after sequencing a few tracks i hit play on cakewalk. The first bar or so does not play and the becomes a little warped and then plays. Is this delay normal for the xp-50 because none of my other synths do this? It is kind of annoying and does not seem right. any confirmation would be helpful.

I have an XP-30 and it does the same thing. You just have to make an empty measure in your sequencer, and then the problem is solved (at least with my XP30)

Greetz