GM voice table

Number
1 Acoustic grand piano
2 Bright acoustic piano
3 Electric grand piano
4 Honky-tonk piano
5 Electric piano 1
6 Electric piano 2
7 Harpsichord
8 Clavichord
9 Celesta
10 Glockenspiel
11 Music box
12 Vibraphone
13 Marimba
14 Xylophone
15 Tubular bells
16 Dulcimer
17 Drawbar organ
18 Percussive organ
19 Rock organ
20 Church organ
21 Reed organ
22 Accordion
23 Harmonica
24 Tango accordion
25 Acoustic guitar (nylon)
26 Acoustic guitar (steel)
27 Electric guitar (jazz)
28 Electric guitar (clean)
29 Electric guitar (muted)
30 Overdriven guitar
31 Distortion guitar
32 Guitar harmonics
33 Acoustic bass
34 Electric bass (finger)
35 Electric bass (pick)
36 Fretless bass
37 Slap bass 1
38 Slap bass 2
39 Synth bass 1
40 Synth bass 2
41 Violin
42 Viola
43 Cello
44 Contrabass
45 Tremolo strings
46 Pizzicato strings
47 Orchestral harp
48 Timpani
49 String ensemble 1
50 String ensemble 2
51 Synth strings 1
52 Synth strings 2
53 Choir aahs
54 Voice oohs
55 Synth voice
56 Orchestra hit
57 Trumpet
58 Trombone
59 Tuba
60 Muted trumpet
61 French horn
62 Brass section
63 Synth brass 1
64 Synth brass 2
65 Soprano sax
66 Alto sax
67 Tenor sax
68 Baritone sax
69 Oboe
70 English horn
71 Bassoon
72 Clarinet
73 Piccolo
74 Flute
75 Recorder
76 Pan flute
77 Blown bottle
78 Shakuhachi
79 Whistle
80 Ocarina
81 Lead 1 (square)
82 Lead 2 (sawtooth)
83 Lead 3 (calliope)
84 Lead 4 (chiff)
85 Lead 5 (charang)
86 Lead 6 (voice)
87 Lead 7 (fifths)
88 Lead 8 (bass and lead)
89 Pad 1 (new age)
90 Pad 2 (warm)
91 Pad 3 (polysynth)
92 Pad 4 (choir)
93 Pad 5 (bowed)
94 Pad 6 (metallic)
95 Pad 7 (halo)
96 Pad 8 (sweep)
97 FX 1 (rain)
98 FX 2 (soundtrack)
99 FX 3 (crystal)
100 FX 4 (atmosphere)
101 FX 5 (brighthess)
102 FX 6 (goblins)
103 FX 7 (echoes)
104 FX 8 (sci-fi)
105 Sitar
106 Banjo
107 Shamisen
108 Koto
109 Kalimba
110 Bagpipe
111 Fiddle
112 Shanai
113 Tinkle bell
114 Agogo
115 Steel drums
116 Woodblock
117 Taiko drum
118 Melodic tom
119 Synth drum
120 Reverse cymbal
121 Guitar fret noise
122 Breath noise
123 Seashore
124 Bird tweet
125 Telephone ring
126 Helicopter
127 Applause
128 Gunshot

Note that some manufacturers number their patches from 0-127 rather than from 1-128.

GM drum map

Note Number/Drum Sound;

35 Acoustic bass drum
36 Bass drum 1
37 Side stick
38 Acoustic snare
39 Hand clap
40 Electric snare
41 Low floor tom
42 Closed hi-hat
43 High floor tom
44 Pedal hi-hat
45 Low tom
46 Open hi-hat
47 Low mid tom
48 High mid tom
49 Crash cymbal
50 High tom
51 Ride cymbal 1
52 Chinese cymbal
53 Ride bell
54 Tambourine
55 Splash cymbal
56 Cowbell
57 Crash cymbal 2
58 Vibraslap
59 Ride cymbal 2
60 High bongo
61 Low bongo
62 Mute hi conga
63 Open hi conga
64 Low conga
65 High timbale
66 Low timbale
67 High agogo
68 Low agogo
69 Cabasa
70 Maracas
71 Short whistle
72 Long whistle
73 Short guiro
74 Long guiro
75 Claves
76 High woodblock
77 Low woodblock
78 Mute cuica
79 Open cuica
80 Mute triangle
81 Open triangle

the GS format

The GM format is based on a system developed by synth manufacturer Roland, and they’ve now taken the idea a step further and come up with their GS format. GS is an enhancement to GM in that, instead of having just one bank of standard sounds, you can have several other banks offering variations on those sounds. The arrangement is that the standard GM sound set is in the first bank (bank 0), with up to seven further banks of variations. All of the variation tones of a piano will still sound like a piano, just as all of the variations of organs will sound like organs, but they will offer more variety.

the XG format

Yamaha also introduced their own expanded General MIDI format, which they call XG. Like Roland’s GS mode, this provides several banks of alternative sounds, although most Yamaha XG instruments also support Roland’s GS format. GM and GS tend to be supported mainly by hardware synths rather than by soundcards, although Audigy’s default SoundFonts support both GM and GS variations.