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

First let me say that upgrading to 1.18 fixed a *lot* of frustrating
problems I had in 1.00.  So I remain hopeful that E-Mu will eventually iron
all its problems out.  However, I bought the XL-7 because I wanted a
*standalone* sequencer that wasn't dependent on a PC.  I thought that was
the whole idea.  In that regard I'm extremely disappointed with it (and
E-Mu).  Since the E-Loader program is a requirement for backing up and
upgrading the unit (mandatory to get a functioning unit) it cannot stand on
its own.  Given that, I'm now wondering why I should bother continuing to
bang my head against the wall with its quirky sequencer when I can just run
PC sequencer software which is an order of magnitute better anyway.  For
example,

* I'm still getting perma-stuck notes in grid mode.  They cannot be turned
off.  They cannot be reduced to volume 0 (rolls from 1 back to original
level).  The only way I've found to get rid of them is to cut the track and
start over.  GRR!!  What is going on??

* In grid mode when using 4/4 32nd note resolution how do I get to the grids
for beats 3 and 4 of a bar?  Both editing Bar.Beat and scrolling the B: in
the display jump whole bars.  The only way I've found to do it is to play
until beat 3 or 4 and stop.  Surely there's a better way.

* One of the main reasons I find myself using grid mode is because the
octave keypads respond poorly.  About 10% of the time they'll sense 2 or
more notes because of the stiffness of the rubber pads as they snap back
into shape.  Is this a problem that will fix itself eventually as it wears
or is there some field mod I can make to it?  It's not a major problem since
I do most work with a full size keyboard but is annoying when I do want to
use the pads.

One last unrelated question.  I've tried to load the XL-1 presets with no
success.  Since the .mids use SYSEX I figured all I had to do was play them
using an external sequencer and the XL-7 would know what to do.  It didn't
work.  Next I downloaded the bank 0 .mid to an XL-7 bank 1 slot and played
it and that didn't work either.  What am I doing wrong?

Cheers,


Q