Roland GS , or just GS , sometimes expanded as General Standard or General Sound , is a MIDI specification. It requires that all GS-compatible equipment must meet a certain set of features and it documents interpretations of some MIDI commands and bytes sequences, thus defining instrument tones, controllers for sound effects, etc.
22-629: In addition to the simpler General MIDI standard, GS defines 98 additional tone instruments, 15 more percussion instruments, 8 more drum kits, 3 effects (reverb/chorus/variation) and some other features. The Roland SC-55 was the first synthesizer to support the GS standard. The GS extensions were first introduced and implemented on Roland Sound Canvas series modules, starting with the Roland SC-55 in 1991. The first model supported 317 instruments, 16 simultaneous melodic voices, 8 percussion voices and
44-479: A certain minimal set of features, such as being able to play at least 24 notes simultaneously ( polyphony ). Second, GM attaches specific interpretations to many parameters and control messages which were left unspecified in the MIDI 1.0 specification. For example, assigning one of the 128 possible MIDI Program Number s selects an instrument. With MIDI 1.0, the assignment could be to an arbitrary instrument; but with GM,
66-772: A compatibility mode for Roland MT-32 (although it only emulated it and lacked programmability of original MT-32) and gained explosive popularity. In addition to the Sound Canvas series, Roland also provided GS compatibility in its own professional lineup through the JV-30 keyboard and the VE-GS1 expansion board for other JV-series instruments. In addition, GS compatibility is provided in the GM2 specification which Roland helped to create and actively supports. Some other manufacturers attempted to be compatible to Roland GS, but could not use
88-495: A different way. In MIDI, every Registered Parameter is assigned a Registered Parameter Number or RPN. Registered Parameters are usually called RPNs for short. Setting Registered Parameters requires sending (numbers are decimal): The following global Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs) are standardized (the parameter is specified by RPN LSB/MSB pair and the value is set by Data Entry LSB/MSB pair): An example of an RPN control sequence to set coarse tuning to A440 (parm 2, value 64)
110-530: A keyboard or synth module which uses the GM standard. Each distinct note number specifies a unique percussive instrument, rather than the sound's pitch. If a MIDI file is programmed to the General MIDI protocol, then the results are predictable, but timbre and sound fidelity may vary depending on the quality of the GM synthesizer. The General MIDI standard includes 47 percussive sounds, using note numbers 35-81 (of
132-454: A program number assigns a specific instrument name . This helps ensure that playback of MIDI files sounds more consistent between different devices compliant with the GM specification. However, it still leaves the actual sounds of each instrument up to the supplier to implement; one manufacturer's French horn, say, could be brighter, or more mellow, than another's. The GM 1 specification was superseded by General MIDI 2 in 1999; however, GM 1
154-402: Is 101:0 , 100:2 , 6:64 , 101:127 , 100:127 . Two GM System Exclusive ("SysEx") messages are defined: one to enable and disable General MIDI compatibility mode (for synthesizers that also have non-GM modes); and the other to set the synthesizer's master volume. Roland GS is a superset of the General MIDI standard that added several proprietary extensions. The most notable addition
176-497: Is a specification for synthesizers which defines several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI standard and is based on General MIDI , GS extensions , and XG extensions . It was adopted in 1999 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). General MIDI 2 compatible synthesizers access all of the 256 instruments by setting cc#0 (Bank Select MSB) to 121 and using cc#32 (Bank Select LSB) to select
198-520: Is still commonly used. General MIDI was widely supported by computer game developers in the 1990s. To be GM 1 compatible, sound generating devices (keyboards, hardware or software synthesizers, sound cards) are required to meet the General MIDI System Level 1 performance specification: GM Instruments must also obey the following conventions for program and controller events: In MIDI, the instrument sound or "program" for each of
220-552: The Roland Sound Canvas line, which was also Roland's first General MIDI synth module. Yamaha XG is a superset of the General MIDI standard that added several proprietary extensions. The most notable additions were the 600 instruments and 32 notes polyphony. XG was introduced in 1994 with the Yamaha MU-series line of sound modules and PSR line of digital keyboards . In 1999, the official GM standard
242-473: The 16 possible MIDI channels is selected with the Program Change message, which has a Program Number parameter. The following table shows which instrument sound corresponds to each of the 128 possible GM Program Numbers. There are 128 program numbers. The numbers can be displayed as values 1 to 128, or, alternatively, as 0 to 127. The 0 to 127 numbering is usually only used internally by the synthesizer;
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#1732797559322264-483: The GS trademark or samples. In Yamaha XG synthesizers for example the GS implementation was called "TG300B mode". Dream S.A. used unlicensed samples of Roland GS instruments and was used. The program in every individual bank will align with the 128 in GM's instrument patch map. The Sound Canvas used additional pair of controllers, cc#0 and cc#32, to specify up to 16384 (128*128) 'variations' of each melodic sound defined by General MIDI. Typically, cc#32 (Bank Select LSB )
286-729: The MMA, bound together with the MIDI 1.0 specification, and in Japanese from the Association of Musical Electronic Industry (AMEI). GM imposes several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI 1.0 specification. While MIDI 1.0 by itself provides a communication protocol which ensures that different instruments can interoperate at a fundamental level – for example, that pressing keys on a MIDI keyboard will cause an attached MIDI sound module to play musical notes – GM goes further in two ways. First, GM requires that all compliant MIDI instruments meet
308-636: The base GS sound set; these include kits based on various Roland drum machines such as the TR-909 , CR-78 and TR-707 , as well as various percussion kits comprising both traditional and modern percussions. There were 16 additional drum notes that span Drum Kits 1 to 49: Additional controller events included in SC-55 and SC-88 were: There were messages that allowed the user to turn the GS mode on/off, to set effects processor parameters, to change EG envelopes etc. Beginning in 1991, Roland introduced GS support in
330-659: The majority of its consumer MIDI products. General MIDI General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1 ) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) and first published in 1991. The official specification is available in English from
352-601: The possible 128 numbers from 0–127), as follows: The standard does not specify program change numbers for different drum sets. In MIDI, adjustable parameters for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels may be set with the Control Change (CC) message, which has a Control Number parameter and a Control Value parameter (expressed in a range from 0 to 127). GM also specifies which operations should be performed by multiple Control Numbers. GM defines several Registered Parameters, which act like Controllers but are addressed in
374-401: The send level of sound effect blocks (cc#91-94), entering additional parameters (cc#98-101), portamento, sostenuto, soft pedal (cc#65-67), and model-specific SysEx messages for setting various parameters of the synth engine. The 14 additional drum sounds are numbered 27-34 and 82–87, bracketing the 47 General MIDI standard sounds numbered 35–81, and are as follows: GS was introduced in 1991 with
396-547: The variation bank before a Program Change. Variation bank 0 contains the full GM — that is, General MIDI 1 — sound set. Variations using other bank numbers are new to General MIDI 2, and correspond to variation sounds introduced in Roland GS and Yamaha XG. These are the same patch numbers as defined in the original version of GS. Drum bank is accessed by setting cc#0 (Bank Select MSB ) to 120 and cc#32 (Bank Select LSB ) to 0 and PC (Program Change) to select drum kit. These are
418-441: The vast majority of MIDI devices, digital audio workstations and professional MIDI sequencers display these Program Numbers as shown in the table (1–128). In most synthesizer interpretations, guitar and bass sounds are set an octave lower than other instruments. In GM standard MIDI files, channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments only. Notes recorded on channel 10 always produce percussion sounds when transmitted to
440-410: Was the ability to address multiple banks of programs (instrument sounds) by using an additional pair of Bank Select controllers to specify up to 16384 "variation" sounds (cc#0 is Bank Select MSB , and cc#32 is Bank Select LSB ). Other most notable features were 9 Drum kits with 14 additional drum sounds each, simultaneous Percussion Kits – up to 2 (Channels 10/11), Control Change messages for controlling
462-488: Was updated to include more controllers, patches , RPNs and SysEx messages, in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting and proprietary Roland GS and Yamaha XG additions. Here's a quick overview of the GM2 changes in comparison to GM/GS: Additional melodic instruments can be accessed by setting CC#0 to 121 and then using CC#32 to select the bank before a Program Change. General MIDI Level 2 General MIDI Level 2 or GM2
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#1732797559322484-487: Was used to select a family (i.e. 1 - SC-55 , 2 - SC-88 etc.) then cc#0 (Bank Select MSB ) was used to set a particular variation bank. MIDI channel 10 is used for drums by default like in General MIDI, but they are accessible on any channel through the use of SysEx. Only 2 different drum kits can be used at a time. There are ten different kits in total: Newer models of Roland Sound Canvas and other GS-compatible Roland synthesizers features additional kits not included in
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