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

Hi Group, I have a gig this coming Sunday and I'm starting to freak about how disorganised my beloved xl7 is with regards to presets. I am never quite sure what I am going to hear when the patten i left is booted up again and here's where the group comes in :) I though I get a top 3 tips for organising patches thread going to see if there are any sure fire ways to know that when I go to drop a patten into the mix its not going to need an hour of crafting before its worth listening to. Fire away……..

Here are some tips regarding being better organized on the emu. 

Tip: name all your patterns with UNIQUE titles(I need to do this badly)
Tip: use pattern select triggers to put your set together from different areas of memory
Tip: combine tracks to clipboard then paste into a track set to multi to fit more stuff into a pattern. Then use the mixer section instead of muting stuff.
Tip: use different multisetups to save different banks of pattern select  triggers.
Tip: point note triggers on latch to drum arps on B channels for a safety net beat. You can even stop the sequencer and the drum arp will still play. Then you can select another pattern, hit play, and they will sync up. Or U can also use beats mode for this just make sure your bts channel is set up on some channel u don't use (16b?)
Tip: organize user presets for easy selection by titling them with categories like in the factory presets.
Tip: use a windows laptop with eloader on usb to view patterns and upload/download patterns from the usb port while the sequencer is still is running

Who else got good tips?

2012/5/29 Matt <somatt@...>
> Tip: use a windows laptop with eloader on usb to view patterns and upload/download patterns from the usb port while the sequencer is still is running

Will it work? I mean, is CS able to play pattern while receiving a
SysEx bulk without getting a hickup? Never tried it...

Making one's own categories helps.

I also try to use separate banks for different purposes:
 - "factory" banks - original presets from XL-7/MP-7
 - "scratch" bank - where all work in progress is being saved
 - "refined" bank - contains presets which are somewhat stabilized
 - "performance" bank - all the stuff you're going to use live,
without risking any overwrite

and of course

BACKUP OFTEN!!

My 32nd triplet

Bruno

Apologies if I dupliate the other tips, but here are a few off the top of my head.

(1) Make sure you save the pattern with the initial presets you want at the start of the pattern.

It worries me when you say "I am never quite sure what I am going to hear when the patten i left is booted up again . . . ." It almost sounds like you are not saving the presets in the patterns.

(2) If you have patterns chained into songs, make sure you have the EVENT SOURCE parameters set up the way the way you want (song events only, 1st pattern only, all patterns, song and patterns).

(3) In pattern mode, scroll to the event editor and insert program changes where you want.

(4) Test the program changes while the sequencer is playing, preferably going from pattern to pattern in the same order you will be performing.

(5) order patterns in banks to your personal convenience.

(6) Once you have presets embedded in patterns, don't switch the locations of presets. The patterns store pointers to memory slots and if you change locations, you will be calling up unintended presets.

Background: There is data that gets sent to the synth engine when you dial up a pattern. I believe that data includes initial presets stored in each pattern among other things, like track mutes. The data also gets sent when you do a RTZ (stop-stop).

It really depends on how you are using your sequencer.


As for organizing presets themselves:

1. I like to empty out banks and have presets arranged in groupings--with empty presets in between.

2. If you will be scrolling through sets of related arps on the fly, make sure they are contiguous. Once you hit an empty preset (and I think a non-arp preset) you lose the ongoing arp.

3. Prefix naming convention: numbers are found before letters, caps are found before lower case. So, I have some presets that start with 000, some that start with 100. This makes it easy to dial up presets in the desired order in a grouping. 

Also, Arp:, Bpm:, Brp:, Bts:, Prc:, Rnd:, Rob:, Sfx:, etc. are all found by the navigator before presets that start with lower case letters.

If you have FX presets that start with !FX:, they are pretty easy to find.

Final set of tips:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Practice with things set up in a standardized configuration.

Hope these help.

Steve 


--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "sp808hack" <craigbiz@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Group, I have a gig this coming Sunday and I'm starting to freak about how disorganised my beloved xl7 is with regards to presets. I am never quite sure what I am going to hear when the patten i left is booted up again and here's where the group comes in :) I though I get a top 3 tips for organising patches thread going to see if there are any sure fire ways to know that when I go to drop a patten into the mix its not going to need an hour of crafting before its worth listening to. Fire away……..
>

Thanks for all your responses. I really need to go through my sound banks and find some order. I think the biggest trouble i have comes from using the xl7 presets in more than 1 patten. If 1 is modified and saved in 1 patten, it changes in the other pattern that same preset is used in. Your advise will be really helpful for this.

I had the gig on Sunday at my local bar and was winging it to begin with but I was saved by using the mixer effects on the pioneer. I used the headphones to figure out what sounds were shitty within a patten and just didn't use them. I relied on the master filter to completely reduce the current playing patten to bass and dropped the next pattern in and raised the filter again. It worked really well. Even using like a Lo-fi effect and distorting a patten then just dropping the next one in worked. Gave it a rough punky feel. 

Thanks again!

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, Bruno <brunorc@...> wrote:
>
> 2012/5/29 Matt <somatt@...>
> > Tip: use a windows laptop with eloader on usb to view patterns and upload/download patterns from the usb port while the sequencer is still is running
> 
> Will it work? I mean, is CS able to play pattern while receiving a
> SysEx bulk without getting a hickup? Never tried it...
> 
> Making one's own categories helps.
> 
> I also try to use separate banks for different purposes:
>  - "factory" banks - original presets from XL-7/MP-7
>  - "scratch" bank - where all work in progress is being saved
>  - "refined" bank - contains presets which are somewhat stabilized
>  - "performance" bank - all the stuff you're going to use live,
> without risking any overwrite
> 
> and of course
> 
> BACKUP OFTEN!!
> 
> My 32nd triplet
> 
> Bruno
>

Think of the P2K synth engine and the E-Mu sequencer as two separate things that work together. Oversimplifying a bit, you have:

(1) The P2K synth engine to create and use presets.
(2) The Sequencer to create/record and play tracks with all kinds of data.

From your description, it sounds like you are editing presets [known as patches or programs on some other machines], saving the edited presets, and then expecting the presets to sound the same as they did before they were edited.

If this is what you are doing, let me make a couple of suggestions.

(1) One option is to create a groupings of related presets--tweaked and saved for different patterns. You can use a common prefix if you want so you can navigate through them.  Also, you can use name variations, such as Xrp:Boogie-001a, Xrp:Boogie-001b, etc.

(2) Another option is to have the presets unchanged, but to record (or edit in) CCs that represent the tweaks you want. 

There may be other ideas, but those are two that come to mind.  I may have mentioned this, but if not, let me say it now--patterns [unless you embed sysex using external software] do not store preset definitions. They store pointers to presets that have been saved and (among other things) CCs that tweak the presets based on the patchcords defined in the presets.

Hope this helps.

Steve  

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "sp808hack" <craigbiz@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for all your responses. I really need to go through my sound banks and find some order. I think the biggest trouble i have comes from using the xl7 presets in more than 1 patten. If 1 is modified and saved in 1 patten, it changes in the other pattern that same preset is used in. Your advise will be really helpful for this.

As I mentioned in my previous post, preset definitions are not saved in patterns, pointers to stored preset definitions are saved in  patterns.

See below.

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "steve_the_composer" <smw-mail@...> wrote:
>
> Apologies if I duplicate the other tips, but here are a few off the top of my head.
> 
> (1) Make sure you save the pattern with the initial presets you want at the start of the pattern.

Pointers to the presets are stored with the pattern.


> It worries me when you say "I am never quite sure what I am going to hear when the patten i left is booted up again . . . ." It almost sounds like you are not saving the presets in the patterns.

Here, too, I was referring to saving pointers to the presets, not preset definitions. (I haven't used any sequencers that don't do it this way, but I suppose there might be some.)

Hope this helps.

Steve

This is a great post, kind of like an extention of the SP808 shortcuts page now with midi :) 
I have been trying the sample length thing by sending midi notes from the cs to the 808. still only able to trigger samples. anything I'm missing? 

Also when you were saying "send audio from the cs to the 808 and back again", does this mean the sub outs can also act as ins for send return FX? 

I am currently shopping for a KP3 again as per your advice, I have been looking at them for a long time but keep getting distracted. How is the tempo sync. on this beast. Have you had any troubles with the loops slipping out of time? 

Thanks again!

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, Matt <somatt@...> wrote:
>
> ur email says sp808 hack so i'm gonna talk about sp808 for a sec...  run an
> EMU sub out thru your sp 808 and back with insert cables for good times.
> Then plug in a mic to the sp-808 and another source can go to the sp-808
> aux in, or for "Really Good Times" ("R.G.T.") throw a Korg KP3 on the SP808
> aux loop and slave it off your other EMU midi port.
> then quit bringing a mixer to your gig cuz mixers are heavy. SP808 plus emu
> is a beast.
> FYI did you know that you can edit sample start end and loop points on the
> sp-808 WHILE the EMU is triggering them via EXT midi by sending notes to
> SP808 on the sample channel?
> FYI did you know that you can set the FX on sp-808 to virtual analog synth
> and sequence that with the command station via EXT midi by sending notes to
> SP808 on the FX channel?
> Default sample channel is 10 default FX channel is 11 I believe.
> 
> If i want to use factory EMU patches that I know won't change then I use
> the ones from the rom and not the user, that way then when I save my
> patches over any user ones which happen to be factory patch duplicates then
> I'm not worried about it changing.
> I just started doing all my user bank preset categories in all caps which
> lets me know which ones I made and which ones are factory issue duplicates.
> so I can write over them without worry.
> CAPS LOCK IS ACTUALLY AWESOME SOMETIMES.
> 
> another thing  you can back up your patches somehow with prodatum but I
> haven't really figured that out yet.   :P
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 2:29 AM, sp808hack <craigbiz@...> wrote:
> 
> > **
> >
> >
> > Thanks for all your responses. I really need to go through my sound banks
> > and find some order. I think the biggest trouble i have comes from using
> > the xl7 presets in more than 1 patten. If 1 is modified and saved in 1
> > patten, it changes in the other pattern that same preset is used in. Your
> > advise will be really helpful for this.
> >
> > I had the gig on Sunday at my local bar and was winging it to begin with
> > but I was saved by using the mixer effects on the pioneer. I used the
> > headphones to figure out what sounds were shitty within a patten and just
> > didn't use them. I relied on the master filter to completely reduce the
> > current playing patten to bass and dropped the next pattern in and raised
> > the filter again. It worked really well. Even using like a Lo-fi effect and
> > distorting a patten then just dropping the next one in worked. Gave it a
> > rough punky feel.
> >
> > Thanks again!
> >
> > --- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, Bruno <brunorc@> wrote:
> > >
> > > 2012/5/29 Matt <somatt@>
> >
> > > > Tip: use a windows laptop with eloader on usb to view patterns and
> > upload/download patterns from the usb port while the sequencer is still is
> > running
> > >
> > > Will it work? I mean, is CS able to play pattern while receiving a
> > > SysEx bulk without getting a hickup? Never tried it...
> > >
> > > Making one's own categories helps.
> > >
> > > I also try to use separate banks for different purposes:
> > > - "factory" banks - original presets from XL-7/MP-7
> > > - "scratch" bank - where all work in progress is being saved
> > > - "refined" bank - contains presets which are somewhat stabilized
> > > - "performance" bank - all the stuff you're going to use live,
> > > without risking any overwrite
> > >
> > > and of course
> > >
> > > BACKUP OFTEN!!
> > >
> > > My 32nd triplet
> > >
> > > Bruno
> > >
> >
> >  
> >
>