Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!stan!dce
From: dce@Solbourne.COM (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: MIDI specs...
Message-ID: <1944@marvin.Solbourne.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 89 16:46:47 GMT
References: <5791@rpi.edu> <2631@blake.acs.washington.edu> <4220@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: dce@Solbourne.com (David Elliott)
Organization: Solbourne Computer Inc., Longmont, Colorado
Lines: 29

In article <4220@orca.WV.TEK.COM> stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski) writes:
>  ...                 Most people get around the 16 channel limit by
>using several MIDI ports on their computer/sequencer.

An alternative trick is to use keyboard zones and internal transposition.

For example, let's say you have a track in which you play a flute
run that covers a single octave.  You've dedicated an entire MIDI
channel to this, but are only using 12 note values in that channel.

Many synths (TX81Z, K5, K1, D110, etc.) allow you to say "this
instrument should only respond to notes in a certain range".  So, you
could "restrict" the flute patch to the octave it needs, and then use
the rest of the note values on that channel for a different
instrument.  If the new part encroaches on the already-used territory,
you should be able to transpose either or both of the instruments to
get them out of each others' areas.

Some sequencers, such as Vision for the Mac, allow you to set up your
system to easily take advantage of this.  By default, I have channels
5, 10, and 14 set up to split my synths into three parts like this,
and I have setup templates for the synths to make it easy for me to
do all of this.

-- 
David Elliott		dce@Solbourne.COM
			...!{uunet,boulder,nbires,sun}!stan!dce

"I had a dream that my kids had been reparented." - Tom LaStrange