Released in 1992, the ASR-10 sampler is perhaps not as iconic as the MPC 60 or the SP-1200 in the minds of Hip Hop fans yet it is still a very notable machine.

Manufactured and sold by American electronics company Ensoniq (which was acquired by Creative Technology in 1998), the ASR-10 was one of the most popular samplers with a full-on keyboard during the 1990’s. This specific attribute brought a different workflow than your usual pads on the Akai MPC and E-MU SP series (think chopping samples with ease ✂).

“Starting the New Year the right way. Making beat on the ASR 10!” by c h r i s g a l a c t i c b e a t s, YouTube.

Specs and features

ASR stands for “Advanced Sampling Recorder”. The machine was shipped with 2 MB of sample memory which could be expanded to 16 MB… for a few minutes of stereo cd-quality sampling time. It lets you choose from sample rates of 30 to 44.1 kHz and has advanced sample editing functions including autolooping, volume smoothing, normalize, crossfading, resampling and EQ.

“Boom Bap Heroes Vol.1: ASR-10” by Cy GlobalTV, YouTube.

Fun fact: the ASR-10 also came in a rack-mount version (meaning keyboard-less).

3rd Degree, a Hip Hop producer from the Bay Area, wrote about the machine on his blog a few years ago. He praised its workflow and effects.

“Along with the ability to handle large samples with ease, with only 16 megs of ram, the ASR 10 is a breeze to chop on. Unlike the MPC, or S-series Akai samplers, you don’t use a small data wheel. You use a vertical slider. It seems like a simple change but I think linearly, not circularly. Also, this emulates faders on a mixer or a pitch wheel on a mixer. You have a the ability to go through the sample quickly but with a touch of a button, you can fine chop. This is my favorite sampler to chop on, hands down. The ASR 10 also is one of the few samplers that came out in the 90’s that has usable effects on it. It has far more effects than the MPC’s have ever had. More importantly, they sound great. Some people use the ASR 10 as an effects unit and don’t even utilize it as a synth or sampler. This machine has the best effects of any hardware sampler I have used, most would agree with me.”

He also was critical of the machine’s reliability (typically not the forté of 80’s and 90’s samplers).

“The sequencer can also be buggy at times. It often freezes up, just long enough for you to pray you didn’t just loose your song. Then it starts again. This never happens while playing back sequences, just when you are making changes, quantizing, etc. It also may not put your effects on right away. Adjust an envelope and sometimes it takes 5 seconds of playback for your changes to ‘kick in’ I have only had my machine freeze up totally 1 time. It just so happened that it was when I was doing my final arrangement in the song mode. I have a bit of a trust issue with this machine now.”

A long list of legendary producers have used the machine

Despite its rather low-key profile in the Hip Hop folklore, many of your favorite producers have used the machine: RZA, The Alchemist, Kanye West, Large Professor, No ID, The Neptunes, Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind and Nottz just to name a few.

“Prodigy and Alchemist making ‘Hold You Down’ “ by randymarsh wave, YouTube.

“Kanye West making an ill track in the studio” by QD3ENT, YouTube.

Yes… it’s rather odd to see such a recognizable public figure like West making beats with the (forgotten) sampler.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this piece about Hip Hop history. Until next time.