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Topic: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #? (Read 3289 times) previous topic - next topic

Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Hi everyone, I know that this question was asked before, but I need a specific answer. How do you manage to get that list of percussion instruments like on the sample? I go to my line of music, highlight it and right click, and then I choose midi control and then instrument patch, on the general midi list, i don't notice anything that resembles what I'm looking for. If I pick another category from the list, will it be compatible on other computers?

Thanks

Re: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Reply #1 –
You don't have to select any of your music, in fact you don't even have to have any music on your staff yet. All you have to do is assign channel 10 to your percussion staff.

Staff --> Properties (or just press F2)
Midi tab
Channel - use the scroll arrows to select "10".

That's all there is to it. And yes, AFAIK all General Midi synths will interpret channel 10 as the percussion track, including GS and XG extensions.

Re: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Reply #2 –
> And yes, AFAIK all General Midi synths will interpret channel 10 as the percussion track

Some (usually old) synths have the percussions on channel 16. But I've never met one of those in the real life. ;)

Yves

Re: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Reply #3 –
The days of percussion on channel 16 have, by and large, long since faded into the past. As I recall, the original multimedia standards included two channel configurations, one of which supported percussion on channel 16. This was back in the days when computers generally did not come with multimedia capabilities (c. 1992), but add-on kits could be bought that included the CD-ROM, soundcard, and speaker combination. These kits usually came with an FM based synthesizer that only supported a few MIDI channels. The percussion sounds were usually generated by the same FM synthesis techniques, which made for some ugly sounding drum parts.

Channel 16 would seem a more logicial choice, except channel 10 gained momentum in a period where low cost MIDI boxes rarely supported more than one channel at a time. We still have a Roland MT-32 external MIDI box from the 80s. Perhaps this is the device that is responsible for the percussion on channel 10 precedent that exists today.

Re: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Reply #4 –
My keyboard still has percussion on channel 16. It's a Yamaha PSS 780, and it's about 12 years old. Needless to say, I only use it for entering music - I use the PC sound card for playing the music.
 

Re: Adding Percussion into my compositions, what #?

Reply #5 –
Hi Sarah, maybe because this is so obvious, nobody has added it, but just in case you or somenone else have/has the same problem I had: once you set the midi channel to 10, you can change the percussion instrument by changing the pitch of the note.