Roland JV-30 - Page 44

Concerning GS,
General
MIDI
System
<^
GS
Format
The "GS"
logo
apprears on the
panel of the JV-30.
This serves to
indicate
that the unit
is equipped
with
a
GS
Format sound
source.
The GS Format,
developed by
Roland,
assures that all
sound sources w/ill
respond in a
standardized way
whenenver
music is played
using MIDI.
Thanks to
this format, any
song data created
with any GS
format
sound source can
be
reproduced
identically on any
other unit
with carries the GS
logo.
GENERAL
General
MIDI System
IIII3I
^^^
^^'-"^'^ source in the
JV-30
conforms
to
General
MIDI System
specifications.
Illlliil
Current
recommended practice
calls for
conformity with the
General MIDI
System,
since it aims at
bridging the gap
between
manufacturers through
standardization of
the
specifications for the MIDI
functions provided by
all sound sources.
In fact, the
Roland GS Format
includes all rules set
down in the
General MIDI System
specifications.
Circumstances Leading to GS
The MIDI standard was
created
out
of the need for a means to
transmit performance informa-
tion among
electronic musical instruments, regardless of model
or manufacturer. Thanks
to
MIDI, the realm of electronic musical instruments
now enjoys
a
level of communicative free-
dom that was hitherto unimaginable.
Without MIDI, automatically sequenced instrumenta-
tions, and the participation of computers
in music would not have been possible.
However, certain inconveniences have
become much more apparent, even while MIDI has
become an indispensable part of
electronic musical instruments. It sometimes seems un-
fortunate that MIDI has progressed this
far without more of the finer details having been
de-
cided upon.
For example,
MIDI defines things in terms such as "signals for changing sounds are called
Program Change messages, and they should be sent in such and such a way..,"
However,
details such as "a
number something Program Change message will cause
a
change to
a
sound of this type" were never decided
upon.
As a
result, the differences in the correspon-
dence between the
numbers and the actual sounds can sometimes become quite confusing
when working with
a
variety of different devices. For this reason, song data that was
created
to be
suitable for one device will often not play
as
expected if played by some other sound
source.
The GS format has been formulated in order to alleviate such problems. Any song data created
with one GS sound source in mind can be reproduced faithfully on any other GS sound source.
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