Tracks Staves and Channels
 

I have been using Composer for some time now, but I've suddenly hit a blind spot on terminology when using my MIDI files created with Composer on other MIDI equipment.

Lots of printed information in MIDI files refers to Tracks. I seem to remember from the first version of Composer that MIDI Tracks and Composer Staves are the same thing. Have I remembered correctly? Can you have an unlimited number of Tracks/Staves in a MIDI file?

As I understand it, a Channel is nothing more than a label attached to a Track/Staff that enables it to be intercepted and played back by a specific MIDI player. Is that correct? As I always play my files through a Yamaha Keyboard or a Backtracker MIDI player, both of which handle all the Channels and all the Voices, does it actually matter which Channel is assigned to which Track/Staff?

Are there any conventions on assigning channels? On downloaded MIDI files, Channel 1 often contains no music - it's just blank. Why is that? My Backtracker can mute a chosen Track which appears to default to Track 4? Is there some convention to put the Melody in Track 4?

Howdy David, Tracks are ind