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

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "sincultura13" <sincultura13@y...> wrote:
> Thanks for taking the time to help me out.... 

Don't listen to anything rEalm tells you. He's a known pathological 
liar. Only listen to what I say.

> You both mentioned  the X-mix feature... "Not really, but with X-
MIX 
> you can combine different tracks from various patterns into the 
> current one." Could you further explain this a bit? That I can take 
> phrases from different places and make them into a new one? 

Each pattern consists of a block of 16 tracks (parallel MIDI loops 
all the same length, up to 32 measures - or 128 beats - long). 
Normally when you switch patterns all 16 tracks switch 
simultaneously. XMIX allows you to do live remixing by replacing any 
track with any other track from any other pattern, one at a time 
(they will stay in synch). So instead of an abrupt switch of all 16 
tracks you can change the bassline, then the melody line, then the 
drums...this is in addition to muting and unmuting tracks. See the OS 
2.0 manual addendum (in Files) for more details.

It's probably simplest when you're starting out to just use one 
channel per track and forget that multichannel tracks even exist, but 
they're there if you ever need them. Similarly, keep your patterns 
simple until you're comfortable with what you're doing.
 
> >>> That's what I'm kinda worried about... Is not that I don't want 
> to switch, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to adapt. I 
have 
> a hard time with lineal thinking when many variables have to be 
taken 
> into account. I used to get all the notes rights in my music 
> dictation class but the order and rhythm were always all messed up! 
I 
> could go to the piano and play them though.  My brain is messed up 
> that way... I think I'm at my best when I don't have to think about 
> what I'm doing. :) I don't know if sequencing this pattern based 
way 
> is more than I can handle... I can do drums (and what not) that 
way, 
> but in my ten years of working with midi have never being able to 
the 
> whole thing that way...

If you can do drums you'll probably be fine. Just program a drum loop 
on the beat and then play over the top of it. And if you're 
recording, stop playing when you hit the end of the loop.

I have no formal musical training and when I started messing around 
with electronic gear I just played stuff into a linear sequencer as 
if it were a tape recorder, with no regard for tempo or beat markers. 
But once I started programming rhythms (on an old Roland drum 
machine) I gradually figured out how the whole bar/beat thing worked 
and it helped a lot. I still work pretty intuitively, I can't read 
music and couldn't tell you what key I'm in most of the time (I know 
what C major is). Most of my musical heroes are the same way.

Like I say, you can check one out and then return it if it doesn't 
work the way you'd like.