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Orchestral & Other complex midis
| Choice of instruments and midi patches
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When you want to write a midi-song that uses classical instruments, it might be useful to keep some things in mind:
The classical orchestra consists of three sections - strings, brass, and woodwind (plus percussion and sometimes extra-instruments like bells). Each of these sections includes instruments for each register between bass and the highest notes. If you want to create a rich, full orchestral texture, you'll have to try to combine some of these instruments in a realistic way.
There are usually 5 sections of string instruments (1st+2nd violins, viola, celli, and bass), with the strings forming the biggest part of the orchestra. These string sections are ensembles - so you won't get very far with using the specific solo-instrument-patches for each instrument. You'll have to pick one of the two String Ensemble patches (bass might be an exception).
The first of the two String Ensemble patches usually has a faster attack, resulting in a louder and harder sound (good for loud, aggressive or fast passages), the second ensemble has a slower attack that makes it interesting for slower, sweeter passages. The two String Ensembles unfortunately don't pay tribute to the unique characteristics of each string-section (exception: big SoundFont banks include multi-layer patches that switch over to the next instrument when leaving a certain range of notes) your cellos will sound exactly as the violins, the difference only being the different octaves and possibly different controller settings. However - don't try to let 20 solo-violins play in unison in order to create a 'real violin-ensemble' (see section about Unison)!!!
See section in How to improve midi files
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Instrumentation for full orchstra with only 16 midi channels
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Now, if you have big plans with a full midi-orchestra, the first problem you'll run into is: there are much more instruments than midi channels available! There are a few things that will still allow you to use most of the orchestral instruments in a single piece:
All instruments using the same midi-patch can be assigned to the same channel.
This will usually work for all instruments except the strings. For example, all four horns might be assigned to the same midi-channel.
Problems: A midi channel won't play an unlimited number of notes at the same time. If you assign all five string sections to the same channel and let them all play four-note chords, some of the notes will simply be left out. So the strings should be divided up between two or three midi-channels, meanwhile the method should work fine with instruments in small groups (that are not capable of playing chords on a single instrument).
Another problem occurs when using controllers for instruments that share a channel: if you fade out one instrument, the other one that shares the channel will do the same. This also applies to panning: instruments sharing the same channel cannot be panned to different directions.
Sort out all the instruments that you don't use frequently in your piece. These might be instruments like Tuba, Harp, Bells, Glockenspiel, Choir, Celesta, or some effects.
These instruments all might share one or two channels, switching between them with the 'Change Patch' controller.
This - of course - means that if you switch between these instruments, you won't be able to use them at the same time, unless you reserve two or more channels for shared instruments. Keep in mind that changing the patch assigned to a channel will affect all tracks using it.
Once you have figured out your own setup it might be a good idea to save it and use it as base for similar projects (some sequencers even allow to define layouts). You might also include a midi header with your favourite controller-settings.
Some soundcards (ie the SB Live!) have two ports available for midi-output. This allows you to assign 16 channels to Port A, and 16 to Port B, giving you 32 independant voices.
However great this might be for private use or for creating MP3s - you should provide a 16-channel mixdown for people with different equipment (also see: Incompatible setups).
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