Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes expanded as General Standard[1][2] or General Sound,[1] is a MIDI specification. It requires that all GS-compatible equipment must meet a certain set of features and it documents interpretations of some MIDI commands and bytes sequences, thus defining instrument tones, controllers for sound effects, etc.
In addition to the simpler General MIDI standard, GS defines 98 additional tone instruments, 15 more percussion instruments, 8 more drum kits, 3 effects (reverb/chorus/variation) and some other features.
The Roland SC-55 was the first synthesizer to support the GS standard.
History
The GS extensions were first introduced and implemented on Roland Sound Canvas series modules, starting with the Roland SC-55 in 1991. The first model supported 317 instruments, 16 simultaneous melodic voices, 8 percussion voices and a compatibility mode for Roland MT-32 (although it only emulated it and lacked programmability of original MT-32) and gained explosive popularity.
In addition to the Sound Canvas series, Roland also provided GS compatibility in its own professional lineup through the JV-30 keyboard and the VE-GS1 expansion board for other JV-series instruments. In addition, GS compatibility is provided in the GM2 specification which Roland helped to create and actively supports.
Some other manufacturers attempted to be compatible to Roland GS, but could not use the GS trademark or samples. In Yamaha XG synthesizers for example the GS implementation was called "TG300B mode". Dream S.A. used unlicensed samples of Roland GS instruments and was sued.[3]
Notable features
Banks
The program in every individual bank will align with the 128 in GM's instrument patch map.
The Sound Canvas used additional pair of controllers, cc#0 and cc#32, to specify up to 16384 (128*128) 'variations' of each melodic sound defined by General MIDI. Typically, cc#32 (Bank Select LSB) was used to select a family (i.e. 1 - SC-55, 2 - SC-88 etc.) then cc#0 (Bank Select MSB) was used to set a particular variation bank.
Drum kits
MIDI channel 10 is used for drums by default like in General MIDI, but they are accessible on any channel through the use of SysEx. Only 2 different drum kits can be used at a time. There are ten different kits in total:
57 SFX - collection of sound effects, which also featured in the GS sound set itself
128 CM-64/CM-32L - a kit conforming to Roland MT-32 format
Newer models of Roland Sound Canvas and other GS-compatible Roland synthesizers features additional kits not included in the base GS sound set; these include kits based on various Roland drum machines such as the TR-909, CR-78 and TR-707, as well as various percussion kits comprising both traditional and modern percussions.
Additional percussion notes
There were 16 additional drum notes that span Drum Kits 1 to 49:
^ abAhlzen, Lars; Song, Clarence (2003). The Sound Blaster Live! Book: A Complete Guide to the World's Most Popular Sound Card. No Starch Press. pp. 585–586. ISBN978-1-886411-73-9.
