Comparison of MIDI standards
Encyclopedia
This table provides summary of comparison of various MIDI enhancement standards by various parameters.
| MT-32 Roland MT-32 The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI synthesizer module first released in 1987 by Roland Corporation. Along with its compatible modules, it established an early de-facto standard in computer music and was the first product in Roland's ミュージくん line of Desktop Music System packages... |
GM General MIDI General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee and first published in 1991... |
GS Roland GS Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes expanded as General Standard or General Sound, is an extension of General 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... |
XG level 1 | XG level 2 | XG level 3 | GM level 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry date | 1987 | 1991 | 1991 | 1994 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Organization | Roland 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,... |
MMA 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... |
Roland 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,... |
Yamaha | MMA 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... |
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| Minimum equipment requirements | |||||||
| Simultaneous voices | 8 or more (up to 32 partials) | 24 | 24 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 32 |
| Simultaneous melodic voices | N/A | 16 | 16 | N/A XG synths have no separate limits on melodic / percussion sounds |
16 | ||
| Simultaneous percussion voices | 8 | 8 | 16 | ||||
| MIDI channels allocation | 8 channels, 1 rhythm channel | 16 channels, #10 is fixed for percussion | 16 channels, one channel can be set to play drum kits | 16 channels, every channel can play drum kits with Bank Select MSB (CC#0) set to 7FH | 32 channels, 2 ports, drums as in XG level 1 | 64 channels, 4 ports, drums as in XG level 1 | 16 channels, #10 and #11 are used for percussion |
| Channel recommendations | #1: melody; #2: melody (duet); #3: bass; #4: pad; #5: riff; #10: drums | ||||||
| Sounds banks available | |||||||
| Melodic instruments | 128 | 128 | 226 | 480 | 1074 | 1149 | 256 |
| Drum kits | 1 | 1 | 8 + 1 SFX kit | 9 + 2 SFX kits | 34 + 2 SFX kits | 35 + 2 SFX kits | 9 |
| Drum sounds per kit | 30 | 47 | 61 | 72 | 61 | ||
| Controls available | |||||||
| Special CC | 2 | 6 (MT32+4) | 6 (GM) | ||||
| Parametric effect CC | 4 | 5 | 16 (GM+11) | 51 (GM+46) | 12 (GM+7) | ||
| RPNs | 0 | 5 | 6 (GM+1) | ||||
| SysEx messages | 2 | 14 | |||||