program changes not working as expected

hi,
i just joined this forum hoping someone can help me out. i used to do all of my song layout on a computer and just transfer as a midi file to the mpc 2000xl when done , but i have recently been experimenting with using a few related 4 bar sequences in track mute mode. the problem is if some tracks are muted when i switch to a sequence in playback and then i unmute them, the program changes wont work unless i hit stop and start again. the only way i have gotten around this is to make an extra track for the same midi channel that only has program change info and always leave that track unmuted. is this the only way?
thanks

You got it. It took me a very long time to find that same way.

First a bit of background:
This is a condition peculiar to the XL. On the former MPC's, the MPC would send the program change as specified on the track screen every time the seq looped back to the beginning. This can be a serious problem with synthesizers that rest their patches everytime this is done. Imagine changing a parameter over serveral loops and have every parameter reset every couple bars!. Akai `fixed` this by:
1) Program changes on the main screen get sent when started, or
2) You change to that sequence while playing.

I do like this new method better.

There are some things I do enhance this:
1) Put interim sequences between other sequences that have program changes and peices of tracks from adjacent seq's. Provides program changes and nice transition effects for live work.
2) Embed program changes inside step edit. This was actually the method I used to work around the issue with the former MPC's. I could double the length of the seq and just have the MPC loop the 2nd half of the Seq. This would allow the MPC to send the necessary program change when initally played, but also prevented the MPC from sending the PC subsequent times while looping.

All this does require some track to be ON for the PC to be sent. That is really just the nature of sequencers in general. I've gotten pretty used to it and do not think much about it.