General MIDI

General MIDI ( GM) is a definition of the MIDI Interface Assignment for electronic musical instruments.

General MIDI standardizes far more than the general MIDI standard. Is this more or less a hardware and protocol specification, puts General MIDI also determine content. GM relies a minimum standard for the assignment of the instruments on the 128 program locations. According to GM, a compatible tone generator must be able to produce 24 sounds simultaneously. Further, other control parameters are defined in GM, such as the effect control.

GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA ) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee ( JMSC ) established in 1991 as an extension of the MIDI standard. GM was revised in 1999, then to General MIDI 2 ( GM2 ) led. 2001, the General MIDI Lite (GM Lite) standard was published, which was developed for devices that can not realize the full functionality of General MIDI.

In addition to GM exist for similar purpose nor manufacturer 's own standards, such as the GS standard of Roland or the Yamaha XG standard. Both offer opportunities that go beyond the General MIDI (XG represents about 615 instead of 128 instruments and more detailed sound manipulations ready ), but are still the GM standard fully backward compatible. So it is possible XG, GS and GM composed pieces with some qualitative restrictions on any GM - device playback.

Minimum requirements

General MIDI (version 1) compatible devices must be able to:

• 24 -voice sound engine in parallel with at least 16 melody and percussion 8 votes
• Reception on all 16 MIDI channels with percussion on channel 10
• Polyphony on all 16 channels

Parameter mapping

GM compatible devices must meet the following standards for program and controller properties:

Program Change

The following is a list of the assignment of the TV channels as standard GM:

Piano: 001 Acoustic Grand Piano 002 Bright Acoustic Piano 003 Electric Grand Piano 004 honky tonk piano 005 Electric Piano 1 006 Electric Piano 2 007 Harpsichord 008 clavi Chromatic Percussion: 009 Celesta 010 Carillon 011 Music Box 012 Vibraphone 013 Marimba 014 Xylophone 015 Tubular Bells 016 Dulcimer organ: 017 Drawbar Organ 018 Percussive Organ 019 Rock Organ 020 Church Organ 021 Reed Organ 022 Accordion 023 Harmonica 024 Tango Accordion Guitar: 025 Acoustic Guitar ( nylon ) 026 Acoustic Guitar ( steel ) 027 Electric Guitar ( jazz ) 028 Electric Guitar (clean) 029 Electric Guitar ( muted ) 030 Overdriven Guitar 031 Distortion Guitar 032 Guitar harmonics Bass: 033 Acoustic Bass 034 Electric Bass ( finger ) 035 Electric Bass (pick ) 036 Fretless Bass 037 Slap Bass 1 038 Slap Bass 2 039 Synth Bass 1 040 Synth Bass 2 strings: 041 Violin 042 Viola 043 Cello 044 Contra Bass 045 Tremolo Strings 046 Pizzicato Strings 047 Orchestral Harp 048 Timpani Ensemble: 049 String Ensemble 1 050 String Ensemble 2 051 Synth Strings 1 052 Synth Strings 2 053 Voice Aahs 054 Voice Oohs 055 Synth Voice 056 Orchestra Hit Brass: 057 Trumpet 058 Trombone 059 Tuba 060 Muted Trumpet 061 French Horn 062 BrassSection 063 Synth Brass 1 064 Synth Brass 2

Reed: 065 Soprano Sax 066 Alto Sax 067 Tenor Sax 068 Baritone Sax 069 Oboe 070 English Horn 071 Bassoon 072 Clarinet Pipe: 073 Piccolo 074 Flute 075 Recorder 076 Pan Flute 077 Blown Bottle 078 shakuhachi 079 Whistle 080 Ocarina Synth Lead: 081 Lead 1 (square) 082 Lead 2 ( sawtooth ) 083 Lead 3 ( calliope ) 084 Lead 4 ( in encrypted ) 085 Lead 5 ( Charang ) 086 Lead 6 ( voice) 087 Lead 7 ( fifths ) 088 Lead 8 (bass lead) Synth Pad: 089 Pad 1 ( new age ) 090 Pad 2 ( warm) 091 Pad 3 ( PolySynth ) 092 pad 4 ( choir ) 093 Pad 5 ( bowed ) 094 pad 6 ( metallic) 095 Pad 7 (halo) 096 Pad 8 (sweep ) Synth Effects: 097 FX 1 ( rain ) 098 FX 2 ( soundtrack) 099 FX 3 ( crystal ) 100 FX 4 ( atmosphere ) 101 FX 5 ( brightness ) 102 FX 6 ( goblins ) 103 FX 7 ( echoes ) 104 FX 8 ( sci - fi) Ethnic: 105 Sitar 106 Banjo 107 Shamisen 108 Koto 109 Kalimba 110 Bagpipe 111 Fiddle 112 Shanai Percussive: 113 Tinkle Bell 114 Agogo Bells 115 Steel Drums 116 Woodblock 117 Taiko Drum 118 Melodic Tom 119 Synth Drum 120 Reverse Cymbal Sound effects: 121 Guitar Fret Noise 122 Breath Noise 123 Seashore 124 Bird Tweet 125 Telephone Ring 126 Helicopter 127 Applause 128 Gunshot

The drum kits in the GM standard (always on channel 10):

Drums: 001 Standard Kit 009 Room Kit 0017 Power Kit 0025 Electronic Kit 0026 TR -808 Kit 0033 Jazz Kit 0041 Brush Kit 0049 Orchestra Kit 0057 Sound FX Kit 00128 Percussion

Percussion sounds

Channel 10 is the percussion and drum sounds Subject:

35 Bass Drum 2 36 Bass Drum 1 37 sidestick 38 Snare Drum 1 39 Hand Clap 40 Snare Drum 2 41 Low Tom 2 42 Closed Hi -hat 43 Low Tom 1 44 Pedal Hi-hat 45 Mid Tom 2 46 Open Hi-hat 47 Mid Tom 1 48 High Tom 2 49 Crash Cymbal 1 50 High Tom 1 51 Ride Cymbal 1 52 Chinese Cymbal 53 Ride Bell 54 Tambourine 55 Splash Cymbal 56 Cowbell 57 Crash Cymbal 2 58 Vibra Slap

59 Ride Cymbal 2 60 High Bongo 61 Low Bongo 62 Mute High Conga 63 Open High Conga 64 Low Conga 65 High Timbale 66 Low Timbale 67 High Agogo 68 Low Agogo 69 Cabasa 70 Maracas 71 Short Whistle 72 Long Whistle 73 Short Guiro 74 Long Guiro 75 Claves 76 Highwood block 77 Low Wood Block 78 Mute Cuica 79 Open Cuica 80 Mute Triangle 81 Open Triangle

Controller parameters

GM also specifies the controller parameters:

001 modulation 007 Volume 010 Pan 011 expression 064 sustain 121 Reset all controllers 123 All notes off

Furthermore, the following Registered Parameter Numbers ( RPNs ) are standardized:

000 Pitch bend range 001 Fine tuning 002 Coarse tuning

System Exclusive messages

Two GM System Exclusive ( " sysex " ) messages are defined: One for the GM functionality on or off, the other to control the overall volume of the device.