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

I've had this beast for a week, so I mostly have it surrounded, but if
anyone in the know could clarify these assumptions/questions it would
be most welcome. (The manual is a little reticent in places...)

- The manual says that MultiSets store initial preset selections for
  the 32 MIDI channels. I wasn't sure why (given that patterns select
  their own presets) - but of course a pattern has only 16
  tracks. What seems to happen is that, when a pattern is made active,
  it initialises the presets for the channels addressed by its 16
  tracks, leaving the remainder of the 32 preset slots alone. Does
  this sound right? (I'm not going to think about what happens if
  multiple tracks address the same channel.)

- A change of track channel assignment doesn't dirty the pattern -
  why? And yet, the new assignments appear to be stored with the
  pattern anyway (I'll double-check this.) Similarly, a new selection
  of preset in a track doesn't dirty the pattern (although this makes
  more pragmatic sense).

- How would I save a preset when the pattern is dirty and I don't want
  to save that? (Assuming the preset is on a track, rather than a
  trackless channel.) I can't revert the pattern because it'll revert
  the track's preset selection, losing the preset edit. I can't scroll
  to a trackless channel and leave the preset there, because the edit
  buffer is lost. (All the world is not a Waldorf Micro-Wave, alas.) I
  guess all I can do is store the pattern somewhere temporary, save
  the preset, and blow away the pattern later.

- Where is the initial setting of the GLIDE button (on/off) stored?
  I've been assuming that it's part of the track initialisation, but
  it's remembered (temporarily at least) for non-track channels.

- I've noticed that, when switching patterns and the sequencer is
  running, often the first note of the new pattern is truncated. (This
  is for my own sparse patterns; the dense factory ones seem fine,
  unless the problem is merely masked.) Does anyone have a work-round?
  I'm wondering if it's something to do with the change of track
  channels and/or track mute states which triggers the problem.

  (If anyone else can confirm this I'll add it to the bug database.)

- A couple of minor feature requests: firstly, it would be nice if
  punching RECORD did not dirty the pattern until something was
  actually recorded. Secondly, very cosmetically, I'd rather like a
  slightly more visible LCD cursor (like a blinking block rather than
  the underline). I'm looking at my Audity 2000 as I type this, and
  the Audity has a slightly higher blink-rate and longer duty-cycle
  for the underline, which actually helps.

(All OS 1.31 btw. And the unquantised note deletion bug is still
present.)

-- 

  nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com
  upcoming gig at cybersonica, london, june 5th  -- http://www.cybersonica.org

- The manual says that MultiSets store initial preset selections for   the 
32 MIDI channels. I wasn't sure why (given that patterns select their own 
presets) - but of course a pattern has only 16 tracks. What seems to 
happen is that, when a pattern is made active, it initialises the presets 
for the channels addressed by its 16  tracks, leaving the remainder of the 
32 preset slots alone. Does this sound right? (I'm not going to think 
about what happens if multiple tracks address the same channel.)

>>>Not totally sure I understand you, so forgive me if I don't answer what 
you're asking.  Basically, when a new pattern begins to play, the first 
thing (well, almost) it does is to send a program change message on all 32 
channels loading up the correct presets you saved with the Pattern.  Even 
though a pattern only has 16 tracks, you can have multiple MIDI channels 
on each track, thus the 32 channels total. <<<

- A change of track channel assignment doesn't dirty the pattern -  why? 
And yet, the new assignments appear to be stored with the pattern anyway 
(I'll double-check this.) Similarly, a new selection of preset in a track 
doesn't dirty the pattern (although this makes more pragmatic sense).

>>>What do you mean by dirty? <<<

- How would I save a preset when the pattern is dirty and I don't want to 
save that? (Assuming the preset is on a track, rather than a trackless 
channel.) I can't revert the pattern because it'll revert the track's 
preset selection, losing the preset edit. I can't scroll to a trackless 
channel and leave the preset there, because the edit buffer is lost. (All 
the world is not a Waldorf Micro-Wave, alas.) I guess all I can do is 
store the pattern somewhere temporary, save the preset, and blow away the 
pattern later.

>>>Presets are saved seperately from Patterns, so if you've got a preset 
you like save it in a User Preset location.  All the Pattern remembers is 
the program change #'s assigned to each track. <<<

- Where is the initial setting of the GLIDE button (on/off) stored?   I've 
been assuming that it's part of the track initialisation, but it's 
remembered (temporarily at least) for non-track channels.

>>>It's based on the Preset settings, not Pattern settings. <<<

rEalm

> Basically, when a new pattern begins to play, the first 
> thing (well, almost) it does is to send a program change message on all 32 
> channels loading up the correct presets you saved with the Pattern.

It appeared that only the 16 tracks' MIDI channels were
initialised. I'll have to double-check. Or perhaps, it's in the word
"play": this may do more than just selecting a pattern (even when the
sequencer is stopped).

> Even 
> though a pattern only has 16 tracks, you can have multiple MIDI channels 
> on each track, thus the 32 channels total.

I know, although I've been avoiding multi-channel tracks.

> - A change of track channel assignment doesn't dirty the pattern -  why? 
> 
> >>>What do you mean by dirty? <<<

Erm: marked as needing saving.

> - How would I save a preset when the pattern is dirty and I don't want to 
> save that?

Actually, I solved this one for myself: the "save" screen lets you
scroll along to "save preset", even if the pattern is dirty...

> - Where is the initial setting of the GLIDE button (on/off) stored?

> >>>It's based on the Preset settings, not Pattern settings. <<<

That makes sense; if I get any apparent strange behaviour in future
I'll track it down further...

-- 

  nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com
  upcoming gig at cybersonica, london, june 5th  -- http://www.cybersonica.org