When I wrote earlier about the differences between GM and non-GM midi I was referring to stuff like Garritan uses the mod wheel for volume control. That's not GM spec. SampleTank has some drum kits that are GM mapped but most of them use Imap. This allows keyboard players to use their hands to play drum parts on a keyboard in a much more natural way than GM drumkit mapping allows for. Same thing with other drum controllers. All use different mapping than the standard basic GM.

Most of the big name softsynths don't even have a GM soundbank. Ask yourself why is that? It's because GM is way too restrictive with it's midi controls, way too restrictive with it's instrument banks. Notes talked about how the patch map numbers are the same. True but you only get one or two patches of each instrument. One nylon guitar, one standard grand piano and one bright piano. A piano VST by itself has dozens and they give you stuff like mic placement controls, lid up/down/partial controls, room ambience and much more. Partial pedal dampening. None of that is in the GM spec.

The best horn and string VSTi libraries are the same. All the different lip, mouth, bowing articulations that have zero to do with GM. It's all those controls that allows a good player to make synths sound real.

That's what I was talking about. GM is very basic and pro's could care less about it.

Bob

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