Q: I’ve noticed that there are extra synth-drum sounds in the lower octaves of Session’s drum kit. Are these sounds part of the General Midi 1.0 standard drumkit?

A: No. The Session drum kit contains all the drum sounds specified in the General Midi 1.0 standard, plus an additional 3 octaves of “synthetic” drum sounds to further expand Session’s creative possibilities. These extra synth-drum sounds start on midi note zero (C -1 in most cases) and end where the General Midi 1.0 standard kit begins on midi note #35 (A1 in most cases). It might be helpful to think of these extra sounds as being “to the left” of the standard General Midi sounds, as most users will need to transpose their midi keyboards down a few octaves to access all of these extra sounds.

To access the extended soundest:

1. Launch session with a midi keyboard connected to the computer.
2. Open any project in Session and select “Add Track”.
3. Select “Play and Record with Your Keyboard” or “Create Music with Midi Loops”.
4. Under the “Instruments” column, select Drums and any style of your choice.
5. Set the midi keyboard to the lowest octave possible (three octaves below middle C in most cases) and begin exploring the new drum sounds.