EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 57, Issue 10 This issue's topics: General Midi (2 messages) General Midi questions (3 messages) Reply to General Midi questions (2 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 15:18:02 -0400 From: JO_BLACK@ACAD.LVC.EDU Subject: General Midi Sorry to interject this somewhat "commercial" related question into the discussion list, but here goes: Has anyone had any success either creating a general midi bank on their synth/tone generator or re-mapping exisiting patches to General Midi specs? I want to be able to use my exsisting equipment to read General Midi files without manually changing the patches all of the time. Since I have some o.k. gear I don't feel like shelling out any more money just to by a Sound Canvas or any other General Midi device. The problem that I have encountered is that my tone module (Yamaha TG-500) stores it's patches in banks of 63. How do I get around this and make a bank of 127 General Midi patches. I don't really want to run all of my software (games included) out of Windows so Midi Manager can't be used for everything. I also have an M1 which stores patches in groups of 100, but it lacks the sound quality of the TG-500. Thanks in advance for any replies... -jb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 15:48:34 EDT From: Bill Fox Subject: Re: General Midi JO_BLACK@ACAD.LVC.EDU said: > I want to be able to use my exsisting equipment to read General Midi files > without manually changing the patches all of the time. Since I have some o.k. > gear I don't feel like shelling out any more money just to by a Sound Canvas > or any other General Midi device. The problem that I have encountered is that > my tone module (Yamaha TG-500) stores it's patches in banks of 63. How do I > get around this and make a bank of 127 General Midi patches. It isn't a matter of what size banks in which your TG-500 and M1 organize their patches. It is a matter of what patch comes up in response to a particular Program Change command. If a SMF that assumes a GM device is receiving, and it sends out Program Change 104, what patch number comes up on your synths? THAT'S where you put the appropriate sound. For example, if p.chg. 1-63 bring up the bank 1 sounds, if you send your TG-500 p.chg.#64, does that correspond to bank 2, patch 1? Bill Fox ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 16:02:46 -0400 From: JO_BLACK@ACAD.LVC.EDU Subject: General Midi questions Sorry if this is a repeated question, but I tried once before and apparently it failed. Has anyone had success either creating a General Midi bank on a non-GM instrument or re-mapping current patches to General Midi specs? I am interested in using my Yamaha TG-500 which stores it's patches in banks of 63. How do I go about making a G.M. bank with 127 patches or can't it be done? I also have an M1 which I could muddle through and try to find reasonable approximations for some of the G.M. sounds, but I would much rather use the TG-500. I want to be able to do this outside of Windows, so I can't rely on Midi Manager. I have some software (games included) that says it supports General Midi and I want to be able to use the equipment I have without unloading any money for a Sound Canvas. I am using a Sound Blaster 16ASP for my Midi input if that makes any difference. Thank you in advance for any replies... -jb ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 19:44:03 -0500 From: brickman jonathan Subject: Re: General Midi questions I hope you don't mind me asking: What is General MIDI? I figured it's probably some superset of MIDI, but what are the details? ||Jonathan E. Brickman brickman@acc.wuacc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 11:10:24 EDT From: Bill Fox Subject: Re: General MIDI Questions Jonathan E. Brickman asks: > I hope you don't mind me asking: What is General MIDI? I figured > it's probably some superset of MIDI, but what are the details? I may be way off base here, but this is my perception of GM. It is a specification of hardware capabilities and of the patch map of the first 128 program change commands. This is to allow the multimedia types to spend money on gear and get some kind of standardization that allows third party sequences to sound similar no matter whose hardware is playing those sequences. Prior to GM, if you and I were to trade sequences, I would have to tell you what sounds were on each MIDI channel, at best. Usually it would require that we have the same gear. GM at least has standardized the patch map. Bill Fox ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 15:51:44 -0500 From: Dean Keith Subject: Reply to General Midi questions >I am interested in using my Yamaha TG-500 which stores it's patches in banks >of 63. How do I go about making a G.M. bank with 127 patches or can't it be >done? I also have an M1 which I could muddle through and try to find >reasonable approximations for some of the G.M. sounds, but I would much rather >use the TG-500. > >I want to be able to do this outside of Windows, so I can't rely on Midi >Manager. I have some software (games included) that says it supports General >Midi and I want to be able to use the equipment I have without unloading any >money for a Sound Canvas. I am using a Sound Blaster 16ASP for my Midi input >if that makes any difference. > >Thank you in advance for any replies... > > -jb It may be even easier than Bill Fox states. I am not familier with the TG-500, but I own a YAMAHA TX-81Z, and it has a MIDI mapper under the utilities mode. This alows you to re-map Program change data to what ever patch you want, i.e. Program Change 103 mapped to Bank B, number 24, etc. Most MIDI devices that have more than 127 patches will have a similar utility. If you don't have a convience like this, use Bill's advice. ______________________________________________________________________________ Dean Keith dkeith@tarleton.edu Tarleton State University Stephenville, Texas, USA ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 00:57:35 +0100 From: Adam MIROWSKI Subject: Re: Reply to General Midi questions > >I am interested in using my Yamaha TG-500 which stores it's patches in banks > >of 63. How do I go about making a G.M. bank with 127 patches or can't it be > >done? Very simple: you cannot. > >I want to be able to do this outside of Windows, so I can't rely on Midi > >Manager. The Midi Mapper can only be used with Windows applications. It appears like an ordinary driver to them. Besides, the Midi Mapper is unable to send Bank Select Control Changes MIDI messages. > I have some software (games included) that says it supports General > >Midi and I want to be able to use the equipment I have without unloading any > >money for a Sound Canvas. You have made the worst possible choice by buying the TG-500. > I am using a Sound Blaster 16ASP for my Midi input > >if that makes any difference. At least it it partly MPU compatible... > It may be even easier than Bill Fox states. I am not familier with the TG-500, > but I own a YAMAHA TX-81Z, and it has a MIDI mapper under the utilities mode. > This alows you to re-map Program change data to what ever patch you want, > i.e. Program Change 103 mapped to Bank B, number 24, etc. Most MIDI devices > that have more than 127 patches will have a similar utility. If you don't > have a convience like this, use Bill's advice. So the TX-81Z is more advanced than the TG-500. What a pity that it sounds like sh*t to my ears. BTW, the SY-85 that I have can SEND 0-127 program changes, and bank select messages too, both LSB and MSB. Of course, because the MIDI implementation is brain dead in the SY family, you can only define 64 triplets: "Memory" buttons are ignored as far as MIDI transmission is concerned when you enter the "remapping table" mode. ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************