Default GM Sound Set

Microsoft DirectMusic Producer comes with a complete General MIDI collection of DLS instruments called the GM.dls collection. You can use this collection with any DirectMusic Producer piece, and it is available on all DirectMusic playback systems.

The default GM.dls collection is available to all projects at all times, and you should not add it to the project tree.

The sounds in this DLS collection consist of the GM/GS® Sound Set that are licensed from Roland Corporation and are the same as those used for Roland's Sound Canvas™ family of music synthesizers.

Important For more information about legal issues related to using the GM.dls., click the copyright link at the bottom of this page.

Using the default playback settings in DirectMusic Producer, the instrument sounds you assign to a PChannel are played though the Microsoft Synthesizer. If you assign a PChannel to play using a General MIDI instrument, the default GM.dls sound set is used. But if playback is through a hardware device that is not DLS-compatible, the device's own General MIDI sounds are substituted for the sounds in the default collection.

The properties of a PChannel can be set to override hardware collections and force an individual instrument to play using GM.dls. See Always Use the Default GM Set.

When a Producer file is played using the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, the MSB and LSB numbers of a sound are ignored. A GS instrument is played using the GM instrument with an equivalent patch number.

If you use the default DLS collection when designing your files, and do not assign any parts to play using sounds from other sound sets or hardware devices, your DirectMusic Producer piece plays using only the sounds in the GM.dls collection, and you are assured that all users will hear your files with uniform instrument sounds.