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

Hey welcome!

I know everything can be a bit overwhelming at first, but really it's not so
bad.  The first thing that you should know in general is to use your ears.
Being visual works, and with Acid it seems so easy to put something together
like that. The thing is when you are working with music soetimes it's better to
hear what's going on more than seeing it on a screen.  I know that at first it
seems so hard, especially when you have something in your head that wants to get
out, then you get caught up in how to just start recording it and you can get
caught up in the details.  But after a while as you get used to how things like
the XL-7 work you will find that you can get what you want down VERY quickly.
Always remember that you don't just get on a bike and magically know how to ride
it, you have to fall over a couple of times and practice a little bit then one
day you'll be like "Wow! I can't believe Madonna opened for me!". You won't even
have to think about the gear.  In the meantime:

Most synthesizers have two major sound modes:  Patch (Also known as single) and
Multi (or performance).  Each patch is usually made up of up to four samples
which can play at the same time, crossfade into each other or some may even play
after you let go of a key.  A multi is a way of saying you can play (Typically)
up to 16 patches at once.  The XL-7 is by default in Multi Mode, where each
channel plays a sound and generally corresponds to a Midi Channel (Midi supports
up to 16 distinct channels of note and other information).  So if you plug a
keyboard into the  midi in on the XL-7 and play something on Midi channel 1 on
the keyboard, you will hear the sound on the XL-7 that corresponds to Midi
channel 1.

Another thing most synthesizers do is actually split out the part that sequences
the note information so that the sound portion responds exactly the same way for
midi information comming from outside the synth as it would on it's own
sequencer.  This  means that anything you can tweak or change on the XL-7 you
can pretty much do remotely from some other piece of hardware or even a software
sequencer.  You can even tell a sound on a midi channel to change to a different
sound using a program change midi message.  That way at the begining of your
song or pattern the correct sound will play.  Most people on this list will
actually write the music using a software sequencer like Cakewalk Home edition
or Cubase VST, Cubase SX, Sonar, Pro Tools, and even oldschool atari sequencers.
Once they have finished with the song they save it out as a Midi file and then
send it over to the XL-7 using their USB port.  Now they can play back their
song at any time without a computer.  In fact they can also control other
equipment with the XL-7 using that same midi file!

The other thing that will help you out in the beginning is to read the FAQ on
the Yahoo Groups website that this list is attached to.  It may help clear up a
lot of questions on how to record into it, play back things from it, demo sounds
etc.  Also the manual is great and there is an update available for the manual
and the OS.  You should make sure to download it and read through it, it has
great tutorials and once you get your feet wet you can ask the list anything and
we will try to answer.

Good luck and congraats on your purchase,
It's a great piece of kit-

Andre