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

I thought I'd share a post I wrote in the P2K group because it has some info related to command stations (and the P2500). Someone was having problems hearing the demo songs on some ROMs (and so did I). Here's the post:

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I think I may have solved the problem with demos not playing right on my system. I don't know if it applies to others' problems.

Background: The FX RAM on my P2500 has a problem, so I cannot use main outs. Sub1 and Sub2 do work since they do not go through the FX system.

Discovery: I loaded the XROM factory patterns and songs and discovered that the songs store information which changes my global/master mix outputs. (This info is stored at the beginning of each song and is executed when the song is first loaded and when stop is pressed twice.)

Test: I played the demos which I described as being thin and having missing parts and listened through the headphones which carries the main out.

Result: In addtion to the constant noise due to the FX RAM problem, I heard the missing parts of the demo songs!!!!

Conclusion: The ROM-based demo songs (just like the factory *.mid file songs) contain MIX OUTPUT data that changes the settings in my my currently selected multisetup. This results in some tracks being routed to ports other than Sub1. Hence, I don't hear them.

Again, I am not sure if this is what's going on with others who cannot hear ROM demo songs. The test would be to disconnect sub outs and listen to the main out.

On the P2500, I can edit and resave the factory *.mid songs so the EVENT SOURCE for mix parameters is "song events only." (This should also work for command stations.) However, there is no way to do this for demo songs as far as I can tell.

The bottom line: if you cannot hear the ROM demos or some parts/tracks/layers seem to be missing, disconnect sub out plugs and try listening to the main out.

Hope this helps.

--Steve