MIDI multiple same-pitch notes / Re: [linux-audio-user] VST plugins and linux

[Mark Knecht]

> Steve Harris wrote:
> > XAP doesn't ignore MIDI, its totaly midi compatible (for input), but it
> > can do things that MIDI can't (eg. playing overlapping notes at the same
> > pitch).
> >
>
> MIDI can't play overlapping notes at the same pitch?

;-) OK, I'll chime in. None of this is directed at you! Truly.

MIDI doesn't play notes. MIDI synths play notes. All MIDI does is send
instructions to a device. The device then implements what it wants as a
response.

Some MIDI devices can play multiple notes at the same pitch on the same MIDI
channel. Manny cannot. I use GigaStudio. It can play 160 copies of the same
sample at the same time if you want it to. Not very interesting, but it does
have it's uses.


>I was wondering
> myself, what the defined behavior was if you have two sucessive note
> on's on the same pitch (with two matching note-off's later, of course).

Again, the answer is somewhat different if these two notes are on the same
channel or on different channels.

> Is this really illegal in MIDI?

Don't know. That's a spec question.

> And what about this common situation:
> Sustain-on, note-on, note-off note-on (same pitch), note-off,
> Sustain-off>?

It depends on the capabilities of the synth. In many synths this is the way
they operate. In many samplers they can operate differently.

>
> I had always assumed that, since I have never read anything in the MIDI
> spec concerning this, that it was up to the device how to interpret such
> things.

I believe this is true.

> I would be mildly surprised however, if the common behavior was
> to turn off the last note and then immediately start the new one (when
> the second note-on is received). I've always assumed that every box I
> have would start a new note at the same pitch (but then I'm not sure if
> the note-off's are handled last-note-first or last-note-last).

Not every box I have!!

>
> Does anybody know what the most common behavior is, or if indeed this is
> addressed in the MIDI spec?

I do not know the most common behavior.