diff --git a/vall_e/data.py b/vall_e/data.py
index 1a643c7..ede02e8 100755
--- a/vall_e/data.py
+++ b/vall_e/data.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ from tqdm.auto import tqdm
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 @cache
-def get_random_prompts( validation=True, min_length=0, tokenized=False ):
+def get_random_prompts( validation=False, min_length=0, tokenized=False ):
 	duration_range = [ 5.5, 12.0 ] # to-do: pull from cfg.dataset.duration_range
 	sentences = [
 		"The birch canoe slid on the smooth planks.",
diff --git a/vall_e/engines/__init__.py b/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
index 7f7c609..86fb68e 100755
--- a/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
+++ b/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
@@ -205,14 +205,24 @@ def load_engines(training=True, **model_kwargs):
 					state[k] = ml.resize_weight( state[k], tokens )
 
 				"""
-				if model.config.experimental.masking_separate_embeddings and "resps_emb.embeddings.8.weight" not in state:
+				if True:
+					# move STT one over
 					state['classifiers.proj.9.weight'] = state['classifiers.proj.8.weight'].clone()
 					state['classifiers.proj.9.bias'] = state['classifiers.proj.8.bias'].clone()
-
-					del state['classifiers.proj.8.weight']
-					del state['classifiers.proj.8.bias']
-					
-					state['resps_emb.embeddings.8.weight'] = state['resps_emb.embeddings.0.weight'].clone()
+					# copy from AR:0:0 classifier
+					if False:
+						state['classifiers.proj.8.weight'] = state['classifiers.proj.0.weight'].clone()
+						state['classifiers.proj.8.bias'] = state['classifiers.proj.0.bias'].clone()
+						# copy from AR:0:0 embeddings
+						state['resps_emb.embeddings.8.weight'] = state['resps_emb.embeddings.0.weight'].clone()
+					# remove
+					else:
+						if 'classifiers.proj.8.weight' in state:
+							del state['classifiers.proj.8.weight']
+						if 'classifiers.proj.8.bias' in state:
+							del state['classifiers.proj.8.bias']
+						if 'resps_emb.embeddings.8.weight' in state:
+							del state['resps_emb.embeddings.8.weight']
 				"""
 
 			model.load_state_dict(state, strict=cfg.trainer.strict_loading)
diff --git a/vall_e/models/ar_nar.py b/vall_e/models/ar_nar.py
index ca4cd77..e5ddfc4 100644
--- a/vall_e/models/ar_nar.py
+++ b/vall_e/models/ar_nar.py
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ class AR_NAR(Base):
 							resps_list[i][t, l] = clamp(token + offset, 1, 1022) # +- 1
 
 			# only apply stop token for RVQ level 0
-			if quant_level <= 0:
+			if quant_level <= 0 and timesteps[i] is not None:
 				# append stop tokens for AR
 				if task in text_task:
 					#text_list[i] = torch.cat([ resps, text_stop_sequence ])
diff --git a/vall_e/models/base.py b/vall_e/models/base.py
index 905e639..1724fd5 100755
--- a/vall_e/models/base.py
+++ b/vall_e/models/base.py
@@ -996,24 +996,22 @@ class Base(nn.Module):
 					inputs[i].append( ( "tone", tone_list[i] ) )
 				# insert timestep token
 				if timestep is not None:
-					# it does not seem to matter whether this is provided or not, I assume the model attends more to the amount of masked tokens in the sequence
-					"""
 					# store timestep information
 					inputs[i].append( ("timestep", torch.tensor([timestep], device=device, dtype=self.time_emb.mlp[0].weight.dtype) ) )
-					"""
-					classifier_level = "NAR:0:0"
+					# force set to use this classifier level
+					classifier_level = "NAR:0:0" if self.masking_separate_embeddings else "AR:0:0"
 				# insert the current output response
 				if resps_list is not None and resps_list[i] is not None:
 					inputs[i].append( ( "resp", resps_list[i] ) )
 
 					# store dropout mask (if training, as this gets used later to mask the input embeddings if provided)
 					if timestep is not None and self.training:
+						"""
 						# a paper said to use a fixed masking ratio for training
+						p = 0.8
 						"""
 						# cosine scheduled timestep => masking ratio
 						p = math.cos(timestep * math.pi * 0.5)
-						"""
-						p = 0.8
 						dropout_mask = _dropout_mask( resps_list[i], p )
 						inputs[i].append( ("dropout_mask", dropout_mask ) )
 		
@@ -1226,7 +1224,7 @@ class Base(nn.Module):
 									continue
 								
 								embedding[i] = self.dropout_token
-				elif name == "timestep" and self.time_emb is not None and False:
+				elif name == "timestep" and self.time_emb is not None:
 					embedding = self.time_emb( input )
 				elif name == "len" and self.len_emb is not None:
 					embedding = self.len_emb( input )