General MIDI Level 2 or GM2 is a specification for synthesizers which defines several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI standard and is based on General MIDI, GS extensions, and XG extensions. It was adopted in 1999 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA).

General requirements

Parameters

Program and bank change events

General MIDI 2 compatible synthesizers access all of the 256 instruments by setting cc#0 (Bank Select MSB) to 121 and using cc#32 (Bank Select LSB) to select the variation bank before a Program Change. Variation bank 0 contains the full GM — that is, General MIDI 1 — sound set. Variations using other bank numbers are new to General MIDI 2, and correspond to variation sounds introduced in Roland GS and Yamaha XG.

Melodic sounds

Piano

Chromatic Percussion

Organ

Guitar

Bass

Orchestra Solo

Orchestra Ensemble

Brass

Reed

Wind

Synth Lead

Synth Pad

Synth Sound FX

Ethnic

Percussive

Sound Effect

Drum sounds

These are the same patch numbers as defined in the original version of GS. Drum bank is accessed by setting cc#0 (Bank Select MSB) to 120 and cc#32 (Bank Select LSB) to 0 and PC (Program Change) to select drum kit.

Additional percussion notes

These are the same GS drum notes and span Drum Kits 1 to 49:

Supported Control Change messages

Supported Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs)

Supported Universal System Exclusive (SysEx) messages