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

2012/10/13 nikitsanpsix <nikitsan@...>:
> (There is only one edit buffer which is used by the current preset (the preset shown in the display). You can edit only one preset at a time via SysEx commands, although these presets can be edited independently of the current preset edited using the Front Panel. Remote Preset selection is independent of the edit buffer. Changing the current preset erases the edit buffer.)

I don't know why do you think it's bad news.

System Exclusive is nothing more than writing to the RAM memory of
your sound module. So at any given time you can use SysEx to edit any
of the presets stored in one of the User banks. This is not the same
as editing any preset (including the factory ones) from the level of
the front panel, as front panel is actually using the edit buffer.

Probably due to rather complex structure of sounds (and its number) in
P2K platform, E-mu uses a kind of "point & edit" attitude - first you
send a SysEx message which selects one of the User presets, and then
you use universal messages, which mean for instance "change the arp
pattern of the selected preset" (in most other synths you would rather
use a parameterized message, like "change the arp pattern of the
preset number X").

So, I assume that "you can edit only one preset at a time via SysEx
commands" means that you cannot make a MIDI controller to alter TWO
different presets at the same time, since instead of sending SysEx
"change the filter cutoff of user preset 1" and then "change the
release time of user preset 2", you would rather send:
 - select user preset 1
 - change the filter cutoff
 - select user preset 2
 - change the release time
which can easily create a SysEx storm, not to mention wearing the Flash RAM out.

I would also say that - apart from arp patterns - many sound params
are mappable to realtime controllers, and there are 16 of them, so the
best idea would be to use the edit buffer to experiment with the
sounds until you know what params you want to have the hands-on
control, and then use the CCs to adapt it on the fly. As for the arp
patterns, they can still be changed for the preset in the edit buffer
without paying the Flash price (hmm... sounds like Magic the Gathering
term).

And if you want to change arp patterns for multiple presets at once
AND you know upfront the relevant combinations, you can use multis,
pointing to the same presets but with different arp patterns. Not sure
though, how fast it can happen - after all you recall almost complete
sound module setup, with 32 presets, FX settings etc.

Hope this helps,

Bruno