card on the akai xr 20?

I think you can insert it into the bottom part of the machine if I’m not mistaken. Like I said, I’m not educated on loading samples into it, but that’s where to start. 😊

@@IndustrialIndustriesWorldRadio thank you very much for your attention I will try to take a look I thank

Can't

No idea, as I don’t use logic. My guess though is to use the midi cable and assign each pad with a sample through logic

I’m sure you could, you’d have to record samples into a computer then load them into the drum machine after. But it’s definitely possible.

So can you hook this up to a computer and make more sound

Lorenzo Stephens pretty much

I use mine to control Korg Gadget, it is a really fun controller and some of those bass synths are gems through a dirty reverb.

No, you cant. Respect to all XR20 owners and youtube video creators, but one should first read the manual before making a vid (this is not for you). First thing to know about XR20 is - XR20 is NOT a sampler!! MPC is a sampler. XR20 is a ROMpler. This means - you cannot record new sounds (samples) into XR20. XR20 is a great collection of oldschool hip-hop sounds, so you can make anything from oldschool hip-hop, break beats etc. Some modern hip-hop will be possible too. BUT - you use what's on the table and that's it. This is why XR20 is so cheap. But for what it is - it is great and extremely easy to learn and use. I had this machine for like 8 years and learn it to the bones. So you wanna put in something new - get a sampler. AKAI MPC is a sampler (all great hip-hop songs were done on an MPC), Roland SP404 is a sampler. New MPCs cost a lot, but offer so much more. SP404 is more oldschool, but have lots of on-board fx. If I was to start now DAWless with hip-hop, would start with an MPC. If you wanna use a DAW - get AKAI MPC Beats - they have a free version. Then I think you could use XR20 as a control surface to input beats. But again - guys, first go get the XR20 user manual for free from AKAI website. My XR20 video tutorials are also not perfect, but before doing them I ate the entire XR20 user manual to see what I could use and do. I admit - I did not covered only the compression and the filter. Still - as a first drum machine XR20 is perfect. Learn the limitations and work your way around. Good luck!

Thanks man, yeah, too many stories and then you have the guys begging viewers to like and subscribe. That’s so irritating and pathetic lol

Is yours plugged in?