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

Time for my first serious complaint.

There's a global parameter (under the ARP button) to determine 
whether or not arpeggiators are transmitted to external synths. The 
problem is that if it is set to "on" then arpeggiator notes are sent 
out the MIDI port *even if the track is set to internal only*, and if 
it is set to "off" then arpeggiator notes are NOT sent out the MIDI 
port, even if the track is set to external only or both.

Unless I'm missing something (I am using OS 2.0), this effectively 
makes the arpeggiators useless for controlling external synths, since 
my choices are (a) put a synth on MIDI port A but manually turn off 
any channels that might receive unwanted arp data - not practical 
live (b) do not put a synth on MIDI port A, rendering it useless, or 
(c) turn arp transmit off and do not use the arpeggiators to control 
external synths. None of these is satisfactory.

I hope that I am missing something or that there are plans to fix 
this bug in an update, because otherwise I'm having a hard time 
seeing this as anything but a very bad design decision. Tracks set 
to "INT" should not transmit MIDI data at all, tracks set to "EXT" 
should always transmit MIDI data, and there's an Arp 
on/off/Preset/Master switch on every track already, which should 
determine whether or not the arp is transmitted. The global setting 
should only override the track settings when it is set to "off", as a 
kind of master kill switch.

Has anyone else noticed this? Does it make sense at all for it to 
work this way? I don't see any provision for "printing" arp output to 
tracks either, aside from running a cable from output to input or 
using another sequencer.

(While I'm on about it the other settings for keyboard and knob 
transmission could be a little smarter as well - if the mode 
is "basic" and the currently active track is assigned to an external 
synth it would be nice if the keyboard and knobs followed suit. This 
I can deal with however.)