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

Hi Bruce,

> 1. USB on Samplers ? I love me E4Ultra.  But I am using a 
creaky old
> Mac just to dump samples to it using the SCSI port.  SCSI is 
great,
> but in this day and age, it should be possible to use a USB port 
on
> the sampler to get speedy transfer.  If you do this it would be 
great
> to get a new DWAM card that supported it.
> 

I have an Ultra and I am now more or less SCSI free in my 
computers.  So I faced a similar problem.  My solution was to 
purchase a USB-to-SCSI converter from Adaptec for around $70.  
This product supports not only SCSI drives and the like, but I 
have also found that it works with the Ultra as well as a Yamaha 
A5000.  Best of all if I need to I can use it with a notebook!  Check 
it out.

> 3. Greater compatibility ? There is no way my XL-7 will replace 
my
> Ultra, but I find it a bother that my E4 is in some ways less 
capable
> than my P2K modules.  How about adding the ability for E4u?s 
to load
> P2K data (not just the instruments)?  Total dream would be to 
have the
> sampler power of my E4u in an XL-7 case, with all of the 
Proteus
> features thrown in (oh yeah, put in all the Morph filters while 
you
> are at it).

I also find it erksome that the high end Ultra is under specified in 
regard to the P2K family, especially now that EOS 4.6 is out.  For 
example, the first 8 MIDI controllers are fixed to CC values less 
than 32.  What's with that?  This makes it impossible to use the 
Ultra as a compatible module with the XL7 without changing the 
XL's assignments, which, BTW, are pretty close to standard with 
other manufacturers.  And the Ultra only offers 12 MIDI control 
sources where as the P2K family goes up to 16.

I also agree with the current lack of support for compatible 
patches.  I have the same instruments available in the Ultra that 
are in the XL7 but it drives me crazy that I have to program each 
and every patch up to gain a compatible sound set so that I can 
have more separate outputs or increased active MIDI channels.

drK