GetGood Drums kits are made for heavy music, so they are a natural home for metal drum MIDI. Using your own MIDI with them is simple, with one thing to know first: GGD’s groove browser only takes GGD’s own groove packs, so other MIDI goes on a DAW track. And GGD’s maps are not laid out like General MIDI.

In this post:

• Which GGD do you have?
• Putting MIDI on a DAW track
• Why some drums play wrong
• Fixing the map in Modern & Massive 2
• The Kontakt libraries
• A two-minute test
• Questions

Which GGD do you have?

GetGood Drums sells two kinds of product, and the steps differ a little:

	GGD’s own plugin	Kontakt libraries
Products	Modern & Massive 2, Matt Garstka Signature Drums, One Kit Wonder: The Downbeat	The other One Kit Wonders, P V and P IV Matt Halpern Signature Packs, Matt Halpern Signature Pack, Modern & Massive, Invasion, Benny Greb Signature Pack
Runs in	Your DAW, installed through GGD’s Cradle Hub	Kontakt or the free Kontakt Player
Own grooves	M&M2 has over 1,500; Garstka over 450; The Downbeat over 300	A built-in groove player

Putting MIDI on a DAW track

Modern & Massive 2’s groove browser only takes GGD’s own groove packs, so third-party MIDI goes straight into your DAW:

1. Load your GGD kit on an instrument track (or Kontakt with the GGD library, for the Kontakt ones).
2. Drag a .mid file from the pack onto that track.
3. Play it and check the drums, as below.

GGD’s own grooves go the other way: you can drag them out of Modern & Massive 2 onto a DAW track and edit them like any MIDI, and mix them with ours on the same track.

Why some drums play wrong

General MIDI puts the kick on 36, the snare on 38, the closed hi-hat on 42, and so on. GGD does not publish a numbered note chart, but its own screenshot of the Modern & Massive 2 default map shows a different layout. Counting up from the kick, the first rack tom sits six notes above it, which is where General MIDI puts the closed hi-hat, and the hi-hats start further up. So a General MIDI groove on the default map will play some drums in the wrong place until the map is changed.

Across 32 grooves from 8 of our packs, just 12 notes are used, all standard General MIDI. The kick and snare are most of the hits, then the open hi-hat, the second crash, the floor tom, the closed hi-hat and the china. Check those first.

Fixing the map in Modern & Massive 2

Modern & Massive 2 has a Mapping page with ready-made map configs and full manual mapping:

1. Open Mapping and click Manage Map Configs.
2. Look through Third-Party Software Configs (GGD lists GarageBand drums, Native Instruments drums “and more”) for a General MIDI or GM config. If there is one, choose it and click Apply Config.
3. If there is not, map it by hand: click the note under each kit piece and set it to its General MIDI note, or use MIDI Learn. Each articulation can take a second note, so you can keep GGD’s note and add the GM one.
4. Save the map. GGD saves maps as .preset files that you can import and export, so you only do this once.

Kit piece	General MIDI note	Kit piece	General MIDI note
Kick	36	Floor tom (high)	43
Snare	38	Floor tom (low)	41
Side stick	37	Crash 1	49
Closed hi-hat	42	Crash 2	57
Pedal hi-hat	44	Ride	51
Open hi-hat	46	Ride bell	53
Rack tom (high)	48 or 50	China	52
Rack tom (low)	47 or 45	Splash	55

There is also a shift option that moves the whole map up or down by a semitone or an octave, which helps if a kit’s map is only offset.

The Kontakt libraries

GGD’s online help does not give the Kontakt libraries’ default note map, so the reliable way is the test below. If drums are wrong, change the map in the library’s own settings inside Kontakt, or remap the notes in your DAW with a note-remapping MIDI effect before they reach Kontakt.

A two-minute test

1. Put the drum plugin on an instrument track and drag one groove onto it.
2. Play it. Listen for the kick, the snare, the hi-hats and the crashes: in our grooves they carry nearly 9 in 10 hits.
3. Then listen for the toms, the china and the ride, which is where maps usually disagree.
4. For each drum that is wrong, note the MIDI note number (your DAW shows it) and fix it in the plugin’s map, as below.

For the idea behind all of this, see Drum MIDI mapping explained. The drum map lists every General MIDI note, and the same setup is covered for EZdrummer 3, Addictive Drums 2 and Superior Drummer 3.

Questions

Can I use other MIDI packs with GetGood Drums?

Yes, on a DAW track: drag the MIDI onto the track with your GGD kit. Modern & Massive 2’s own groove browser only takes GGD groove packs.

Is GetGood Drums General MIDI?

GGD does not say, and does not publish a numbered note chart. Its screenshot of the Modern & Massive 2 default map shows a layout that differs from General MIDI, so check a groove before you build a song on it.

How do I change the MIDI map in Modern & Massive 2?

Open Mapping, then Manage Map Configs to load a ready-made config, or set each kit piece’s note by hand. Save the result as a preset.

Do GGD kits come with grooves?

Yes: over 1,500 in Modern & Massive 2, over 450 with Matt Garstka Signature Drums, and over 300 with The Downbeat. The Kontakt libraries have a built-in groove player.

The Everything Bundle has all 21 packs of General MIDI grooves played by a real drummer. Map your GGD kit to General MIDI once, and every one of them plays the right drums.