COMMENTS ON MP-7 FROM AN OLD DOG - for Emu's people
2002-02-03 by argomax2002
Hi. I'm a dealer in Italy, and I specialize in music electronics for remix and dance productions. I am the premier dealer for this kind of gear in my country. I've been in this business for a long time and I've owned, used and sold ALL products ever produced in the last 15 years that had keys, knobs or a PLAY button on them. Since I also indulge myself in having a small and effective studio setup, I grabbed an MP7 for my own use. It's an enjoyable machine and I like to play with it. I won't use it professionally yet until I really get it to do what I like. However, after a few days of exploring, I will tell you the following comments, but don't take them too bad: * The interface layout is not bad but not excellent either. Too much space is given to functions that could be within menus, and too little to those that should be upfront, like sequencer edit functions, extended transport buttons, and so. *Where's my UNDO button? The COMPARE button, which is there instead, is only one-tenth as useful as the UNDO button. If there is an Undo function anywhere, I couldn't find it. Not even in the index. *The sequencer is steady but barely there in terms of features. For example, I can't copy just some bars that I recorded well over some other bard I recorded badly within the same track: I have to copy the whole track somewhere else or nothing. Yamaha keyboard workstations from 10 years ago had a better sequencer on board. And you should be able to sequence a song WITHOUT just chaining patterns. * The soundset is quite uneven in terms of dynamics, overall levels and sound quality. Enough said. And the reverbs fizzle. UUGGGHHH!!! THAT'S CHEAP!!! *To say that the effect bussing section is confusing is putting it mildly. Also, the effects could include a few more variety, what do you think? *The hip-hop soundset is good only in the Bass and Drums/Perc categories. Everything else is useless in my opinion. *A TWO-LINE DISPLAY? IN 2002? IN THIS PRICE RANGE? *The E-Loader won't load a damn thing from a Mac using USB. I don't even want to make any effort to find out why, nor I want to switch platform. It should work immediately. Period. * The synth programming functions are certainly very deep, powerful and extensive. But guys, I don't feel like scrolling with a dial and tapping endlessly with a cursor switch anymore, sorry. I'm 36 y.o., and I want better for my money. *The pads are very well built and respond well. You obviously have used a lot of the ideas from the Ensoniq ASR-X series, from the sequencing structure to the pads themselves. But I'd have gone further. I'd have implemented sampling as well (Yamaha RS-7000 beat Emu to that) and a fixed Ram storage like that featured on Roland SP-808, which, you'll agree, is THE BEST and MOST PRACTICAL type of memory storage ever developed in music application, period. Thanks for your time and I hope I didn't offend anyone. Max Ventura, Italy.