More than 16 channels

[saikhuan]

Hi all,

I'm very new to midi and stuff. I'm wondering is there anyway to have more than 16 channels running on the same instance?.. ur... not sure if i got that rite. I'm using Audigy soundcard.

Thanks.

[Warmonger]

My first instinct was to say "No", but then I realized I could be more helpful if you mention what software you are using, and what exactly are you trying to do.

[saikhuan]

each track of mine is assigned to one midi channel with one instrument loaded to it. the problem now is can i add more tracks with more channels? u think that can be done?

[koolkeys]

Technically, no. MIDI only has 16 channels. However, with software, there a ways around this. But we need to know what software you are using. That will help us give a better answer.

Koolkeys

[pethu]

Hi all,

I'm very new to midi and stuff. I'm wondering is there anyway to have more than 16 channels running on the same instance?.. ur... not sure if i got that rite. I'm using Audigy soundcard.

Thanks.

I assume you're talking about playing different soundfonts / soundfont sounds at the same time? The Audigy has two identical hardware MIDI synths, each capable of receiving on 16 MIDI channels, which makes for 32 different sounds at the same time.

You have to load you required soundfonts into the synths using Creative's soundfont utility (or similar) -- by default, there is only one General MIDI soundfont loaded into Synth A -- and have a sequencer that is capable of routing the output to either synth (Audigy Synth A and Audigy Synth B). Most programs except the ultra-simple ones have a "MIDI destination" option for each track of MIDI data, where you should be able to choose either synth.

Hope this helps!

[saikhuan]

Hi all,

I'm very new to midi and stuff. I'm wondering is there anyway to have more than 16 channels running on the same instance?.. ur... not sure if i got that rite. I'm using Audigy soundcard.

Thanks.

I assume you're talking about playing different soundfonts / soundfont sounds at the same time? The Audigy has two identical hardware MIDI synths, each capable of receiving on 16 MIDI channels, which makes for 32 different sounds at the same time.

You have to load you required soundfonts into the synths using Creative's soundfont utility (or similar) -- by default, there is only one General MIDI soundfont loaded into Synth A -- and have a sequencer that is capable of routing the output to either synth (Audigy Synth A and Audigy Synth B). Most programs except the ultra-simple ones have a "MIDI destination" option for each track of MIDI data, where you should be able to choose either synth.

Hope this helps!

ah.... thats what the Synth A and Synth B are for. hehe. thanks. i'll play around with it. hmm.. but this will only play soundfonts loaded onto the card. how about other vsti ?

[C00kie]

ah.... thats what the Synth A and Synth B are for. hehe. thanks. i'll play around with it. hmm.. but this will only play soundfonts loaded onto the card. how about other vsti ?

Other VSTi's do not require a hardware midi channel. This is handled inside the sequencer, their number is virtually unlimited. The output of those tracks go to the audio part of the audigy, not the midi synths.

[cimoc]

You have only 16 midi channels, but you have unlimited (or at least very big) number of midi tracks (unless you are using some very basic sequencer). So the workaround is, after finishing a midi track which you output to say channel 1, to bounce that channel to audio, mute that midi track, (you could delete it, but you may want to edit it later), then create a new midi track and assigne it to channel 1 again, only this time you output to another sound source (vsti, synth or whatever). And so on, to the limits of your cpu.

I hope it makes sense. Maybe, if you say what your sequencer is, someone can give you more detailed instructions.

[marce]

With the A and B synths you have 32 channels, that are a lot. But, you always can use a "patch change" in any channel. That means, that in any moment of your sequence you need a new instrument, and in this moment one channel is free (because, by example, guitar is not playing) you can insert a midi message that will route your channel to the desired soundfont.