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

Hi All, What's the canonical way to play a "one instrument" chord in midi? Do I send multiple note-on events to the same channel? Or, should I split them up into different channels, and make sure that the used channels have the same program (or patch-value?)? 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? For example a "piano" channel should be able to take up to say 5 notes, and still play them distinctly. Or the same with a guitar channel where a guitar chord is commonly plucked on 5 or 6 strings. I'm using a soft-synth in my developement/learning/experimenting, but I hope to eventually use hardware midi modules, and not have to modify my code. So quick question recap... "Should I stack up to 6 note-ons on one midi channel, or should I figure out how to split them up into multiple channels?" I've been reading up up on general midi issues, but I haven't seen any relevant docs about this. thanks for any info/pointers/flames, -- paul w