Hello,

What you say is true and not true at the same time.

If an instrument has the ability to play SMF’s (standard MIDI files) through its own sound engine, then it must also comply with the GM (General MIDI) specification. On the surface, this would mean that any given SMF would sound very close to identical coming from any SMF/GM instrument. However, the specifications have been re-written or added to over the years and each manufacturer has their own idea of just how things should work (which sort of blows the whole compatibility idea out of the water).

All of the arranger keyboards and most of the workstation instruments available today has at least 1 bank of GM sounds (128 total sounds in a specific order as per the spec) while some instruments have 2 or more banks of GM compatible sounds. Other instruments offer a way to switch out the relatively lame GM sounds for better sounds that are contained in the instrument. I.e. Instead of using GM Piano1 it may be possible to use a better quality Piano sound from another bank. With this in mind, you can see how playing the same SMF in various brands/models could potentially sound entirely different.

The idea of Doc-z’s comparison is fine. But I think it would be fairer to first hear the SMF played from each instrument without ANY alterations to the file. Allowing submitters to edit or alter the file brings in to the picture the talents of those individuals and shadows the instruments ability to playback a SMF as it was original intended.

A second comparison for those who have the desire to alter the original SMF would be fun as well, but I think it would be the fairest to start with a SMF with no alterations.

Just my thoughts,

Dave