How do I know which key to press on my keyboard to get the kick drum or the cymbals for example ?
asked Sep 18, 2012 at 13:21
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3 Answers
General Midi specifies a mapping. Roland's GS standard adds to it as does Yamaha's XG standard. Your exact keyboard (and possibly drum preset itself) may vary.
see http://pianocheetah.com/midi/drum.html and wikipedia:
answered Sep 18, 2012 at 15:51
Pretty much all electronic instruments today follows the "General MIDI" standard which includes a definition for which notes should control which type of drum sound.
You can read about it on Wikipedia or on the official MIDI site's General MIDI Level 1 Percussion Key Map. This site lists the corresponding keys in a more human readable way. Let me repeat the list:
Note Drum Sound
==== ==========
B0 Acoustic Bass Drum
C1 Bass Drum 1
C#1 Side Stick
D1 Acoustic Snare
Eb1 Hand Clap
E1 Electric Snare
F1 Low Floor Tom
F#1 Closed Hi Hat
G1 High Floor Tom
Ab1 Pedal Hi-Hat
A1 Low Tom
Bb1 Open Hi-Hat
B1 Low-Mid Tom
C2 Hi Mid Tom
C#2 Crash Cymbal 1
D2 High Tom
Eb2 Ride Cymbal 1
E2 Chinese Cymbal
F2 Ride Bell
F#2 Tambourine
G2 Splash Cymbal
Ab2 Cowbell
A2 Crash Cymbal 2
Bb2 Vibraslap
B2 Ride Cymbal 2
C3 Hi Bongo
C#3 Low Bongo
D3 Mute Hi Conga
Eb3 Open Hi Conga
E3 Low Conga
F3 High Timbale
F#3 Low Timbale
G3 High Agogo
Ab3 Low Agogo
A3 Cabasa
Bb3 Maracas
B3 Short Whistle
C4 Long Whistle
C#4 Short Guiro
D4 Long Guiro
Eb4 Claves
E4 Hi Wood Block
F4 Low Wood Block
F#4 Mute Cuica
G4 Open Cuica
Ab4 Mute Triangle
A4 Open Triangle
answered Sep 18, 2012 at 16:00
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please be sure to understand my question ( I have a little doubt ) : I know that keys on keyboards are associated to drum instruments. What I care about is Which Pad of my Roland TD-9K (Or other electronic drumset) will be triggered when I plug a MIDI keyboard to it. :) Sep 18, 2012 at 16:17
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I don't have a TD-9K or other electronic drum set, but I find it hard to believe that Roland would have set up the triggering of sounds in another way than according to the General MIDI. Further I believe it's the sound module rather than the pads that produce the sounds. Each pad will likely just send the MIDI information corresponding to the appropriate key as listed above. I.e. you shouldn't need the pads when connecting a keyboard to the sound module. (But you probably understood that. :-) Sep 18, 2012 at 17:06
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indeed, definitely understood that :). It will eventually take less room than the usual setup ;). And your assumption regarding Roland's choice makes sense. I'll just have to check now ! Sep 18, 2012 at 17:31
In general, you can program your electronic drum kit and individual drum pads to assign any MIDI note that you want to any drum pad, and also to map or associate any drum sound that you want to any drum pad and to any MIDI note. It is up to you to make these assignments yourself.
If you want to know what MIDI notes and which sounds are assigned to which pads on your MIDI drum device by default when it comes from the factory, then the obvious answer is to read the owner's manual that came with your electronic drums. It will have a chart in the back listing all this.