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One of the disadvantages of GM patches is that they are often not layered sufficiently to capture the overtones, harmonics etc that occur naturally on many instruments as the attack changes during the performance.

On thing you can do to simulate harmonics and overtones is to fade in and out one or more high notes that add a temporary gleam to the passage. No special rule to this, just experiment. Especially when a solo falls short of the bling you envisioned, try this. Used sparingly, it can add life and excitement to an otherwise dull-sounding track



There's a lot of life left in General MIDI, providing you can think a bit like a Martian.

The original GM sound set contains a couple of patches that are often overlooked. Patch #32 is Guitar Harmonics, which can be added to Distorted Guitar or Overdriven Guitar to create a natural-sounding high volume sustain sound. There is also Guitar Fret Noise (#121) and, for wind instruments, Breath Noise (#122).

Blending GM sounds can also give great results. I once heard a fantastic Hofner (Beatle/violin) bass sound created by mixing Acoustic Bss with Acoustic Guitar (Steel) in the right register to give the impression of round-wound strings. Acoustic Guitar (Nylon) also makes a great harp sound in lower octaves. I expect I've got more buried on an old 50 MB IDE hard drive somewhere . . .

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."