GM–GS–XG quick reference

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This is a help page listing which MIDI messages can be used for common things across General MIDI, Roland GS and Yamaha XG.

General notes:

  • GS doesn't seem to have a publicly available formal standard, so the Roland SC-55mkII manual is used as a reference. Later Roland devices seem to use the SC-55mkII as the baseline for GS.
  • Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth only supports a tiny fraction of the GS features, despite the name.
  • XGLite only supports a subset of the XG features.

Symbol legend:

  • ❌ — Not supported (according to the standard; the device might still have it as an extension)
  • 👻 — Undocumented, but appears to work on some devices in testing
  • *️⃣ — Supported, but meaning is standard-specific or depends on other factors
  • ✅ — Supported
  • [88] — Supported only by Roland SC-88 and later (not part of basic GS/SC-55)
Control Change messages
Ctrl # Controller name General MIDI Roland GS Yamaha XG Notes
0 Bank Select MSB ❌ *️⃣[1] *️⃣[2] On GS, this selects variation instruments.
On XG, this selects banks. Common numbers:
  • 0 = most normal/melody instruments[2]
  • 64 = SFX voices[2]
  • 126 = SFX kits[2]
  • 127 = drumkits (sets part to drum mode)[2]
1 Modulation ✅[3] ✅[1] ✅[4] On GS and XG, this is Vibrato by default[1][4]
5 Portamento time ❌ ✅[1] ✅[5] Value 0 is shortest/fastest.[1][5] On XG, it is cent-linear.[5]
6 Data entry MSB *️⃣ *️⃣[1] *️⃣[5] (Used for RPNs and NRPNs)
7 Volume ✅[3] ✅[1] ✅[5]
10 Pan ✅[3] ✅[1] ✅[5]
11 Expression ✅[3] ✅[1] ✅[5] On GS, this is multiplied with Volume to control overall volume.[1]
32 Bank Select LSB ❌ ❌[1] ✅[2] On GS/the SC-55, this does nothing. But the SC-88 onwards use this to select maps:
  • 0 = default
  • 1 = SC-55
  • 2 = SC-88
  • 3 = SC-88 Pro
  • 4 = SC-8850/SC-8820

On XG, this selects extension instruments.[2]

38 Data entry LSB *️⃣ *️⃣[1] *️⃣[5] (Used for RPNs and NRPNs)
64 Sustain
or Hold1[6]		 ✅[3] ✅[6] ✅[7] 0–63 = Off, 64–127 = On.[6][7]
65 Portamento ❌ ✅[6] ✅[7] 0–63 = Off, 64–127 = On.[6][7]
66 Sostenuto ❌ ✅[6] ✅[7] 0–63 = Off, 64–127 = On.[6][7]
67 Soft
or Soft Pedal[8]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[8]
71 Sound Controller 2
or Harmonic Content		 ❌ 👻[9] ✅[8] On XG, relative adjustment of filter resonance (64 is zero change).[8]
On GS, there is no documented support for it, but there is an NRPN.
SC modules from at least the SC-88VL onwards appear to respond to it anyway and behave like XG.[9]
72 Sound Controller 3
or Release Time		 ❌ 👻[9] ✅[8] On XG, relative adjustment of envelope release time (64 is zero change).[8]
On GS, there is no documented support for it, but there is an NRPN.
SC modules from at least the SC-88VL onwards appear to respond to it anyway and behave like XG.[9]
73 Sound Controller 4
or Attack Time		 ❌ 👻[9] ✅[8] On XG, relative adjustment of envelope attack time (64 is zero change).[8]
On GS, there is no documented support for it, but there is an NRPN.
SC modules from at least the SC-88VL onwards appear to respond to it anyway and behave like XG.[9]
74 Sound Controller 5
or Brightness		 ❌ 👻[9] ✅[10] On XG, relative adjustment of filter cutoff (64 is zero change).[10]
On GS, there is no documented support for it, but there is an NRPN.
SC modules from at least the SC-88VL onwards appear to respond to it anyway and behave like XG.[9]
84 Portamento Control ❌ ✅[6] ✅[10] Value is MIDI note number.[6] On XG, ignores Portamento Time (always 0).[10]
91 Effect 1 depth
or Reverb send[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[10] On GS and XG: Reverb send level[10][6]
93 Effect 3 depth
or Chorus send[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[10] On GS and XG: Chorus send level[10][6]
94 Effect 4 depth
or Variation send
or Delay send[11]		 ❌ [88][11] ✅[10] On XG: Variation send level.[10]
XGLite does not require variation effects to be supported.[12]
Not supported on GS/SC-55, but SC-88 and onwards use this for Delay Send Level.[11]
96 Data increment ❌ ❌ *️⃣[13] (Used for RPNs and NRPNs) (TODO: check this)
97 Data decrement ❌ ❌ *️⃣[13] (Used for RPNs and NRPNs) (TODO: check this)
98 NRPN LSB ❌ *️⃣[6] *️⃣[13] (Used for NRPNs)
99 NRPN MSB ❌ *️⃣[6] *️⃣[13] (Used for NRPNs)
100 RPN LSB *️⃣ *️⃣[14] *️⃣[15] (Used for RPNs)
101 RPN MSB *️⃣ *️⃣[14] *️⃣[15] (Used for RPNs)
RPN messages
RPN
MSB 		RPN
LSB 		RPN name General MIDI Roland GS Yamaha XG
0 0 Pitch Bend Sensitivity ✅[3] ✅[14] ✅[16]
0 1 Fine Tuning ✅[3] ✅[14] ✅[16]
0 2 Coarse Tuning ✅[3] ✅[14] ✅[16]

(TODO: add non-GS XG NRPNs)

NRPN messages
NRPN
MSB 		NRPN
LSB 		NRPN name General MIDI Roland GS Yamaha XG Notes
1 8 Vibrato Rate[13] ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 9 Vibrato Depth[13] ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 10 Vibrato Delay[13] ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 32 Filter Cutoff Frequency[13]
or TVF cutoff frequency[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 33 Filter Resonance[13]
or TVF resonance[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 99 EG Attack Time[13]
or TVF&TVA Env. Attack time[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 100 EG Decay Time[13]
or TVF&TVA Env. Decay time[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[13] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
1 102 EG Release[17]
or TVF&TVA Env. Release time[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[17] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
24 (key #) Drum Pitch Coarse[15]
or Pitch coarse of drum instrument[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[15] Relative adjustment (64 is zero change)
26 (key #) Drum Level[15]
or TVA level of drum instrument[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[15]
28 (key #) Drum Pan[15]
or Panpot of drum instrument[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[15]
29 (key #) Drum Reverb Send[15]
or Reverb send level of drum instrument[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[15]
30 (key #) Drum Chorus Send[15]
or Chorus send level of drum instrument[6]		 ❌ ✅[6] ✅[15]
31 (key #) Drum Variation Send[15]
or Delay send level of drum instrument[11]		 ❌ [88][11] ✅[15] On XG: Variation send level.[10]
Not supported on GS/SC-55, but SC-88 and onwards use this for Delay Send Level.[11]

System Exclusive (SysEx) messages are required for advanced features like changing effect types, configuring controllers/LFOs, etc. There are a huge number of them and they are completely incompatible between standards, so they are out of scope for this article. The following are only a few essential ones:

System Exclusive messages
SysEx (hex) Name General MIDI Roland GS Yamaha XG Notes
F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7 General MIDI Level 1 System On ✅ ✅ ✅ Sets module to GM1 mode and resets settings for all parts. Broadcast message addressed to all devices.
Note: some early GS devices (early SC-55 models) don't support GM and won't respond to this.
F0 41 10 42 12 40 00 7F 00 41 F7 GS Reset ❌ ✅ ❌ Sets module to GS mode and resets settings for all parts. Addressed to device 17 (default device number).
F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7 XG System On ❌ ❌ ✅ Sets module to XG mode and resets settings for all parts. Addressed to device 1 (default device number).
F0 41 10 42 12 40 1A 15 02 0F F7 GS: Patch parameters, Part 11 § USE FOR RHYTHM PART → MAP2 ❌ ✅ ❌ Sets part 11 (mapped to channel 11) to drums mode, using the 2nd set of drum parameters. Addressed to device 17 (default device number).
For XG, you can use a Bank Select MSB instead (see above).


References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Roland SC-55mkII Owner's Manual, page 90.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 16.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 General MIDI System Level 1 Specification, page 2
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 17.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 18.
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26 6.27 6.28 6.29 6.30 6.31 6.32 6.33 6.34 6.35 6.36 6.37 6.38 6.39 6.40 Roland SC-55mkII Owner's Manual, page 91.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 19.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 Tested by the following users:
    • hikari_no_yume has tested and found that her SC-88VL responds to controllers 71 to 74 in GS mode.
    • purps has tested and found that Sound Canvas VA responds to controllers 71 to 74 in GS mode.
  10. ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 21
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Roland SC-88 Owner's Manual, page 7 - 22.
  12. ↑ See Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, Attached Chart 1 pages 5 to 7 (all Variation/Insertion effects marked as optional for XGLite).
  13. ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16 13.17 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 22
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Roland SC-55mkII Owner's Manual, page 92.
  15. ↑ 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 15.10 15.11 15.12 15.13 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 23
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 2.00, page 24
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Yamaha XG Specifications, v 1.32, page 13 (omitted in v 2.00; by mistake maybe?)

See also

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