General MIDI and the Roland R5 Drum Machine

General MIDI instrument allocation to program numbers is well known and documented on the web, see this page at The MIDI Farm for instrument assignment information and this page for drum note assignment information.
However, I use a Roland R5 drum machine and so needed to work out which pads to hit to get the right MIDI note numbers generated to be able to build a drum track which would work OK on any general MIDI compatible instrument - including of course computer music cards such as the Soundblaster. And the reason ? So that I could use my own music in my own DOOM II WADs !

So, after a bit of work I came up with the table which you see below. Here, Each of the standard MIDI note numbers and associated drum sound is given, along with the equivalent pad bank and drum sound on the Roland R5. It proved invaluable to me and I hope it is of some use to others.

Although Roland were effectively the originators of the standard for midi drum note assignments, things have moved on since those early days, and a number of the general midi note number sounds simply do not have equivalents on the Roland R5; notable examples are the Guiros, Cuicas and Triangles. However, it is obviously possible to generate the required note numbers just by using the appropriate pad in the correct pad bank. For this reason, I have included all the drum sound equivalents, even where the actual sound on the R5 is completely different.

Please note that R5 sounds marked with an asterisk (*) apply only to my system and are not available on the R5 as shipped.

Octave	Note	Note#	GM Drum Sound	R5 Kit	R5 Drum Sound
1	B	35	Acoustic Bass Drum	A	Kick Drum
2	C	36	Bass Drum 1	B	Kick Drum
2	C#	37	Side Stick	A	Side Stick
2	D	38	Acoustic Snare	A	Fat Snare
2	D#	39	Hand Clap	A	808 Hand Clap
2	E	40	Electric Snare	B	Reverb Snare
2	F	41	Low Floor Tom	A	Dry Tom 2
2	F#	42	Closed Hi Hat	A	Closed Hi Hat
2	G	43	High Floor Tom	B	Ambient Tom 2
2	G#	44	Pedal Hi Hat	A	Pedal Closed Hat
2	A	45	Low Tom	A	Dry Tom 3
2	A#	46	Open Hi Hat	A	Open Hi Hat
2	B	47	Low Mid Tom	A	Dry Tom 3
3	C	48	Hi Mid Tom	A	COPY01
3	C#	49	Crash Cymbal 1	A	Crash Cymbal
3	D	50	High Tom	B	COPY02
3	D#	51	Ride Cymbal 1	A	Ride Cymbal
3	E	52	Chinese Cymbal	E*	Shaker*
3	F	53	Ride Bell	A	Ride Cymbal Bell
3	F#	54	Tambourine	E	Tambourine
3	G	55	Splash Cymbal	-	-
3	G#	56	Cow Bell	B	Cow Bell
3	A	57	Crash Cymbal 2	-	-
3	A#	58	Vibraslap	C	Electric Snare
3	B	59	Ride Cymbal 2	E*	Slap Conga*
4	C	60	Hi Bongo	E	Bongo
4	C#	61	Low Bongo	E	COPY20
4	D	62	Mute Hi Conga	E	Mute Hi Conga
4	D#	63	Open Hi Conga	E	COPY18
4	E	64	Low Conga	E	Open Low Conga
4	F	65	High Timbale	E	Timbale
4	F#	66	Low Timbale	E	COPY15
4	G	67	High Agogo	E	COPY19
4	G#	68	Low Agogo	E	Agogo
4	A	69	Cabasa	E	Cabasa
4	A#	70	Maracas	D	Jazz Snare
4	B	71	Short Whistle	E	Whistle
5	C	72	Long Whistle	D	Jazz Tom 3
5	C#	73	Short Guiro	D	Jazz Tom 2
5	D	74	Long Guiro	D	Jazz Tom 1
5	D#	75	Claves	E	Claves
5	E	76	Hi Wood Block	D	Brush Hit Snare
5	F	77	Low Wood Block	D	Brush Roll Snare
5	F#	78	Mute Cuica	C	Blast
5	G	79	Open Cuica	C	Back Cymbal
5	G#	80	Mute Triangle	C	Electric Tom 1
5	A	81	Open Triangle	B	Ouch Snare

This page last updated 22 August 1998