In the January/February 2000 AMICA Bulletin, an article appears on
page 8 by Karl Ellison reviewing George Antheil's Ballet Mechanique.
Mr. Ellison points out that some attendees blamed the limitation of
the number of notes played on MIDI.  Robin Pratt also points out,
in a comment at the end of the article, how two Disklaviers are needed
to perform An American in Paris, when a single Ampico or Duo-art can
handle all the notes.

I suspect this is less due to the shortcomings of MIDI (which is
nothing more than a carrier of music, much like a paper roll or pin
cylinder), as it is the magnet system actually used to play the notes
in Disklavier systems.

Anyone with a foot pump player knows that too many notes opened up at
once will exhaust the reserve thus affecting the player stack, the same
thing will happen with an all-solenoid instrument if insufficient power
or poorly designed solenoids are used to operate its stack.

I have personally scored MIDI arrangements with 103 keys nearly all
operating at once, with no problems.  Granted the MIDI was interfaced
with regular pneumatic systems.  MIDI only opens a pallet the same as
a music roll creates an opening to a pneumatic system.

MIDI is incredibly misunderstood, and if you want to hear a superb
example of a MIDI driven orchestrion that is on the level of a Hupfeld
Super Pan, contact Craig Brougher and purchase a copy of his video tape
featuring his Spirit of Independence (SofI) orchestrion.  That will be
an education for you in one video tape, and put to rest critics of MIDI.

RAGards,
Stephen Kent Goodman