Command Station Suggestions, or Questions?
2001-11-05 by erik_magrini@Baxter.com
Before I get into my questions/ideas, let me say that I think the majority of them are minor niggles. The XL-7 is a great box, and as far as I'm concerned is the best "groove" box out. My questions and ideas are merely a way to see if others have found work-arounds for these issues, or if I'm just missing something. Any ideas are obviously welcome, especially if they come from our resident Emu techs :) And so....
Preset Locations. Namely a way to make the Preset locations get updated in your Pattern when changes are made. For example, say I'm making changes to a Preset while playing back a Pattern. If you save the Preset to a new location, then leave the Save Screen, the Preset in your Pattern is still in the current (previous) location, and not in the new location you just saved to. You then have to select that Track, and scroll to the location you saved the Preset to, and then resave the Pattern. It would be nice if the Pattern automatically updated the track with the new Preset location. Every other Pattern base sequencer I've used does this, it's much easier to use that way, not to mention keep track of what Presets you've made changes to before powering off!.
Drum (Kit) Presets. Is there some documentation telling you what drum samples are in each layer of Kit Preset? I know it's not in the manual. It seems that Kit Presets are handled differently due to the number of samples used, yet there's no mention in the documentation of this fact. As it is now, you've got over 70 drum samples per Preset, and yet are still limited to only 4 layers to edit. There's no way to tell which drum samples belong to each layer either, so it's trial and error, hoping you don't make any changes to a previously edited layer. Also, is it possible to make your own drum kits with the XL/MP-7's samples? I know you can use Transpose in Preset Edit to sort of change things around, but again that's an edit that affects the whole layer and you're limited to the samples already saved with the Preset, so it's not the most ideal solution. Ideas?
Tracks don't get selected in Record mode properly. Sometimes I'll be recording a part on say track 3. Now if I go and enter Grid recording (this happens with all recording modes BTW), it should be recording on track 3. If I leave record mode, then change my current track to another one, say track 4 things get weird. If I enter any record mode again, instead of being track 4, it's still on track 3! Seems weird like that, with Record Mode defaulting to the last track recording took place on, not the currently selected track in playback mode. I've accidentally recorded over some vital parts of my Pattern before realizing what was happening!
A way to save different effects with each Pattern. As it is now, you're really limited in Multi-mode with the XL/MP, in that you need to pick one set of effects for your entire set (in a live situation for instance). It would be nice if each Pattern could recall it's own effect settings/types, so I wasn't stuck with the same reverb or delay for the entire set. Probably due to the glitching it might cause while switching Patterns, but still would be a nice feature to have.
Preset selecting. Why does leaving the cursor under the NUMBER of the Preset, causes the Preset Bank to remain as XL-7. Putting the cursor under the NAME or CATEGORY and scrolling causes the bank to immediately change to USER. It would be easier (and more intuitive) to scroll and select sounds from the XL-7 bank, if you could make use of the Sound Navigator feature there as well.
Sysex charts? The manual for the XL-7 states that the Sysex charts are available for download at the Emu site, yet I couldn't find them anywhere. Did I miss them some where? Does anyone have them and could they send them to me?
This is a real wish list item, but it would be nice if there was some way you could easily see if you've got Presets that haven't been saved while in Pattern mode. Maybe with an asterisk next to the name, or with the name in BOLD. Something like that. Just having the save button flash doesn't always tell you WHAT it is that you need to save.
Also, if the Save menu should jump to the correct page as well. For instance if you're in Pattern Edit or View mode and press Save, the save menu should default to "Save Pattern To". Alternatively, if you're in Preset Edit or View mode, the Save button should default to "Save Preset To". This would speed things up considerably IMO.
Feel free to criticize or offer your ideas!
rEalm