Everything you need to know. We go way beyond the overview to take a look at what makes it cool. Roll up your sleeves and join us as we go in-depth with XR20.
The hottest new tool for crafting and performing original hip-hop beats is XR20. From the company that has played a fundamental role in hip-hop and other sample-based modern music production, XR20 is the offspring of the MPC family that's played an integral role in countless chart-topping tracks
With a brand-new sample library containing over 700 unique sounds created by Chronic Music, one of the most in-demand music production collectives, XR20 sounds different because it IS different: it's from Akai Professional! XR20's massive sound library contains literally hundreds of drums, cymbals, percussion instruments, electronic drum and percussion sounds, synths, basses, and one-shot samples to infuse your beats with the flavor of your creativity.
And if having access to the latest, highest-quality sounds wasn't enough, we also built studio-grade effects into XR20, so you can color and tailor your sound exactly the way you like. 22 different reverbs, and 14 compression and EQ settings, plus low-pass filtering, and additional synth parameters of attack, decay, and release truly put you in the driver's seat.
Now all of that power might sound tough to master, but XR20 is surprisingly easy to learn, program, and perform with. Right out of the box, the important controls light up, and with 100 preset patterns with four sections each (that's 400 pre-programmed loops with drum, one-shot, and synth parts each!), you can even perform immediately without any programming.
Whether you use the built-in patterns, create your own, or use a mix of both, XR20 can make playing back lots and lots of patterns easy and fun during performances or recording. Each pattern contains four sections: A, fill A, B, and fill B. Each section contains a drum part, a one-shot part, and a synth part, so you get a complete beat.
A special playback feature called Pattern Play Mode allows you to play chains of patterns by triggering different patterns using the pads. You can assign any pattern to any pad, so the musical palette at your fingertips is almost endless!
You can play bass lines and other synth parts using the pads on XR20, or for even more creative expression, connect any MIDI keyboard, and what you play on the keyboard is sequenced into XR20. You can even pitch-bend notes and those parameters are recorded.
Some of the special features our MPCs are known for also make appearances in XR20. The note-repeat function enables anyone to create drum rolls and fast patterns even without the fastest fingers on the planet. The pads are velocity sensitive, so the harder or softer you play, the louder or quieter the sound will be recorded. XR20 even quantizes your input so you can have perfectly aligned beats that are as straight as a ruler or swung in three different feels taken right from MPC.
Not only does XR20 sound great, it turns heads onstage with its backlit blue pad lights that follow the beat. The large display glows blue to match, and the lighting on both the pads and LCD is adjustable.
A built-in mic jack enables MCs to plug in nearly any dynamic microphone to sing, rap, beatbox, or just flow along with the beats. An auxiliary stereo output enables you to record your performances, and a headphone jack lets you build beats backstage without anyone knowing it. Two footswitch inputs let you control start/stop and switch pattern sections remotely. XR20 runs on battery or wall power, and comes with a power supply.
Whether you want to make your own beats and record songs or you need music for battle, XR20 is the beat production center with the right sounds, the right features, and the right flexibility.
