General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification

Specification (technical standard)

A specification is an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product, or service. Should a material, product or service fail to meet one or more of the applicable specifications, it may be referred to as being out of specification;the abbreviation OOS may also be used...

 for music synthesizers

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 that respond to MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface

MIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...

 messages. GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association

MIDI Manufacturers Association

The MIDI Manufacturers Association is an organization where companies work together to create the standards that assure compatibility among MIDI products. The MMA is a U.S. organization established in 1985 by the original developers of the MIDI 1.0 Specification in 1983. Since 1985 the MMA has...

 (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee

Japan MIDI Standards Committee

The Japan MIDI Standards Committee is the body that ratifies and proposes MIDI standards within the Japanese manufacturing and developer community. It now operates within the Association of Musical Electronics Industry . The JMSC ratifies MIDI as Japanese Industrial Standards through the Japanese...

 (JMSC) and first published in 1991. The official specification is available in English from 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 communications protocol

Communications protocol

A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications...

 which ensures that different instruments can interoperate at a fundamental level (e.g., that pressing keys on a MIDI keyboard will cause an attached MIDI sound module to play musical notes), GM goes further in two ways: it requires that all GM-compatible synthesizers meet a certain minimal set of features, such as being able to play at least 24 note

Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....

s simultaneously (polyphony

Polyphony (instrument)

Polyphony Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophonic.-Synthesizer:Most of early synthesizers were monophonic musical instruments which can play only one note at a time, and are often called monosynth as opposed to polysynth...

), and it attaches specific interpretations to many parameters and control messages which were left under-specified in the MIDI 1.0 spec, such as defining instrument sounds for each of the 128 possible program numbers.

GM synthesizers are required to be able to:

• Allow 24 voices to be active simultaneously (including at least 16 melodic and 8 percussive voices)
• Respond to note velocity
• Support all 16 channels simultaneously (with channel 10 reserved for percussion)
• Support polyphony (multiple simultaneous notes) on each channel

Parameter interpretations

GM Instruments must also obey the following conventions for program and controller events:

Program change events

In MIDI, the instrument sound or "program" for each of 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 Program Numbers for GM only. Note that for purposes of computer programming, this table should start at 0 instead of 1 and thus use all of the 7-bit range (0-127) allowed by the MIDI Program Change message. It should also be noted that some MIDI keyboards display these Program Numbers as shown in the table (1-128), whereas others show the range as actually coded in the Program Change message (0-127).

Piano

• 1 Acoustic Grand Piano
• 2 Bright Acoustic Piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• 3 Electric Grand Piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
  
• 4 Honky-tonk Piano
  Tack piano
  In music, the tack piano is a permanently altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument at the point where the hammers hit the strings, giving the instrument a tinny, more percussive sound...
  
  
• 5 Electric Piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
   1
• 6 Electric Piano 2
• 7 Harpsichord
  Harpsichord
  A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
  
  
• 8 Clavinet
  Clavinet
  A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
  
  

Chromatic Percussion

• 9 Celesta
  Celesta
  The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
  
  
• 10 Glockenspiel
  Glockenspiel
  A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
  
  
• 11 Music Box
  Musical box
  A music box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique...
  
  
• 12 Vibraphone
  Vibraphone
  The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
  
  
• 13 Marimba
  Marimba
  The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
  
  
• 14 Xylophone
  Xylophone
  The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
  
  
• 15 Tubular Bells
  Tubular bell
  Tubular bells are musical instruments in the percussion family. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm in diameter, tuned by altering its length. Its standard range is from C4-F5, though many professional instruments reach G5 . Tubular bells are often replaced by studio chimes, which are a smaller...
  
  
• 16 Dulcimer
  Hammered dulcimer
  The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
  
  

Organ

• 17 Drawbar Organ
  Hammond organ
  The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
  
  
• 18 Percussive Organ
• 19 Rock Organ
• 20 Church Organ
• 21 Reed Organ
  Reed organ
  A reed organ, also called a parlor organ, pump organ, cabinet organ, cottage organ, is an organ that generates its sounds using free metal reeds...
  
  
• 22 Accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  
• 23 Harmonica
  Harmonica
  The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
  
  
• 24 Tango Accordion
  Bandoneón
  The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...
  
  

Guitar

• 25 Acoustic Guitar (nylon)
  Classical guitar
  The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
  
  
• 26 Acoustic Guitar (steel)
  Steel-string acoustic guitar
  A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
  
  
• 27 Electric Guitar (jazz)
  Jazz guitar
  The term jazz guitar may refer to either a type of guitar or to the variety of guitar playing styles used in the various genres which are commonly termed "jazz"...
  
  
• 28 Electric Guitar (clean)
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• 29 Electric Guitar (muted)
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• 30 Overdriven Guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• 31 Distortion Guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• 32 Guitar Harmonics
  Harmonic
  A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
  
  

Bass

• 33 Acoustic
  Acoustic bass guitar
  The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...
  
   Bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• 34 Electric Bass (finger)
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• 35 Electric Bass (pick)
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• 36 Fretless Bass
  Fretless guitar
  A fretless guitar is a guitar without frets. It operates in the same manner as most other stringed instruments and traditional guitars, but does not have any frets to act as the lower end point of the vibrating string...
  
  
• 37 Slap Bass 1
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• 38 Slap Bass 2
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• 39 Synth Bass 1
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• 40 Synth Bass 2
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  

Strings

• 41 Violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• 42 Viola
  Viola
  The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
  
  
• 43 Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  
• 44 Contrabass
  Contrabass
  Contrabass refers to a musical instrument of very low pitch; generally those pitched one octave below instruments of the bass register...
  
  
• 45 Tremolo Strings
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
  
• 46 Pizzicato
  Pizzicato
  Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....
  
   Strings
• 47 Orchestral Harp
  Harp
  The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
  
  
• 48 Timpani
  Timpani
  Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
  
  

Ensemble

• 49 String
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
   Ensemble
  Musical ensemble
  A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
  
   1
• 50 String Ensemble 2
• 51 Synth
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
   Strings
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
   1
• 52 Synth Strings 2
• 53 Choir
  Choir
  A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
  
   Aahs
• 54 Voice
  Human voice
  The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
  
   Oohs
• 55 Synth Choir
• 56 Orchestra Hit
  Orchestra hit
  An orchestra hit, also known as an orchestral hit, orchestra stab, or orchestral stab, is a sound created through the layering of the sounds of a number of different orchestral instruments playing a single staccato note or chord. The orchestra hit sound was propagated by the use of early samplers,...
  
  

Brass

• 57 Trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• 58 Trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
  
• 59 Tuba
  Tuba
  The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
  
  
• 60 Muted Trumpet
• 61 French Horn
• 62 Brass Section
• 63 Synth Brass 1
• 64 Synth Brass 2

Reed

• 65 Soprano Sax
  Soprano saxophone
  The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
  
  
• 66 Alto Sax
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• 67 Tenor Sax
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• 68 Baritone Sax
  Baritone saxophone
  The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
  
  
• 69 Oboe
  Oboe
  The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
  
  
• 70 English Horn
  Cor anglais
  The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....
  
  
• 71 Bassoon
  Bassoon
  The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
  
  
• 72 Clarinet
  Clarinet
  The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
  
  

Pipe

• 73 Piccolo
  Piccolo
  The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
  
  
• 74 Flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
  
• 75 Recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  
• 76 Pan Flute
  Pan flute
  The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...
  
  
• 77 Blown Bottle
• 78 Shakuhachi
  Shakuhachi
  The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
  
  
• 79 Whistle
  Whistle
  A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
  
  
• 80 Ocarina
  Ocarina
  The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. Variations do exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body...
  
  

Synth Lead

• 81 Lead 1 (square
  Square wave
  A square wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform, most typically encountered in electronics and signal processing. An ideal square wave alternates regularly and instantaneously between two levels...
  
  )
• 82 Lead 2 (sawtooth
  Sawtooth wave
  The sawtooth wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform. It is named a sawtooth based on its resemblance to the teeth on the blade of a saw....
  
  )
• 83 Lead 3 (calliope
  Calliope (music)
  A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
  
  )
• 84 Lead 4 (chiff)
• 85 Lead 5 (charang)
• 86 Lead 6 (voice)
• 87 Lead 7 (fifths)
• 88 Lead 8 (bass + lead)

Synth Pad

• 89 Pad 1 (new age)
• 90 Pad 2 (warm)
• 91 Pad 3 (polysynth
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  )
• 92 Pad 4 (choir)
• 93 Pad 5 (bowed)
• 94 Pad 6 (metallic)
• 95 Pad 7 (halo)
• 96 Pad 8 (sweep)

Synth Effects

• 97 FX
  Sound effect
  For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
  
   1 (rain
  Rain
  Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
  
  )
• 98 FX 2 (soundtrack)
• 99 FX 3 (crystal)
• 100 FX 4 (atmosphere)
• 101 FX 5 (brightness)
• 102 FX 6 (goblin
  Goblin
  A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous illiterate creature, a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little...
  
  s)
• 103 FX 7 (echo
  Echo (phenomenon)
  In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room and an empty room. A true echo is a single...
  
  es)
• 104 FX 8 (sci-fi)

Ethnic

• 105 Sitar
  Sitar
  The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
  
  
• 106 Banjo
  Banjo
  In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
  
  
• 107 Shamisen
  Shamisen
  The , also called is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually "shamisen" but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix . -Construction:The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument...
  
  
• 108 Koto
  Koto (musical instrument)
  The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...
  
  
• 109 Kalimba
  Marímbula
  A marímbula is a folk musical instrument of the Caribbean Islands . The marímbula is usually classified as part of the lamellophone family of musical instruments. With its roots in African instruments, marimbula originated in the province of Oriente, Cuba in the 19th century...
  
  
• 110 Bagpipe
  Bagpipes
  Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
  
  
• 111 Fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
  
• 112 Shanai
  Shehnai
  The shehnai, shahnai, shenai or mangal vadya, is an aerophonic instrument, a double reed conical oboe, common in North India, West India and Pakistan, made out of wood, with a metal flare bell at the end...
  
  

Percussive

• 113 Tinkle Bell
• 114 Agogo
  Agogô
  An agogô is a single or multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba music and also in the samba baterias . The agogô may be the oldest samba instrument and was based on West African Yoruba single or double bells...
  
  
• 115 Steel Drums
  Steelpan
  Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
  
  
• 116 Woodblock
  Wood block
  A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
  
  
• 117 Taiko Drum
  Taiko
  means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
  
  
• 118 Melodic Tom
  Tom-tom drum
  A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snare.Although "tom-tom" is the British term for a child's toy drum, the name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala; the tom-tom itself comes from Asian or Native American cultures...
  
  
• 119 Synth Drum

Sound effects

• 120 Reverse Cymbal
  Cymbal
  Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
  
  
• 121 Guitar Fret
  Fret
  A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
  
   Noise
• 122 Breath Noise
• 123 Seashore
  Coast
  A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
  
  
• 124 Bird Tweet
• 125 Telephone Ring
• 126 Helicopter
  Helicopter
  A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
  
  
• 127 Applause
  Applause
  Applause is primarily the expression of approval by the act of clapping, or striking the palms of the hands together, in order to create noise. Audiences are usually expected to applaud after a performance, such as a musical concert, speech, or play...
  
  
• 128 Gunshot
  Gunshot
  A gunshot is the discharge of a firearm, producing a mechanical sound effect and a chemical gunshot residue. The term can also refer to a gunshot wound caused by such a discharge. Multiple discharges of a firearm or firearms are referred to as gunfire. The word can connotate either the sound of a...
  
  

Percussion

In GM, MIDI channel 10 is reserved for percussion instrument

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

s only. Notes played on channel 10 always produce percussion sounds regardless of any Program Change messages or Program Numbers that may have been sent on channel 10. Each of the 128 different possible note numbers is interpreted as a separate, different instrument, and the percussion sound's pitch is not related to the note number:

• 35 Bass Drum
  Bass drum
  Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
  
   2
• 36 Bass Drum 1
• 37 Side Stick
  Rimshot
  A rimshot is the sound produced by hitting the rim and the head of a drum simultaneously, with a drum stick. Rimshots are usually played to produce a more accented note, and are typically played loudly. However, soft rim shots are possible....
  
  /Rimshot
• 38 Snare Drum
  Snare drum
  The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
  
   1
• 39 Hand Clap
  Clapping
  A clap is the sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often in a constant drone to express appreciation or approval , but also in rhythm to match sounds in music and dance...
  
  
• 40 Snare Drum 2
• 41 Low Tom
  Tom-tom drum
  A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snare.Although "tom-tom" is the British term for a child's toy drum, the name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala; the tom-tom itself comes from Asian or Native American cultures...
  
   2
• 42 Closed Hi-hat
  Hi-hat
  A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
  
  
• 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
  Crash cymbal
  A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to in ostinato. The term "crash" may have been first used by Zildjian in 1928....
  
   1
• 50 High Tom 1
• 51 Ride Cymbal
  Ride cymbal
  The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. It maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern, rather than the accent of a crash...
  
   1
• 52 Chinese Cymbal
  China cymbal
  thumb|right|China type cymbals from three continentsIn western music, china type cymbals are cymbals manufactured to produce a dark, crisp, trashy, and explosive tone...
  
  
• 53 Ride Bell
• 54 Tambourine
  Tambourine
  The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
  
  
• 55 Splash Cymbal
  Splash cymbal
  In a drum kit, splash cymbals are the smallest accent cymbals. Splash cymbals and china cymbals are the main types of effects cymbals.The most common sized splash has a diameter of 10", followed by 8"...
  
  
• 56 Cowbell
• 57 Crash Cymbal 2
• 58 Vibra Slap
  Vibraslap
  A vibraslap is a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire connecting a wood ball to a hollow box of wood with metal “teeth” inside. The percussionist holds the metal wire in one hand and strikes the ball...
  
  
• 59 Ride Cymbal 2
• 60 High Bongo
  Bongo drum
  Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
  
  
• 61 Low Bongo
• 62 Mute High Conga
  Conga
  The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
  
  
• 63 Open High Conga
• 64 Low Conga
• 65 High Timbale
  Timbales
  Timbales are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing, invented in Cuba. They are shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned...
  
  
• 66 Low Timbale
• 67 High Agogô
  Agogô
  An agogô is a single or multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba music and also in the samba baterias . The agogô may be the oldest samba instrument and was based on West African Yoruba single or double bells...
  
  
• 68 Low Agogô
• 69 Cabasa
  Cabasa
  The cabasa, similar to the shekere, is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, narrow wooden or plastic handle....
  
  
• 70 Maracas
• 71 Short Whistle
• 72 Long Whistle
• 73 Short Güiro
  Güiro
  The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. The güiro is commonly used in Latin-American music, and plays a key role...
  
  
• 74 Long Güiro
• 75 Claves
  Claves
  Claves are a percussion instrument , consisting of a pair of short Claves (Anglicized pronunciation: clah-vays, IPA:[ˈklαves]) are a percussion instrument (idiophone), consisting of a pair of short Claves (Anglicized pronunciation: clah-vays, IPA:[ˈklαves]) are a percussion instrument (idiophone),...
  
  
• 76 High Wood Block
  Wood block
  A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
  
  
• 77 Low Wood Block
• 78 Mute Cuíca
  Cuíca
  Cuíca , or "kweeca", is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre. It has been called a 'laughing gourd' due to this sound....
  
  
• 79 Open Cuíca
• 80 Mute Triangle
  Triangle (instrument)
  The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
  
  
• 81 Open Triangle
• In addition, some keyboards and MIDI devices also include additional percussion sounds below or above the ones listed here. Below the Bass Drum 2/Acoustic Bass Drum, from left to right, are:
  • Zap
    Zap
    A zap is an onomatopoetic word for a discharge of electricity or an electric shock.Zap or ZAP may refer to:- People :* Zap, stage name of female bodybuilder Raye Hollitt on the TV show American Gladiators...
    
    /High Q/Click sound (24)
  • Brush hit hard (25)
  • Brush circle (26)
  • Brush hit soft (27)
  • Brush hit and circle (28)
  • Drumroll
    Drum roll
    A drum roll is a technique the percussionist employs to produce a sustained sound on a percussion instrument. Rolls are used by composers to sustain the sound and create other effects, the most common of which is using a roll to build anticipation.- Snare drum roll :The most common snare drum roll...
    
     (29)
  • Castanets (30)
  • Snare Drum 3 (same tone as drumroll snare) (31)
  • Drumsticks hitting each other (32)
  • Bass Drum 3 (33)
  • Hard hit snare (34)
• Above the Open Triangle sound on the keyboard, some keyboards and MIDI devices also include the following sounds:
  • Shaker (82)
  • Jingle bell
    Jingle bell
    A jingle bell is a type of bell which produces a distinctive 'jingle' sound, especially in large numbers. They find use in many areas as a percussion instrument, including the classic sleigh bell sound and morris dancing...
    
    /Sleigh bells (83)
  • Bell tree
    Bell tree
    A bell tree is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bowls. The bowls, placed on a vertical rod, are arranged in order of pitch . The number of bowls can vary between approximately 14 and 28...
    
     (84)

Controller events

In MIDI, adjustable parameters for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels may be set with the Control Change message, which has a Control Number parameter and a Control Value parameter. GM also specifies which operations should be performed by multiple Control Numbers:http://www.midi.org/techspecs/midimessages.php#3http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/cntrlnumb.html


1 Modulation wheel

Pitch wheel

In electronic music, a pitch wheel is a control on a synthesizer to pitch bend — to vary the pitch in a continuously variable manner.The first synthesizer with a pitch wheel was the Minimoog, in 1970....

6 Data Entry MSB

7 Vo

Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...

l

Loudness

Loudness is the quality of a sound that is primarily a psychological correlate of physical strength . More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud."Loudness, a subjective measure, is often...

u

Sound pressure

Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient atmospheric pressure caused by a sound wave. Sound pressure can be measured using a microphone in air and a hydrophone in water...

me

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

10 Pan

Panning (audio)

Panning is the spread of a sound signal into a new stereo or multi-channel sound field. A typical physical recording console pan control is a knob with a pointer which can be placed from the 8 o'clock dial position fully left to the 4 o'clock position fully right...

11 Expression

38 Data Entry LSB

64 Sustain

Sustain

In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...

 pedal

91 Reverb

Reverberation

Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...

 level

92 Tremolo

Tremolo

Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...

 level

93 Chorus level

94 Celeste level

95 Phaser

Phaser (effect)

A phaser is an audio signal processing technique used to filter a signal by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum. The position of the peaks and troughs is typically modulated so that they vary over time, creating a sweeping effect...

 level

98 Non-registered Parameter LSB

99 Non-registered Parameter MSB

100 Registered Parameter Number LSB

101 Registered Parameter Number MSB

121 All controllers off

123 All notes off

RPN

GM defines several Registered Parameters, which act like Controllers but are addressed in 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):

1. two Control Change messages using Control Numbers 101 and 100 to select the parameter, followed by
2. any number of Data Entry messages of one or two bytes (MSB = Controller #6, LSB = Controller #38), and finally
3. an "End of RPN" message

The following global Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs) are standardised (the parameter is specified by RPN LSB/MSB pair and the value is set by Data Entry LSB/MSB pair):


0,0 Pitch bend range

1,0 Channel Fine tuning

2,0 Channel Coarse tuning

3,0 Tuning Program Change

4,0 Tuning Bank Select

5,0 Modulation Depth Range

127,127 RPN Null


For example: RPN control sequence to set coarse tuning to A440 (parm 2, value 64):

101:0, 100:2, 6:64, 101:127, 100:127

System Exclusive messages

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.

GS extensions

A superset of the General MIDI standard, added several proprietary extensions. The most notable addition 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, Control Change messages for controlling 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.

GS was introduced with the Roland Sound Canvas

Roland Sound Canvas

Roland/Edirol Sound Canvas lineup is a series of PCM-based MIDI sound modules and PC sound cards primarily intended for computer music usage, created by Roland Corporation. All Sound Canvas modules are General MIDI compatible...

 line, which was also Roland's first General MIDI synth module.

General MIDI Level 2

In 1999, the official GM standard 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:

• Number of Notes - minimum 32 simultaneous notes
• Simultaneous Percussion Kits - up to 2 (Channels 10/11)
• Up to 16384 variation banks are allowed, each containing a version of the 128 Melodic Sounds (the exact use of these banks is up to the individual manufacturer.)
• 9 GS Drum kits are included
• Additional Control Change messages
  • Filter Resonance (Timbre/Harmonic Intensity) (cc#71)
  • Release Time (cc#72)
  • Attack time (cc#73)
  • Brightness/Cutoff Frequency (cc#74)
  • Decay Time (cc#75)
  • Vibrato
    Vibrato
    Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
    
     Rate (cc#76)
  • Vibrato Depth (cc#77)
  • Vibrato Delay (cc#78)
• Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs)
  • Modulation
    Modulation
    In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...
    
     Depth Range (Vibrato Depth Range)
• Universal SysEx messages
  • Master Volume, Fine Tuning, Coarse Tuning
  • Reverb Type, Time
  • Chorus
    Chorus effect
    In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
    
     Type, Mod Rate, Mod Depth, Feedback, Send to Reverb
  • Controller Destination Setting
  • Scale/Octave Tuning Adjust
  • Key-Based Instrument Controllers
  • GM2 System On SysEx message

Additional melodic instruments can be accessed by setting CC#32 to 121 and then using CC#0 to select the bank before a Program Change. The most expanded group is Acoustic Pianos.

General MIDI sound modules

• Roland's
  Roland Corporation
  is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
  
   Sound Canvas
  Roland Sound Canvas
  Roland/Edirol Sound Canvas lineup is a series of PCM-based MIDI sound modules and PC sound cards primarily intended for computer music usage, created by Roland Corporation. All Sound Canvas modules are General MIDI compatible...
  
   series, starting with Roland SC-55
  Roland SC-55
  The Roland SC-55 is a GS MIDI synthesizer sound module released in 1991 by Roland. The SC-55 was the first sound module to incorporate the new General MIDI standard....
  
  
• Various modules in Yamaha's
  Yamaha
  Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
  
   Tone Generator series
• Korg 03R/W
• Korg 05R/W

External links

• NEMIDi - Online Midi Editor
• MIDI Technical Fanatic's Brainwashing Center
• The Void: PC audio resource
• MIDIsite a search engine for free midi files on the Internet
• Disklavier World Public Domain MIDI-music in FIL (e-SEQ format) for YAMAHA Disklavier pianos ~ live performances!
• MIDI Wars MIDI tournaments for composers of original MIDI music
• MIDI basics guide on the history of MIDI format and piano roll basics.

Official MIDI Standards Organizations

• MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) - Source for English-language MIDI specs
• Association of Musical Electronics Industry (AMEI) -Source for Japanese-language MIDI specs