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Topic: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs? (Read 5497 times) previous topic - next topic

Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

I'm asking because sometimes when I have around 20 staffs, each with its own instrument - one staff would contaminate another.

For example, I am sequencing an orchestral piece, I set a staff to play french horn but it will sound off as the instrument of the staff above it (such as string ensemble)

Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

Jaycee c",)

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #1 –
   You may have 20 staves, but - unless you're using two different sound generators - you can only have 16 midi channels, one of which (usually No: 10) is reserved for percussion, leaving the possibility of only 15 different instruments at any one time.  Inevitably, therefore, with 20 staves you have two or more staves on the same channel, and this is regardless of the instruments you actually designated for each staff.

   Mind you, usually it is the lower of two staves with the same channel that determines which instrument is used, so I don't quite see how it can be that in your case the lower staff sounds as the one above - unless you applied an Instrument Change command in the upper staff, for that would reset the channel - and thus both staves - to that instrument.

   The answer to your questions - is there a problem, and can you prevent this - is thus a qualified "Yes" followed by "No".

   MusicJohn, 13/Oct/09

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #3 –
That FAQ covers the topic well, but the chances of someone running NWC2 with a sound card that uses Channel 16 for percussion is just about nil. AFAIK, all of them are 8bit ISA cards.

IMO, NWC2 should skip Channel 10 when auto-assigning channels. It is rarely what any user wants and produces baffling results for new users.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #4 –
   As Rick says, the FAQ covers the topic well.  It might be worth it also saying, however, that while it is usually OK to have two or more notes starting together on two or more staves all with the same Midi channel, things come slightly unstuck when one note finishes before another, because the Midi "Note Off" command applies to ALL the notes sounding on that channel at that particular time.

   So, with two staves sharing a channel, a crotchet on one staff will sound together with an aligned minim on the next, but as soon as the crotchet note stops so will the minim note, despite the fact that it's a minim.  Incidentally, if you play the minim note staff by itself, then of course the note sounds the full length.

   MusicJohn, 13/Oct/09

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #5 –
One thing left unsaid in the FAQ is that, in a pinch, you can use the same channel for similar instruments - e.g., not just first and second violins on the same channel, but a whole string quartet. Violin tones below the range of the violin are enough like viola and cello tones that you can get by with them. Ditto for brass. Woodwinds are another matter, but you can use the same channel for woodwinds of the same type - oboe, English horn, and bassoon, for example, or clarinet and bass clarinet, or flute and alto flute. You will run into the problem MusicJohn pointed out, though.

Bill

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #6 –
With my Soundblaster Live card I can have 32 channels
(2 10's), which is nice unless, I try to share a file with someone without that capability.
Carl Bangs
Fenwick Parva Press
Registered user since 1995

Re: Is there a problem when you use too many staffs?

Reply #7 –
Quote
the chances of someone running NWC2 with a sound card that uses Channel 16 for percussion is just about nil

Quote
IMO, NWC2 should skip Channel 10 when auto-assigning channels. It is rarely what any user wants and produces baffling results for new users.

I fully agree with Rick.
I would also add that, when importing MIDI files, the staff relative to ch. 10 should have the "percussion" clef.
I think it could help.