GM drum kit

Forum for Roland FA-06/08
Post Reply
stuartH25
Posts: 5
Joined: 11:35, 7 September 2017

GM drum kit

Post by stuartH25 »

Can somebody advise please. I'm quite new to my Roland FA-08 and still learning. The FA drum kits generally have D2 as snare and E2 as rim, but when I imported some of my old SMF tracks, I discovered that the GM2 drum kit on the FA has D2 set as rim and E2 set as snare. Is this correct or is there a fault with my FA-08?
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: GM drum kit

Post by stevel »

Only the GM kit is supposed to adhere to the GM standards.

The others don't have to, and likely don't. Most of them add many more sounds but yes, it's likely they've moved some around as well.

I noticed the other day there's a "drag" on one of the keys (Eb or Db maybe) that was a rim shot or something in GM kits.

Simply put, it's just a "non-GM kit". Manufacturers are allowed to do that.

If the GM kit is right and it plays GM compliant SMF drum parts right, then you'd use that to play those files back (which was always the intent).

If you want to play those back on a non-GM kit, then you'd need to remap the notes.

This has been going on for a long time as far as I know.
stuartH25
Posts: 5
Joined: 11:35, 7 September 2017

Re: GM drum kit

Post by stuartH25 »

Many thanks for your help Stevel. Looks like I've a lot of re-mapping to do
stuartH25
Posts: 5
Joined: 11:35, 7 September 2017

Re: GM drum kit

Post by stuartH25 »

Thanks Steve. I remember I made these SMF tracks on my very old Roland XP50 and they sounded ok on my Roland Fantom X (in GM mode). It seems it's the FA-08 that has has the different GM drum set up
Stu
Paul99
Posts: 117
Joined: 18:05, 23 June 2017

Re: GM drum kit

Post by Paul99 »

The official midi standard for mid drum mappings can be seen in SS GM2 0001 etc. In general midi there are two snares: D2 and E2. BAse is always on C2 and B1. Stick always on C2#, claps on D#2.
Usually in most drum sets you will find a basedrum on C2, a snare on D2 and hopefully the 3 hihats on F2#, G2# and A2#. Crashes are spread over the keyboard.
Sometimes there are drumsets dedicated to one specific drum sound: e.g. 60 different snares etc.
When using midi files, usually start with a GM drumset to check the sounds.
Post Reply