General MIDI Level 2 or GM2 is a specification for synthesizers which defines several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI standard and is based on General MIDI and GS extensions. It was adopted in 1999 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (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.
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
See also
Comparison of MIDI standards
References
External links
MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA)