Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I do not have an XP-80, but I know that besides the regular presets, it also has the 128 standard GM instruments. I would like to know what this GM set sounds like: Does it reuse Roland samples from other synths/modules, like SC-88 or something? Or are the GM set's samples unique, and exclusive to the XP-80? I have searched for information on this, but I cannot find any demos of the GM sounds from this synth. It would be helpful to me if I could know what its GM set is like, or if there are any demos of regular GM MIDIs playing with it. Thank you.

I can't imagine it having a separate set of samples just for the GM bank. GM is about having all the presets consistent between instruments, not making them sound identical.

The GM banks in many pro keyboards sound watered down compared to the other factory presets...I never understood why this is.

Probably to match up with the original dwarfy soundset of many a Sound Canvas clone.

I haven't got an XP 80 at hand, but I just checked on my JV 2080 and the GM sound set uses the base ROM (Int 1 & 2), no EFX.
The sounds are OK, a bit dated and lacklustre, but that's GM for you. The sample set would be shared by other Roland products - they date back the the S-series library. Hope that helps.
PS Your ZR has a GM sound set, it'll be nearly identical.

CS_TBL wrote:Probably to match up with the original dwarfy soundset of many a Sound Canvas clone.

Sure, but why bother? The requirements for GM (v1...early 90s machines) are:

Voices: A minimum of either 24 fully dynamically allocated voices are available simultaneously for both melodic and percussive sounds, or 16 dynamically allocated voices are available for melody plus 8 for percussion. All voices respond to velocity.

Channels: All 16 MIDI Channels are supported. Each Channel can play a variable number of voices (polyphony). Each Channel can play a different instrument (sound/patch/timbre). Key-based percussion is always on MIDI Channel 10.

Instruments: A minimum of 16 simultaneous and different timbres playing various instruments. A minimum of 128 preset instruments (MIDI program numbers) conforming to the GM1 Instrument Patch Map and 47 percussion sounds which conform to the GM1 Percussion Key Map .

Now I'm sure in some older instruments the polyphony requirement meant being able to get by with "one voice" patches...in most ROMplers that would mean a mono sample, no velocity switching or layers, etc.

But in modern machines with gobs of polyphony (say a Kronos) why not use the much better sounds available in GM mode rather than bland patches? So you fire up your Kronos and try that awesome mega-sampled piano...kick into GM mode and try patch #1, ouch another lame lifeless piano patch.

Never made any sense to me.

Probably because:

• MIDI-files are (or have been) made with old junk. The creator of the midi file is likely to have applied tricks, reverb, layers, whathaveyou to soup up things a bit. Such tricks would be too much for contemporary sounds that are fat enough on their own.
• Technically, you should playback something on a similar system, not a smaller system and not a bigger system. Only then are you assured of the intended sound.
• MIDI files, and the GM format, are so 90's.., why bother?

In the 90's I remember Roland making a kind of portable GM-player, the kind of thing you'd bring to the beach.. *not*. Gawd it's just so cheesy, and it should go! ^_^

MIDI files may be handy to retrieve notes (and thus all someone's hard work) from a piece of music, as a basis to make a new version of it. But other than that, I think they're awaiting their asteroid.

GM goes back to the MT 32, the "ghetto blaster" thing was the MT 90s (I think), but yeah, GM is useful for karaoke, but not much else.

max badwan wrote:GM goes back to the MT 32

SC55 actually, MT32 is not GM compliant.

meatballfulton wrote:

max badwan wrote:GM goes back to the MT 32

SC55 actually, MT32 is not GM compliant.

I never said the MT 32 was a GM compliant unit, and yes, the SC 55 was the first GM unit, but if you look at a patch list of MT 32 presets, you'll find that it's the precursor to GM.