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

Hey there everyone,

I got mine from guitar center for $399, that takes into account the 
$50 rebate from guitarcenter, not from emu. You got to ask the 
salesman or manager for the rebate form it seems. I called emu, and 
they don't give you the rebate. 

What a deal this is! BTW, guitarcenter is blowing out the redsound 
virtual analog darkstar xp2 for $130 - it's an great virtual that's 
very close to the real thing with some types of sounds. Especially 
once you start messing with the presets. That in combination with an 
xl7 takes care of everything along side a sampler of course. Check 
out some of the sounds of the darkstar on my website.

As far as the expansion cards go, I've been going thru the demos on 
emu.com  I'll tell you right now that I have the emu esi2000 with the 
cdrom, the protozoa. This is the same sample/preset collection as the 
$99 protozoa exp card. In my opinion if you dont have this cd and 
dont have a sampler, and want more bread and butter sounds right away 
that aren't the greatest, but usable, then for under a hundred you'll 
get pleny of samples.(standard kitchen sink, orchestral, and world - 
some nice plucked stringed instruments too) The samples themselves 
don't exploit the fidelity and low noise of that our xl7's are 
capable of. Basically an xl7 has pretty much the same circuitry as 
the high end emu samplers - actually it's even better in some ways. 
At any rate it's a hell of a synth engine. 

I think the planetphatt soundcard is the best one to start off with 
if you want to turn your xl7 into a bread and butter, and even better 
all-around sound module - it will give you the biggest bang for your 
buck to start with, plus it's a great addition to the xl7's 
futuristic/groove/dance oriented soundset. I personally think it's 
the best one. With these types of world timbres and the excellent 
sample fidelity, especially the percussion, they'll act as a very 
cutting-edge compliment to the existing xl7 style. Of course you 
still can use these sounds in a more traditional way too. And they 
sound brillant in the mp3 demos. I think they make the most of the 
sampler-quality engine in the xl7. This sound set clearly makes it a 
state-of-the-art sound machine. Even better than those "slick" korg 
combis that everyone seems to like so much. Some of those combis are 
really great, I'll have to admit. But this sound set puts the xl7 way 
ahead of anything korg had or has. That goes for Roland too. Then you 
can get the ZR76 exp card - 16 meg piano and a 3.5 meg piano with a 
bunch of other rather decent sounds - much better than the proteus 
1000/2000/2500 set. Keep in mind that ensoniq had a kick-ass 1 meg 
piano with the sq+ series. It only got better from that point on. I 
read some poor reviews of the ZR card, but I don't believe it. Go to 
emu's site and download the halo mp3's(ZR soundset). Compare them 
with the 2000/2500 sounds. Keep in mind that these 2000 demos are 
using the filters more to get that contemporary sheen to you hear in 
these 2000 demos as compared to the ZR demos. You can get this 
particular quality just with the xl7 soundset too, or any exp card, 
if you do some simliar filter programming. That "sheen" is mostly in 
the filter programming, and some in the effects. Well the filters and 
effects are the same on everyone of these modules. So there you have 
it. 

Then last but not forgotten is the pure phatt card to round off the 
entire sample/pattern set. You can't help but spend half you're 
Saturday afternoon on these patterns. Way too cool. I think with this 
combination you may never have to use your sampler for much other 
than vocals. Also dually noted is the virtuoso card set, except it 
takes 2 slots, but sounds like it makes the most out of the xl7 
engine too. I heard from other people that the PS Orch exp was good, 
but I'm skeptical. I already have the sample cds for this library and 
its great, but I noticed there's not much of a selection of 
instruments(samples) on the card. One brass type, one flute?? Not 
enough variety. Get the cd rom sample set if you're into classical or 
film composing. It's second to none. BTW, the the PS Orch exp demo 
sounds lousy too.

Ok for the wish list.... One wish... modify the OS and let us install 
regular SIMM RAM memory(remember the hardware is probably much the 
same as in the EMU sampler's, and let us download our own samples via 
USB. What more could you then ever ask for. That's why it will always 
remain just a wish. A damn shame, I say.


Brian Franklin

bkf11@...

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bkf11/


PS - I forgot to say that I downloaded version 2.0 - what a great 
upgrade that is! I hope emu continue's the good work. And the e-
loader is another welcome addition. Actually I can see it's going to 
be a critical part of the xl7 experience. 

The USB connection is more than adequate and the fact that you can 
modify a pattern or presets and instantly save them on your PC, and 
instanly retrieve them makes the production a quick and efficient 
process. This is definitly a module for production musicians that 
have to get things done quick. It's rock-stable(xl-7), although the e-
loader has a bug where it has to be reset after certain operations, 
but is no big deal in the larger sheme of things. Most people I talk 
too these days can't say the same thing for thier software, but yeah 
sure, it'll get better over the next few years. But who wants to 
wait - don't have an xl7, then go out and get one and start finally 
making music without all the technical headaches. And it's all hands-
on with the command stations - the best way to make music - it's like 
playing an fast-action arcade game, compared to a think-n-type-n-
think slow strategy game(that eventually crashes when you finally got 
everything figured out) Bottom line: I don't want to think, I just 
want to have fun!