General MIDI Percussion Sounds

This table includes the standard percussion sounds that all General MIDI synthesizers provide in response to different notes on MIDI Channel 10.

These are non-tonal percussion sounds, as opposed to tunable percussion sounds like timpani that are included in the General MIDI Instrument Sounds, so the normal keyboard notes are mapped to different percussion sounds intead of different pitches of a given sound.

The standard percussion sounds are notes 35 through 81. Also included here are sounds for notes 27-34 and 82-87, which may not be available on all synthesizers but are present in the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer that is the default synth for most sound cards. Notes outside of this range may or may not produce sounds on other synthesizers, and are shown here as Unknown.

This complete list is also present in the AllPerc.TXT file, formatted for loading into a MIDI buffer. It can be edited to allow simple random selection of only preferred instruments. GlossyPerc.TXT is such an edited copy that has certain instruments commented out, used by the GlossyTracks.DQM setup and the Music_from_Anything macro mini-app. The only instruments excluded in GlossyPerc are 32 (Click 1) and 72 (Long Whistle).

 0-26  (Unknown)
 27   High Q
 28   Slap
 29   Record Scratch 1
 30   Record Scratch 2
 31   Sticks
 32   Click 1
 33   Click 2
 34   Small Bell
 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 High Hat
 43   High Floor Tom
 44   Pedal High Hat
 45   Low Tom
 46   Open High Hat
 47   Low-Mid Tom
 48   High-Mid Tom
 49   Crash Cymbal 1
 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 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
 82   Shaker
 83   Sleigh Bells
 84   Bell Tree
 85   Castanets
 86   Mute Sudro
 87   Open Sudro
 88-127   (Unknown)