EDP MIDI Sync and Beats/Measure Questions / Loop3 V6.0 Requests

[Hans Lindauer <hans@ernieball.com>]

Hello fellow loopers -

First, thanks to everyone and Kim especially for this ever-growing
knowledge pool.

I have my EDP MIDI synced up to some drum machines, and I use it to add
bass lines, synth pads, and/or samples from vinyl over the top of my
beats.  It works great, and at the moment I'm up in the air as to
whether I should buy a Repeater or three more EDPs.  OK, maybe one more
EDP.

What I was trying to do over the weekend, was to build up a groove using
the EDP first, and then to have the drum machines kick in ( in sync)
once the groove was established.  I can get very close to the EDP's
timing with the sync-master drum machine's (an Oberheim DX - god bless
'em) tap tempo, so I hoped that I could start the drum machines running
and then use multiply to get the already-looping EDP to sync with the
drum machines' MIDI clock.  That didn't work.

I know that I can set the DX to slave to MIDI, and then once I start the
EDP it will start in sync with the EDP's MIDI.  In this case, I can
build the groove and then just un-mute the drum machines when I want
them to be heard.  However, because the groove sometimes arises
unexpectedly, the one almost certainly won't be in the right spot from
where the EDP put it when I first went into record mode.

So is it possible to do what I was trying to do over the weekend?  If
not, this is my request for the next version of Loop3.  I know that the
Repeater can (theoretically) do what I want, but I'm waiting for at
least one upgrade and the accompanying thumbs-up from certain members of
this list before I lay down any dough.

And another one:

Say I record a loop (with the EDP slaved to the DX at 8 beats per
measure) of one measure.  I had hoped to be able to change the
beats/measure setting to, say, one beat per measure and then use
multiply to shorten the loop to one beat while still keeping it in
sync.  That didn't work either.

As a workaround, I could set the EDP to always record at one beat per
measure and use multiply to get 8 beats per measure, but at anything
over 30 bpm I would have to be pretty darn quick with those button
presses.  Am I missing a technique here, or do I just need to read the
manual?  Again, this would be a nice feature for Loop3 if it doesn't
presently exist.  Can Repeater do this?

Thanks,
-Hans