Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

I bought the Pop and Protean drums and after about 2 hours with them 
on my XL-7 this are my first impressions....


POP Rom: I bought it as replacement for my aging QS8 thinking I was 
going to get better sounds and to not to have to log that 50+ lbs 
keyboard around.... I'm still going to have to take my QS8 when I 
need to play acoustic/electric piano, organ and/strings. The QS8 as 
old as it is sounds better in that deparment. The Winds I didn't like 
too much either, but being a sax player I'm never happy with them.... 
Was I dispointed at that point? Not really... My first thought 
was: 'for $100 why should I be...'  Then I started to preview the 
rest of the sounds and found tons of usuable stuff! Lots of lounge-
like sounds I didn't have. When I started tweaking sounds I started 
to get happier and happier. The presets on the XL-7 were not 
something I could relate to at first since I mostly hear non-synth 
music, the POP on the other hand is really usefull for me because 
even the sounds that don't sound realistic I can tweak them into 
something I can use... Is like they come from a sonic place I 
understand. Is like I have new palette to paint with.  I bet is 
probably the same thing for people who like synths... to me they 
pretty much all sound the same. :( Or like this rocker friend of mine 
who told me that all Jazz solos sound the same and I told him that I 
felt the same way about heavymetal solos... hehe! Anywho, I couldn't 
be happier... I'm going to be getting alot done faster (since the 
sounds are inside the XL-7 and tweaking them is a pleasure) and 
tweaking sounds I can relate to is most inspiring!


PROTEAN (otherwise know as drum) Rom: The first thing I thought about 
was the cymbals... Realm was right, the decays is very natural! I 
started to audition deferent kits and was very impress with some of 
them. But was still, under the impression that some samples I've 
gotten free with magazines or on the web were a little better... 
After banging on the pads for a good half hour I decided to download 
the Protean Patterns. BTW, It takes a while 'cause you have to 
manually change the bank of each Pattern on the file before you load 
them to your XX-7 so it doesn't over write your sequences. It was 
then that I remembered something: The important thing with sounds, 
specially drums, is not how they sound by themselves but in the mix! 
The Protean acoustic sounds have character,  most of the wave samples 
I have don't. Then again  I've never tried a really good drum sample 
cds, so I don't know how they'd compare. The acoustic sound on the 
rom have this organic quality to them which make me want to play 
them... I don't know if Emu actually sampled drum kits but at least 
it sounds like it. Some of the kits make me feel like I'm on a mixer 
room listening to a mic'd drum kit.  Patterns are not bad either, I 
feel like I got a new drum machine, there's quite a few snare and 
bassdrum patterns I can use...   



Concerns:

1) After I installed the roms I got a pretty bad ground noise, but 
after I made sure all the screws where really tight it went away 
almost completely. I still can here a faint hum on the back but so 
far away that I don't think its going to make a difference. Infact 
it's so faint it might have already been there before I'm not sure...

2) Since I installed the drums there's been two time where one quick 
edit knob has turn the light by itself. The first time I wasn't sure 
which one it was either the 'Filter Cutoff' or the 'Amp Attack'... 
the second one was the 'Filter Cutoff' for sure. Is that normal?  
Also I notice that with some pads on the POP rom the 'Filter Cutoff' 
doesn't turn off no matter which side I turn the knob to...Is these 
normal? Any suggestions as to what might be the cause? I was thinking 
it might that my keyboard is sending a cc or maybe there's a pinched 
ribbon on the XL-7 but since it's only done it twice I want to wait a 
bit before I reopen it... I get all nevous when I open electronic 
equipment.


I want to thank Realm and all the people who by sharing with me their 
knowledge helped me decide that these roms was what I needed....