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

What`s up all
Just curious about how you all like you use the arpeggiator on these 
xx-7 machines. I do not really know much theory and am just starting 
to understand how I can break down musical phrases into arpeggio 
settings. Do you guys like come up with an idea for an arpeggio first 
how ever you might and then try to translate that into emu arpeggio 
speak or rather just play with the steps to see what you come up with?


One other question I had is if it is possible to make a pattern based 
arpeggio cycle through a "held cord" instead of just playing the 
identical arpeggio on all the held notes together?
sorry if the answer is obvious to that one.