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

Greetings all,

I've been using hardware sequencers for years (Yamaha RM1X, then E-mu MP-7 and XL-7, then AKAI MPC1000), but now I want to base my workflow around PC running Reaper, with all hardware synths connected via Midiman MIDISport 4x4. The idea is to use the XL-7 as a 16-channel multitimbral synth, and to edit patches directly on the PC using Prodatum. However I'm having some problems making this setup work:

- when I switch Prodatum to Multi mode and select a channel (e.g. 1), all channel selection buttons (1-16) become disabled. Why does this happen? What is the correct way to use multi mode in Prodatum?

- how do you audition your patches while editing in Prodatum? Does it have some kind of MIDI thru, or do you use a separate program (like MIDI-OX) for that?

- is it possible to have both Reaper and Prodatum running, so I could hear the patches I'm making in project context? Of course, the MIDI driver must be multiclient for this to work, but if it weren't, I expect one of the programs to fail to open the MIDI port. As it is, Reaper appears to open all MIDI ports, but does not send anything to the XL-7. I need to experiment more to see if it's a strictly Reaper problem, or some kind of conflict between it and Prodatum.

- could my problems be related to the fact that the MIDI interface is connected via USB hub?

I'd like to thank Jan again for his great work on Prodatum. From user responses here on the list, it appears to work for everybody - so something must be wrong in my setup. Please help, I'm stuck! ;)

thanks in advance,
Boris.