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

I recently bought an rm1x to do all of my sequencing and stuff like 
that. The machine is very powerful, and I have learned to use many of 
the functions it offers, but two things bother me about the rm1x:

1. It's getting old. The sounds it has are kinda crappy. They sound a 
little too late 80's early 90's for my taste. The drums are a bit 
limited too.
2. I have a hard time being creative with it. I don't really like the 
interface. It just seems fairly confusing and you have to cycle 
through a whole bunch of menus to accomplish simple tasks.

Basically I was thinking of selling it and picking up an XL-7. I was 
wondering if someone that has used both boxes or just simply the XL-7 
can answer some questions for me.

Does the xl-7 send nrpn messages to external gear?

Do the strings and pads sound good in the XL-7?

How are the drums in the XL-7?

Is it really easy and fast to use creatively?

How you you guys usually back up your song information? Do you do a 
midi dump into a PC or what? (The rm1x has the convenient floppy 
drive)

The rest of my setup is as follows:

DX200 fm Synth
ea-1 
es-1 (I just ordered it because it looked cool)


I was hoping the xl-7 could fill in the holes as far as strings and 
other general synth stuff people use in dance music.

Thanks for your time if you've read all of this.


Brendan