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

Grrr. F@#$%ing Yahoo just ate a lengthy followup post.

Much more quickly:

Build: solid, good size and shape.

Color: doesn't bother me except for the fact that it makes me hungry. 
rEalm's still best looking but I prefer the Xtreme Loud to the Mr. 
Purple or the Plain Xane.

Keypads: good size, nice rubbery feel, bounce (double-trigger) 
sometimes but I assume they'll improve as they break in (yes?)

Mute buttons: good shape, layout. Feel a little fiddly, wonder how 
durable they'll be in the long run.

Could do with a bit less cursoring around, but I can deal. Otherwise 
pretty straightforward to operate.

Need to get OS 2.0. Came with OS1.31; USB can't upgrade OS and my 
MIDI comp is in storage, so I'll have to wait to try out the good 
stuff like XMIX and DPA.

Found Rothwell's old arp extension bug right away.

Switching patterns is fast and smooth, even when done at the last 
minute (the Rolands can't do this).

Wish I could Transpose part of a pattern (choose bar, length). 
Workaround is to use cut and paste but I can tell it's going to get 
old fast. Key range would be good in cutting and pasting too.

Wish Grid Edit let you pick which measure you were editing separately 
from playback, like the Electribes do (someone else mentioned this 
too). Moving-target editing bugs me. Stopping playback isn't 
practical live, and in 32nd-note mode you can't see the second half 
of the measure. Reducing tempo drastically is clumsy. Loop Section 
doesn't address this completely since it affects playback. There's 
room for a two-digit "edit position" field to the right of 
the "playback position" field, or maybe when you edit the playback 
position field, instead of stopping playback it should decouple 
playback and edit position (the LEDs will still show you where you 
are).

Finding which notes have been turned on can be a hunt. Better would 
be (a) going into Grid Edit, the note field defaults to the lowest 
active note and (b) pressing a button while turning the dial in the 
note field skips all the notes which have no active hits.

Can tell I will still need to use a software seq, but I bought this 
mainly for live use anyway (that and being able to sit in bed and 
program).

Footswitch to both increment and decrement pattern is good, not as 
good as DPA via MIDI, but better than Roland (increment only).

Hum in the headphones. Per the FAQ I may be able to fix this by 
opening the case and reseating a cable.

Sounds good. Lots of good samples. Reverse drums in the Hybrid kit so 
all is not lost there. Eyeing the Drum ROM already, wondering about 
strings.

It's very cool. I think I'll keep it.

More to come, if Yahoo will behave. Dammit.