MR10 FROM MARS

An Overlooked Analog Rhythm Box From 1982 The MR10 is an unassuming powerhouse of a rhythm machine. It's simple, funky, and has lots of lovely pulsing noise due to its small power supply. Sounding something like a more tune-able 808 crossed with a CR-78, it feels like a missing link in the canon of analog drum machines. Familiar, yet still in a class of its own and almost totally untapped by producers. This pack contains every possible one-shot as well as our favorite loops at a couple different tunings - so now you can use this weirdo machine in your music!   Released by Yamaha in 1982 as part of a line of budget producer gear, it's the only analog drum machine they've ever manufactured, and it truly seems to have been released and then forgotten, perhaps due to its limited functionality. To be frank, it sounds incredible, but this little box is a (fun) pain to use. We wanted to give these awesome drums their time to shine and make them accessible and usable in a way that the original machine never was. One-Shots Recording one-shots was an interesting challenge, as the MR10 has only 5 one-shot pads: Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Hi Tom, Low Tom and Cymbal. However, within the loops are various other sounds - closed hats, open hats, various percs and snare combos. To get these, we recorded the loops at the slowest possible tempo and used the volume controls to get every possible one-shot out of the MR10.  We recorded each hit at 6 different exact pitches (except for the bass drum which isn't tune-able), and captured the clean and color versions with the same recording chain as the loops, so they will all integrate perfectly when combined. Getting Loopy For loops, we knew we had to narrow down the tunings and tempos if we were ever going to get a usable pack, so we settled on 100bpm for the tempo of all the loops. We then found the most usable tunings for each pattern, including some higher and lower tunings. We got the direct clean loops, recorded using a Radial J-DI into our API1608 into the Apogee Symphony MKII.  We then did a color variation of the loops using the Summit TPA-200B tube pre-amp, the Overstayer NT-02A, API 2500 Compressor, and DBX 165A, finally printing them to tape using our Otari MTR12 1/4" 2 track tape machine to bring out some of the modern bite that is possible with these sounds. For both of these, we made sure to print some "stripped" versions - loops with no kick drum - to use in layering. We also captured 4 MIDI grooves from these loops, so you can apply the feel of the MR10 to whatever you're sequencing. The Takeaway Our goal with this pack was to transform the very cool sounding but limited MR10 into a secret weapon for modern producers. After unlocking the "hidden" one-shots available through recording loops, and having access to all the loops and different pitches in one place, we found this pack to be incredibly fun and easy to create with. The color hits lend themselves very nicely to hard techno and more aggressive styles, while you can just as easily use the loops in a pop or indie production. We wound up being surprised by the many possibilities of this tiny old rhythm box. What You Get: (204) Total samples at 24 bit 44.1k (66) MR10 loops including clean, color, and stripped  (138) One Shots, with clean and color variations of each sample One Shots organized into (5) 16x hit kits All Cymbals, Snares, Toms and Hi Hats sampled at 6 pitches (4) Ableton and MIDI Groove files Recorded though a Radial J-DI, API 1608 console, & Apogee Symphony MKII and Otari MTR-12 1/4" tape machine, and processed with a Summit TPA-200B,  Overstayer NT-02A, API 2500 Compressor, and DBX 165A 100% Hardware processing 258 MB Unzipped About Formatting: Ableton includes (1) Individual Hits rack, (5) pre-made kits racks, and 66 loops as audio clips Kontakt, Logic EXS, Reason NNXT, FL Studio and SFZ include: (6) Individual Hits instruments and (5) Kits Instruments Maschine, Battery, and Reason Kong include: (5) pre-made kits. MPC 1000 and MPC 2500 include: (5) pre-made kits on 2 programs MPC Live and MPC X include: (5) pre-made kits on 2 programs Requirements Any 24 bit WAV Compatible DAW or Sampler Ableton Live 9.7+ (Not Intro) Kontakt 5.6.5+ (Not Kontakt Player) Logic 9+ Maschine 2.6+ Reason 8+ Battery 4.1.5+ FL Studio 20+ MPC1000, MPC2500, MPC Live, MPC X 235 MB Free Space