Where is My Cowbell? (a.k.a. General MIDI Drum Assignments)

When you are first beginning to use Drum VSTs, it sometimes comes as a shock when try to actually find the notes that trigger the sounds. This is primarily because drums are attached to individual notes (unlike a synth that you can play up and down the range). It is also because not all Kits are created equal. Most freeware drum VSTs only offer support for a standard 8 drum kit, sometimes more, sometimes less. This makes the game of "find my drum triggers!" even harder, if you're just hunting and pecking.

General MIDI standards
Fortunately for us, this has been a problem from the early days of MIDI music. The General MIDI standard was developed in 1991, and expanded in 1999. In a nutshell, the General MIDI standard included several pieces, most notably the assignments of specific instrument assignments to specific bank slots. So, for example, instrument 10 is always a Glockenspiel on an instrument that adheres to the General MIDI standard.

Drum Standards
For the mostly software-based home studio, most of the General MIDI standard doesn't impact too much, since we are more likely to have pieces that are custom-written specialized for out gear. The portion that I think is more important is the General MIDI Drum Standards. According to the standard, Drums should always be on MIDI Channel 10 (and 11 if you have 2 kits in use at the same time). Even more useful is that specific drum sounds are identified by specific note numbers. Notes 35 to 81 are identified as very specific sounds.

Why Should We Care?
Simply put, it allows you to swap out full drum kits without having to tweak your music. If we didn't follow a common standard, that means to change from one drum VST to another might require you to re-write all the drum parts to connect the entered notes in your DAW to the actual notes the new VST wants. By using General MIDI Drum Assignments, everything is much more portable. And easier to find the sounds you're looking for. (In the piano roll in most DAWs, you should have the option to see "named notes" or "note numbers", so you can see exactly where these sounds should trigger from.)

General MIDI Drum Note Assignments
35 Bass Drum 2
36 Bass Drum 1
37 Side Stick
38 Snare Drum 1
39 Hand Clap
40 Snare Drum 2
41 Low Tom 2
42 Closed Hi-hat
43 Low Tom 1
44 Pedal Hi-hat
45 Mid Tom 2
46 Open Hi-hat
47 Mid Tom 1
48 High Tom 2
49 Crash Cymbal 1
50 High Tom 1
51 Ride Cymbal 1
52 Chinese Cymbal
53 Ride Bell
54 Tambourine
55 Splash Cymbal
56 Cowbell
57 Crash Cymbal 2
58 Vibra Slap
59 Ride Cymbal 2
60 High Bongo
61 Low Bongo
62 Mute High Conga
63 Open High 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 Wood Block
77 Low Wood Block
78 Mute Cuica
79 Open Cuica
80 Mute Triangle
81 Open Triangle

Closing Thoughts
These are only applicable to instruments that adhere to the GM Standard. Not everyone honors the standard, and there are variations created by plug-in makers who are apparently blissfully unaware that they are making something completely incompatible with any existing drum standard. There are also a number of other accepted formats (mostly pricey "pro" kits) that don't necessarily adhere to the GM Standard. Keep an eye for GM Standards-compliant packages while building your discount studio. It will make transitions a lot easier, and you will always know where your cowbell is. (It's note 56, in case you missed it.)