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

Hello all!
I guess I can say I'm new to the group as this is my first post.
So it's nice to be here........

Anyway, last Saturday was my first gig with the XL-7.  My brother 
and I are the only members in a Christian band called Binding 
Force.  Our drummer recently left and we couldn't find a replacement 
so we went with the XL-7 and I've spent the past three months 
programming in specific drum parts for our songs.  It takes a while 
but the results are worth it.  We use the XL-7 as backing for the 
guitar and bass.  So we don't do anything on the fly, nor do we have 
anything else hooked in to the machine.  The advantage is the I can 
program in keyboard parts.  When we had a real drummer the sound 
wasn't as full because we had no keyboard player.

When we showed up to the gig everyone kind of thought it was weird 
that we were using a drum machine.  Most other bands have real 
drummers but we saved a lot of space onstage just having the 
machine.  Plus it's a lot quicker getting set up!

Anyway, everyone was amazed when we were done because the XL-7 was 
kicking out great drum parts and synth lines.  I don't think they 
expected it.  After the show I had people (including the pro sound 
guy) asking about it.  I'm proud of my machine now, depite some 
doubts early on.

I hope everyone else has had great experiences with their machines.  
I really love mine and after experiencing the luxury of not having 
to deal with lazy drummers, I don't see going back to the real thing.

Todd