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

Hello.  After suffering through some "what's happening with Emu" 
paranoia and a first PX-7 showing up with massive shipping damage, 
I've finally gotten one that works.  Not to belabor a point that you 
all know already, but this is one of the most amazing pieces of 
metal, plastic, chips, resistors, knobs, wires and embedded genius 
(and a healthy dose of musical voodoo, to boot) I have ever seen in 
my life (been on the planet for a while now)!  The more I work with 
it, the more saddened I am that this may be the end of the road for 
the xx-7s.  What a tragedy that the commercial marketplace appears to 
have claimed, for what ever reason, another superior piece of 
equipment. I guess, on the other hand, I am fortunate enough to have 
gotten one, and to be able to play with it. Absolutely phenomenal.  
Now, it's a matter of keeping it alive and learning to use it. 
 Which brings me to my first appeal for some help.
I'm pretty much a MIDI/sequencing/synthesis illiterate, so I've been 
struggling with Tracks, Channels, Events, Note-On, etc., etc., but it 
is SLOWLY starting to make some sense (I think?!?).  As opposed to 
the complex things (loops, arps, sysex) most of you appear to work 
with, I am wanting to write "linear" rhythm tracks to use with 
recorded song tracks.  My intention is using the PX-7 as the stand-
alone source of all the traditional percussion/rhythm stuff - which 
it looks like it will do in spades!  

1)  My current problem is that I can't get the Cut/Paste function to 
work.  I am following the instructions in the manual (which, 
interestingly came with pp. 133-148 missing!) for both the Pattern 
and Song Modes, but I can never get the Song to play past the 
original STOP command.  I've tried additionally doing a Song/Pattern 
SAVE (not mentioned in the manual, but the light continues to flash 
after pressing ENTER) but that doesn't change anything.  For 
learning, I just put 2 different patterns together as a "song" and 
first tried pasting the song to itself, just to double it.  Then, I 
tried to repeat just the last pattern, to slightly extend the song, 
which is pretty much what the illustration in the manual appears to 
do.  I've also tried to paste in the middle of the first pattern, and 
made sure to RTZ, but it will never play past the orignal two 
patterns and the STOP.   I tried to lengthen the SONG to make space 
for the paste (nothing in the manual about this; just a guess) but 
that didn't work either- if I did it right. I have seen what looks 
like "PASTING DONE" blow by quickly on a screen, but it never stays 
visible.    I'm stumped.

2) On pattern edits I've saved, after SAVE TO / ENTER  and 
OVERWRITE / ENTER, the SAVE / COPY button is still flashing, so I 
press it, get the SAVE to PATTERN screen again, and without selecting 
a destination, press the S/C button again, and the screen goes away.  
This seems to work OK but the manual, again, doesn't read like this.  
Is this normal?

3) I saw mention of a Tutorials and Tips file that was available on 
the Emu website, but I can't find it.  Does anyone know anything 
about the whereabouts of this?

Thanks for listening...and for any advice,

Ken