A method for making use of the Laue diffraction technique rather than the Bragg symmetric technique in the design of multichannel x‐ray spectrochemical analysis instruments is described. The method uses only one analyzing crystal, but with individual detectors for simultaneous registration of the relative amounts of the elements in the sample to be analyzed. Thus a compact instrument with no moving parts, which may often be designed so as to reduce spectral interferences, is possible. The method is compared with other well‐known methods and some experimental tests of the principle are described.