General MIDI Level 2 or GM2 is a specification for

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s which defines several requirements beyond the more abstract

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

standard and is based on

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 Commi ...

, GS extensions, and XG extensions. It was adopted in 1999 by the

MIDI Manufacturers Association The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) is a non-profit trade organization where companies work together to create MIDI standards comparison, MIDI standards that assure compatibility among MIDI products. The MMA is a U.S. organization established ...

(MMA).

General requirements

* Number of Notes: 32 simultaneous notes * MIDI Channels: 16 * Simultaneous Melodic Instruments – up to 16 (all Channels) * Simultaneous Percussion Kits – up to 2 (Channel 10/11)

Parameters

Program and bank change events

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 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.

Melodic sounds

= Piano

= Chromatic Percussion

= Organ

= Guitar

= Bass

= Orchestra Solo

= Orchestra Ensemble

= Brass

= Reed

= Wind

= Synth Lead

= Synth Pad

= Synth Sound FX

= Ethnic

= Percussive

= Sound Effect

Drum sounds

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.

Additional percussion notes

These are the same GS drum notes and span Drum Kits 1 to 49:

Supported Control Change messages

Supported Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs)

* Pitch Bend Sensitivity * Channel Fine Tune * Channel Coarse Tune * Modulation Depth Range (Vibrato Depth Range) * RPN NULL

Supported Universal System Exclusive (SysEx) messages

* Master Volume * Master Fine Tuning * Master Coarse Tuning * Reverb Type * Reverb Time * Chorus Type * Chorus Mod Rate * Chorus Mod Depth * Chorus Feedback * Chorus Send to Reverb * Controller Destination Setting * Scale/Octave Tuning Adjust * Key-Based Instrument Controllers * GM2 System On

References

External links

MIDI Manufacturers Association
(MMA) * {{cite journal , last = Smithers , first = Brian , title = General MIDI Redux , journal =

Electronic Musician Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, url = http://www.emusician.com/news/0766/general-midi-redux/144351 MIDI standards Computer-related introductions in 1999