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

Since my XL-7 crashed all the time I havn't had time to look at the 
new OS. The machine just "freezes" at random moments, about a few 
times per day. By this reason I was forced to send the XL-7 back, and 
the guys have had it for 3 months now (should have been repaired 
now), and I've lost many chances to play live with it because of 
that. The data wheel was not working correctly, some knobs was also 
acting strange. Not to mention some of the keypads.

And about the bugs: There was a whole lot of them in OS 1.01, and 
I've heard that some are still left (as I said I havn't had a chance 
to look at the new OS), and since I payed extra money when it still 
was new (Didn't have the chance to get the expansion boards cheaper 
either since I live in Sweden), I just felt like a beta tester for 
some unfinished gear. And I had to pay extra money for a synth with 
bugs and a whole lot of physical problems (like the odd data knob).

That's why I regret that I bought it.

...So personally I think I have reasons to be quite dissapointed.

At the other hand, of course I understand that this is just my 
opinions.

>you'd know that if you set a track to external, it won't 
automatically insert these events into the track.  You can set any 
information you want up in the track list editor.

Okey, you might be right about that. Havn't had a chance to try it 
since they're still repairing the XL-7. Can't understand why they 
just didn't send me a new XL-7.

//Nifflas






--- In xl7@y..., Aaron Eppolito <aarone+xl7@e...> wrote:
> "Thorsten Marx" <t.marx@h...> wrote:
> 
> > I'm thinking about buying an XL7 because I like the idea of
> > creating and arranging music without a computer .My question is, 
how
> > good is the sequencer for playing an external MIDI device, in my 
case
> > I would trigger an Ensoniq ASR-X sampler. Is the timing OK? Are 
the
> > functions handy?
> 
> nifflas replied:
> 
> > No, for controlling your extrenal gear, this is not what you're
> > looking for.
> 
> In your opinion.  Prove me wrong, but I think you'll find few other
> all-in-one boxes that perform as well.  You have full control over 
what gets
> sent to external gear if you set the tracks to external.  You have 
32
> external midi channels plus 32 internal channels with 128 voices of
> polyphony.  You have 16 programmable knobs just waiting to control 
every
> aspect of your external synths.  You have full record on the fly 
capabilities
> with almost nothing that makes you stop the sequencer.  You have 
complete
> interactivity with the arrangement of patterns without having to 
fit them
> into a "style" or flatten them down into a song.  I could go on and 
on, but
> I'll let you read the reviews (Jan 2002 issue of Keyboard gave it a 
Key Buy).
> 
> 
> 
> > * The OS has many bugs and the machine sometimes crashes
> 
> I'll be the first to admit that there are a few bugs.  I'm not sure 
I'd
> classify them as "many", but I won't argue there.  E-mu has a 
strong history
> of supporting its users.  We continuously add features and 
bugfixes, add
> provide them free for the downloading.  We not too long ago 
released updates
> for the original E-IV classics, a product that shipped in 1994.  We 
still are
> adding features to XL-7 and are trying to fix as many problems as 
we can
> find.  There's a release scheduled for late February that addresses 
many of
> the issues that you folks have brought up.
> 
> 
> > * Stupid re-channelize. If you wish to use a MIDI keyboard to 
control
> > the XL-7 and also the external synths, the midi thru doesn't 
behave
> > as you would expect from a sequencer. Check the other posts for 
more
> > info about this. Also it seems like the EMU guys have no plans to 
fix
> > this, at least not now. (Perhaps they havn't realized how 
important
> > this is)
> 
> We're not idiots, you know.  We're aware that more and more people 
are using
> the XL-7 as a controller for external gear.  We've been steadily 
adding
> features to make the more advanced users happy.  We know that this 
is what
> you want and we'll probably give it to you.
> 
> 
> > * I have multisetups on my synths that gets messed up if the XL-7
> > sends volume, pan or program change messages. Yet it does this
> > automaticly if an "out" track is enabled, so I had to buy a MIDI
> > filter to filter out such messages.
> 
> If you had read the manual addendum, or any of my posts about the 
subject,
> you'd know that if you set a track to external, it won't 
automatically insert
> these events into the track.  You can set any information you want 
up in the
> track list editor.
> 
> -Aaron
> 
> 
> > I'm very dissapointed with the sequencer part of the XL-7. I
> > recommend you to check out the Kawai Q80EXE instead. And there's 
also
> > many other great hardware sequencers.
> >
> > //Nifflas