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

I thought I already posted this the other day...

--- In xl7@y..., Aaron Eppolito <aarone+xl7@e...> wrote:
> Prove me wrong, but I think you'll find few other
> all-in-one boxes that perform as well.  

Unfortunately every hardware sequencer available has at least one and sometimes more than one serious problem - no one has gotten it exactly right, and so far the XL-7 is not there yet either. The fact that E-mu is listening to constructive feedback means there's a good chance it will still get there.

> You have full record on the fly capabilities
> with almost nothing that makes you stop the sequencer.

Being able to manually control which part of the pattern is being edited in grid mode would go a long way toward eliminating that "almost," of course.

> You have complete
> interactivity with the arrangement of patterns without having to fit them
> into a "style" or flatten them down into a song.

True, and that's a good thing, but there's also no way to do one-button pattern switching a la Roland's Pattern Call (or drop MIDI phrases in at will a la Roland's RPS). Right now you're limited to dialing, which is less than ideal live.

> 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.

I'm very glad to hear this.

> 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.

As well as this. As frustrating as it may be to hear something you worked hard on criticized, it's reassuring to know that the criticism is being listened to. The XL-7 could still use improved mute/solo capabilities (like exclusion groups and submutes), improved timing control (realtime swing/groove quantize, 0.1 BPM) and the ability to send sysex messages to control external synths, but the first two complaints (pattern call and grid edit control) are the biggest in my opinion, especially since almost every competing product has them. These aren't advanced or esoteric features, they're fairly common and crucial for live use. While the XL-7 has a lot going for it, it will be the absolute king of its market if they're added.

I don't want to break down and buy an old MC-505, and the vaunted MPC-4000 doesn't even have grid edit. I'll be looking forward to February.