One MIDI channel equals one track?

Please excuse my naivety about all things MIDI.

I read in Andrea Pejrolo’s book that when programming a tremolo effect “each other note can be assigned to a different MIDI channel - to avoid the machine gun effect on rapidly repeated notes”. Can one Cubase instrument track contain data for more than one MIDI channel? Or does one track equal one MIDI channel? I’ve tried changing the MIDI Channel in track inspector from 1 to 2 which has the effect of muting my track, so I’m not sure what it’s for.

Now I do not have a synthesizer background (have never owned one) but rely on the synthesis produced by the Virtual instruments,
so MIDI is not my strong point. Is a VST instrument just a software synthesizer which uses MIDI?

Regards.

Yes in general one track equals one Channel but you can if you want feed more than one track from a single midi channel.

In changing the Midi Channel from 1 to 2 you’ve just changed the midi channel number you’re transmitting on not the number of instruments.

An Instrument Track often used for a single MIDI Channel. But some VSTi’s (e.g. Halion 6, Reaktor, etc.) support multi-instruments where you can have different sounds on each MIDI channel. So you can have up to 16 Channels on a single Track. However these multi-Instruments are often used as 1 Track, 1 Channel just because that’s easiest.

The MIDI Channel a note plays on can be set or modified in several places. In the Key Ed if you select a note it will show its Channel # on the Info Line. However that might not be the channel it actually plays on. In that Track’s Inspector you can also select a MIDI Channel #. This is what notes on that Track will play on regardless of how the individual Notes are set. So if the notes in the Part were a mix of Channels 4, 5 & 6, but the Inspector was set to Channel 1, all the notes would playback on 1. But if you set the Inspector Channel to “Any” the notes would playback on Channels 4-6.

Now I do not have a synthesizer background (have never owned one) but rely on the synthesis produced by the Virtual instruments,
so MIDI is not my strong point. Is a VST instrument just a software synthesizer which uses MIDI?

Regards.

Yes in most situations