Can anyone explain why I'm seeing the following? ...
 
In my MIDI sequences created on the MC50mkII and Sound Canvas SC-88 hardware, the Kick and Snare drum are shown as:
Kick - B1 (Note #35) 
Snare - D2 (Note #38) 
This agrees with the Roland GM/GS Standard.
 
In SONAR, however, these same events are shown in the Event List as:
Kick - B2 (Note #47) 
Snare - D3 (Note #50) 
 
While in yet another DAW they are shown as:
Kick - B0 (Note #23) 
Snare - D1 (Note #26)
 
All other drum events are similarly rendered in all three environments.
 
What's up with that?
 

Preferences > Customization > Display "Base Octave for Pitches"

Awesome, thank you!  Though I find it strange that the standard isn't adhered to across platforms.  In any case, easy fix! (when one is aware of it). :-)

The MIDI specification only defines note number 60 as middle C and all other notes to be relative to that. As to whether middle C is labeled C4, C5 or something else is not specified. 

It's a shame the standard doesn't have middle C as C0, with bass being C-1, C-2, C-3, and treble being C1, C2, C3, etc. It would be unambiguous that way.

Roland and Yamaha couldn't agree on Middle C back in the day. I don't know if it's still like that.

I find it a bit surreal that the standard doesn't simply coincide with reality.  I mean, the very first note on an 88-key instrument is A.  So why not call it A1/Note #1 (or even A0/#0), and go from there?  The GM/GS standard starts the keyboard somewhere in the 20's, which never made sense to me.

Most programmers like to play with bytes which yields 256 values, and they will squeeze more data into it by splitting it in half... So 128 (0-127)... Then "middle" is 64 (63 when starting at 0). Obviously "middle C" must fall into the middle of 0-127, so pianos are not properly designed... They are actually missing 40 notes; it just took a software engineer to prove it.

mettelus
Most programmers like to play with bytes which yields 256 values, and they will squeeze more data into it by splitting it in half... So 128 (0-127)... Then "middle" is 64 (63 when starting at 0). Obviously "middle C" must fall into the middle of 0-127, so pianos are not properly designed... They are actually missing 40 notes; it just took a software engineer to prove it.

Ah yes, I hadn't considered it from that perspective. That does make sense from that viewpoint. So we must blame Mr. Cristofori for getting it wrong when he invented the piano. haha