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From: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: MIDI specs...
Message-ID: <4220@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Date: 14 Aug 89 19:53:22 GMT
References: <5791@rpi.edu> <2631@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: nobody@orca.WV.TEK.COM
Reply-To: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
Lines: 24

In article <2631@blake.acs.washington.edu> wiml@blake.acs.washington.edu (William Lewis) writes:
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>  BTW, anyone who actually uses a MIDI system -- from this article it looks
>as if only sixteen instruments can be connected to any MIDI loop. (only
>4 bits are available to specify instrument number.) This includes things like
>keyboards, sequencers, &c. Is this true?

Yes it is, except that most sequencers don't need a channel number
only controllers and instruments do.  Given the bandwith of the MIDI
format, 16 devices is not an unreasonable number.  It is very likely
that one would encounter data saturation (objectionable delays etc.)
on the MIDI interface at around 16 devices for anything but the most
simple performances.  Most people get around the 16 channel limit by
using several MIDI ports on their computer/sequencer.  There is at
least one manufacturer that makes a sequencer package for the IBM PC
that claims to support 4 MIDI ports, yeilding a total of 64 channels.

							stank
US Mail: Stan Kalinowski, Tektronix, Inc., Interactive Technologies Division
         PO Box 1000, MS 61-028, Wilsonville OR 97070   Phone:(503)-685-2458
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