While I grant that very few devices with a "GM" logo on them were ever at the cutting edge of synthesizer technology, I think the core idea of General MIDI- the ability to write a song for one MIDI instrument that plays more or less the same on a different MIDI instrument regardless of the device's manufacturer- has true merit.Īs an original owner of a Roland MT-32 (and its big brother, the D-110), I've grown so familiar with the GM sound set that I actually use it when I'm tracking out my own song projects. ![]() Many folks in synth and music production circles consider the term "General MIDI" a synonym for "cheap" or "cheesy," and that association is sometimes warranted. All GM files are SMFs, but not all SMFs are GM files. And that leads us to General MIDI files, which are standard MIDI files that contain songs that conform to the General MIDI standard.General MIDI 2 (GM2) expands the required set of sounds and control messages, offering more variety and control in MIDI compositions.GM1 is the most widely supported form of General MIDI. GM1 devices must also have on-board Chorus and Reverb effects and support a certain set of MIDI events and CC messages. While the MT-32 only supported 9 simultaneous MIDI channels (8 chromatic parts and 1 drum channel), the GM standard expanded the requirement to support 16 simultaneous MIDI channels. General MIDI 1 (GM1 or just GM) was inspired by the patch bank and drum layout of the Roland MT-32 multitimbral desktop sound module.There are different flavors of the general MIDI standard. Instruments that are certified to support General MIDI generally have a special logo indicating what level of General MIDI they support. General MIDI (GM) is a high-level standard that defines a common set of sounds, effects, and features that guarantee that a song composed for one GM-compatible instrument will sound more or less the same when played on another GM-compatible instrument, even if it was made by another manufacturer. ![]() Since these files are so rare there are almost no tools available that support them. (In fact I don't think I've ever seen one.) Type 2 files can contain multiple Type 1-style songs kind of like a self-contained MIDI playlist.
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