How many combinations are possible between a note-event and a silence-event (i.e. a played note and a pause) over 16 consecutive beats? In other words, if one musical bar is divided into 16 parts (16th notes) of equal duration, filled with either a sound or a silence, how many combinations of the two are possible within the given structure of 16 events?
I hope this is clear enough...sorry, musician here, therefore almost completely unprepared to approach the question. I am not even sure if I am asking about combinations or permutations.
An example: (1= sound 0= pause) .
1000 0010 0011 0011
1111 0000 0111 1010
The number of $16$ long sequences of $0$ and $1$ is $2^{16} = 65536$. I think that's what you are asking for.