Re: midi for orchestral scores

[Ralf Mattes]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:23:01 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:

> Ralf Mattes <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>> On Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:36:59 +0200, Nils wrote:
>>
>>> We are dealing with midi here, that means 16 instruments max. at each
>>> given time.
>>
>> Are we? Since when can Lilypond talk Midi? IIRC Lily does produce Midi
>> files (Format 1, to be precise) and those can hold way more than 16
>> tracks (65,535? I think the track count is a word/2Byte). So there
>> would be plenty of space to export even larger orchestra scores  ....
>> ;-)
> 
> <URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MIDI_standards>
> disagrees.  16 channels for General Midi as well as General Midi 2.

But that page only describes Midi channel mappings (meaning: how to
map a channel to a sound). This has nothing to do with Midi files -
a midi file (format 1) can hold up to 65,535 tracks. Just follow the
link to the main MIDI page an look at 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI#File_formats

 Cheers, RalfD