[linux-audio-user] midi programming question regarding channels

[Thorsten Wilms]

On Sun, Apr 16, 2006 at 12:57:39PM -0400, paul wisehart wrote:
> 
> What's the canonical way to play a "one instrument" chord
> in midi?
> 
> Do I send multiple note-on events to the same channel? 

Yes.


> My intuition says stack up the notes on the one channel.
> That would be more analoguous to a band situation where
> each channel is an instrument.  But, in practice are most
> midi synths able to handle enough multiple notes on a channel?

On common MIDI synths, you can play a patch with all 10 fingers 
and bang your head on the keys same time and the number of notes 
you will hear depend only on the number of voices the synthesizer 
has. 
I never heared of a channel related limit. At least in hardware, 
MIDI is serial, so it's one event after the other, anyway.


Cheers,
Thorsten Wilms