|
I have tried very hard, but I
I have tried very hard, but I still can't get my head round the difference between Tracks and Channels. Can anyone point me to a nice clear explanation that even a dumbo can understand?
Clearly Channels are part of the MIDI format, but are Tracks also, or are they something that Composer uses independently of MIDI? |
Hi David,
I think the be
Hi David,
I think the best way to see the difference between tracks and channels is to open a file in Composer and then go to the 'Track' menu and then submenu 'Track setup'. The dialogue box displays each track, which also corresponds to each stave of the music. On that same dialogue box a 'channel' is associated with each 'track' or stave. A channel relates to the midi channel, that is why the numbers range from 1-16. Normally each track has a different channel as it usually relates to a different instrument. However, in the case of a piano where you have a left and right hand stave, there are two tracks, but both can be played on the same channel. This works OK for a piano, because on accoustic piano the sound of both left and right hand is the same. In the case of an organ, where there is normally 3 staves (or tracks), because each can play a different sound you would allocate separate channels (midi channels) to each stave. I hope this clarifies it, in summary: Track=each music stave Channel=the midi channel the track(or stave) is played on. Cheers ... Clyde |
Hi again Daivid,
Just a PS
Hi again Daivid,
Just a PS to my note above. In the midi file format definition the word 'tracks' is used as well. This use of 'tracks' is totally different to how Composer defines tracks. The midi Tracks are sequential streams of MIDI data which may contain information for upto 16 midi channels. Any you can have multiple tracks. But this has nothing to do, I believe, with Composer's use of the word tracks. Cheers ... Clyde |
Hello David T and Clyde,
Th
Hello David T and Clyde,
The relationship between tracks, staves, and channels is documented in the Help / User's Guide under the topic Editing Tracks and Formatting Parts / Understanding Tracks, Staves and Parts. Clyde is correct that there is a direct relationship between a track and the staves belonging to that track. However, Clyde is mistaken about MIDI tracks versus Composer tracks. A track in Composer is exactly the same thing as a MIDI track. I wish that MidiNotate/Musician/Composer could have dropped the terminology of "track" altogether, because "track" is not a musical concept. The term "track" has its origins in audio recording studios, which are foreign to most of us musicians. However, because half of "MidiNotate" is "Midi", I wasn't able to figure out a way to "hide" the concept of track. Currently in MidiNotate, a track can be assigned to only one channel for a given MIDI device. That same channel can be assigned to more than one track, as Clyde has pointed out for the case of piano RH and LH staves. I am currently exploring adding support for mid-track channel changes. There are some special scenarios in which this extra feature is useful, but not commonly. Cheers -- Mark |
Mark,
This reminded me of
Mark,
This reminded me of the discussion we had some time ago about how pitch bending applies to all notes in a particular midi track, which means that some of the midis that I have exported from guitar tablature editors do not play correctly (because there are two simultaneous notes, one bent and one not). (This was the thread "Pitch Bends" back on August 17). I had thought this had been fixed up at some point (by splitting up the channels into separate tracks so at least it sounded right) but I just tried the midi file I uploaded back in August on the latest version (1.0.7) and I'm sure that Composer isn't producing the same pitches as when I play it with Media player. Something to keep in mind for future development. Mike |
Mike,
It's good you rem
Mike,
It's good you reminded me about this. The design I was considering was to just support channel changes at time locations in the tracks. The feature you want would require either something like having a channel number assigned to each separate MIDI event in the track. Cheers -- Mark |
Mark,
Glad to be a helpful
Mark,
Glad to be a helpful reminder :-) I think you said at the time of the old discussion that the track in question had multiple channels assigned by PowerTab, i.e. it used different channels for the bent and unbent notes. As I said above, I thought that one version of Composer actually separated these notes into different tracks, which at least gave correct play-back. However, I may be misremembering this. Of course, as we have discussed before, from a musical notation point of view, it would be desirable for some future release so have person-readable indications of pitch bends. They don't need to be extremely detailed, but an indication that a particular note should be bent down or up a certain number of semitones would make reading some midi files a lot easier. Mike |