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

I had a tech question that appears to have been overlooked in the 
files discussion. I will post it again since we all no there is no 
such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people.
Here goes:
Say I have a 16 bar pattern. Often times when sequncing into a song,
I will loop only 1, 4, or 8 bars before playing out the 16. The
problem is on some loops it appears to cut off the first note. ie
when using an arp, it will not play back on some loops. I assume
this is because it is not playing the first not which is the only
note triggering the arp for the track. There seems to be no problem
in pattern mode.
Has anyone else encountered this?
Confession: only running os 1.38, but I have ordered a midi/usb
interface to upgrade. Will this still be a problem in 2.0? ALso can
you use x-mix in song mode or is it just for pattern mode?