Korg Kronos General Midi Banks

[i_scotty]

Question about the Kronos "General Midi" patches. I would like to know the purpose of the General Midi patches. There is the I-G, g(1-9,d) banks. Why are there so many sounds, with so many of them being so generic in sound and name? Do all the other EXi and HD-1 sound originate from the GM patches... what?

With exception to the I-G bank (which I understand cannot be overwritten), if I deleted or created new patches over all the other GM banks would it cause any issues?

Again, I'm just trying to understand their purpose. Thanks.

[IAA]

https://www.midi.org/specifications/ite ... -sound-set

[psionic311]

If you give an orchestra a score of the Star Wars theme, each instrument will have its own sheet music of what to play. The score is for the conductor. They can start playing immediately without having to figure who gets what line and having to reorganize everything from scratch.

If you download or play a GM file for an old school synth MIDI demo or a MIDI song for an old school video game or cell phone, that General MIDI file is the equivalent of the orchestral score. Your synth or videogame or phone will automagically play the song, with the brass playing the brass parts, the strings playing the strings, and so on. All the players in the MIDI industry have previously agreed that a piano part in that score will be instrument numbers 1-8, the brass will be 57-64, etc.

This means you can download a standard MIDI song from the internet and play it on your Kronos and it will sound like a finished composition. However, if you overwrite any of your GM sounds, it will sound wonky if you try to play a standard GM MIDI file. For example, say you downloaded a Christmas song and tried to play in on your modified Kronos. Because you overwrote a GM string patch with your custom sci-fi lazer, and the GM piano with your custom monophonic sync lead, and the GM bells with samples of dog barks, what used to be a pretty song called Carol of the Bells will now instead sound like a crazy sound experiment

But otherwise you'll be ok if you never intend to download a MIDI file and play it on your Kronos like some old school automatic player piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aseMAEctM1s

[pete.m]

Just to add that I don't think you can overwrite any of the GM banks - I-G, or the others - not on the Kronos X, anyway. That's a pity. I'd happily get rid of all the GM sounds. They just clog up a bank which could be used for something better.

[Joe Gerardi]

I would take this a step farther: if you write a piece and follow the GM spec, you cant get a fundamental idea of what it will sound like with full instrumentation without having to spend hours programming sounds. Once the file is to your liking, then you can go back and add the exact sounds you want.

There were some synths (the Roland M-GS64 comes to mind) that used the GM spec with high-quality sounds, making it a great module for creating music quickly and easily.

..Joe