Where to get free General MIDI instruments
Loop by Zaweba bundles the MIT-licensed FluidR3_GM SoundFont, giving you all 128 General MIDI instruments and the GM drum kit for free.
Free General MIDI instruments come built into Loop by Zaweba. It bundles the FluidR3_GM SoundFont, which is MIT-licensed, and plays the full set of 128 General MIDI instruments plus the GM drum kit from it. Choose Track > Add General MIDI track, pick an instrument, and play it, with nothing extra to download or set up.
General MIDI is a standard list of instruments that has been around for decades, and it is still very handy. Here's what it is, where it helps, and how to get good results from it in Loop.
What General MIDI is
General MIDI, often written GM, is an agreed list of 128 instrument sounds in a fixed order, from pianos and organs through guitars, basses, strings, brass, woodwind, synth sounds and effects, plus a drum kit with the drums laid out on standard notes. A MIDI file only says which notes to play and which instrument number to use. Any GM sound set will then play it with roughly the right instruments.
A SoundFont is a file of recorded instrument samples that a program uses to play those notes. FluidR3_GM is a well-known one, and the version in Loop is MIT-licensed.
Adding a GM track
Open Studio mode with F3. Choose Track > Add General MIDI track and pick an instrument. Select the track and play it from your computer keys, the on-screen keyboard or a USB MIDI keyboard, or draw notes in the piano roll.
You can have as many GM tracks as you like, each with a different instrument, so a string section, a piano and an acoustic bass can sit side by side. The GM drum kit gives you a set of acoustic-style drums for when the synthesised kits of the drum machine aren't right.
Where GM instruments shine
Opening MIDI files. File > Import MIDI file as new tracks makes General MIDI tracks for every part in the file and takes its tempo, so a downloaded .mid or one exported from another program plays with sensible instruments straight away. You can also drop a .mid file straight onto the grid.
Acoustic sounds. The built-in synth is great for electronic tones, but pianos, guitars, strings and brass are where the SoundFont earns its place.
Sketching arrangements. Want to hear a chord helper progression on a piano rather than a synth pad? Put it on a GM piano track and listen.
Getting a better sound from them
GM instruments are general by design, so treat them like a raw recording rather than a finished sound. Give them some space with the reverb send to bus A. Use EQ to take out muddiness in the low mids. A little chorus helps thin strings and electric pianos.
Velocity matters. Many GM sounds change with how hard a note is played, so vary velocity in the piano roll's velocity lane instead of leaving every note the same.
Taking them out of Loop
When you export a MIDI file from Loop with File > Export > MIDI file, it writes General MIDI programs for each track, with drums on channel 10, so another program or device that understands GM will choose the same kind of instrument. Loop also maps its own synth presets to sensible GM programs in the export.
If you'd rather hand over the sound itself, export audio as WAV, MP3 or OGG, or stems with one WAV per track.
A note on memory
The GM instruments are samples, so they take some memory. Loop uses about 0.6 GB with the General MIDI instruments loaded, which most modern Windows computers handle easily.
