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Keep in mind, Mac said he only used the GM soundbank. This is the main problem with GM. It's convienient, but you pay for that in mediocre sound especially the drums. GM is restrictive. The GM standard only allows for certain things or the sound is not GM certified or whatever they call it. <...>



There is no such thing as a GM sound. There are only patch number assignments to GM sounds.

The GM patch number for an Acoustic Grand Piano is #1. But GM does not specify what the acoustic grand piano is supposed to sound like, only that patch (or program) #1 is used to designate Acoustic Grand Piano. So the Acoustic Grand Piano on my laptop's sound card sounds pretty thin while the Acoustic Grand Piano on the GM bank of my Korg i3 sounds quite nice. I would imagine the Acoustic Grand Piano on the Kurzweil sounds even better.

But the Rhodes piano (#5) sounds best on my SD90.

The Acoustic Bass on my sound card is lame, the Acoustic bass on my Roland SC55 sounds better than the Acoustic bass on my SD90, but the Acoustic Bass on my i3 sounds so good you can hear the wood vibrate. All are patch #33.

But the guitars on my SD90 are excellent, and there are some sounds on my old SC-55 that still sound great.

And that is all GM does, assign standard patch numbers to a number of commonly used sounds. It does not specify what those sounds are supposed to sound like, or even what kind of synthesis is to be used for those sounds.

I hear people discussing the lame GM sounds often, but there is no such thing as a GM sound, only a GM patch number for a sound. I suppose GM gets its reputation from the typical synthesizer on the sound card in a computer which is not nearly as well done as a more expensive professional level synthesizer.



But of course as you pointed out, they are limited to 128 patch numbers. So more than the 128 GM instruments are always a plus.

Insights and incites by Notes



I'm glad you straightened people out about this -it's a common misconception that people keep passing on. Of course GM2 etc. gives you lots more.

As far as the SD2 is concerned it has the absolute best Breathy Tenor Saxophone, Superb Flute, Very good Clarinet (esp higher register) and pretty good Golden Trumpet, and excellent violins for those of us who play Wind Controllers. Some other hardware synths (and expansion cards) may have one or two really good solo sounds for Wind C. players, but none that I have ever tried has as many great sounds as the SD2 -and certainly not for the bargain price of the SD2.

However, if any Wind Controller fans would like incredible Trumpet (s) you need to get the software synth mad by samplemodeling. Not only does it sound more like a real trumpet, it is also incredibly responsive, pretty much like an acoustic intrument. Just amazing.

Great job Bob! and Thanks,

Last edited by Dan Tong; 03/20/10 12:10 AM.
Dan

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