Every year we meet to review the year and plan for the next
For many years, we met at the NAMM show in person, but recently we are really busy at the show so we take care of some organizational details and reports in an online meeting. On Tuesday, we held that meeting and thought it was important to share some of the topics with everyone in the MIDI community.
As he always does for The MIDI Association (TMA) Executive Board meetings, we call on Pete Brown from Microsoft to chair the meetings and keep everybody on time and on track.
Pete explained that TMA is now helping companies adopt MIDI 2.0. It’s here and it’s ready, he said. Pete thanked Athan Billias for serving as MMA president for the past two years. (There is a two year term limit.)
Election results for the Executive Board and Technical Standards Board were presented.
John Mlynczak, president of NAMM (pronounced Melinzak) presented an overview of his worldwide tour at the beginning of the fall during which Yitian Zhao and Athan Billias from the Exec Board had been able to share a nice dinner in Shanghai with John and NAMM staff.
John reminded members that NAMM 2024 is in 7 weeks.
He described it as the “First show of the future of our industry.”
Athan Billias, (current MA President) pointed out that the MIDI Association’s first meeting was at NAMM, 1985, in New Orleans.
One of part of the MIDI@40 celebration in 2023 is an exhibit at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA, sponsored by NAMM and The MIDI Association.
Other recent initiatives between the MIDI Association and NAMM in 2023 included the MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement Awards and the MIDI@40 concert at the April NAMM 2023 NAMM show.
The MIDI Association also has a strong presence at Music China, largely due to the work of board members Joe Zhang and Yitian Zhao who is Vice President of the Chinese Musical Instrument Association.
Paul McCabe spoke about the Marketing Working Group – a small group that meets every 2 weeks. Paul issued a call to action for all members to engage with the MMA. MIDI 2 is ready and available, he said, and asked for help to amplify this message.
The MIDI Association is working on a complete rebuild of the MIDI.org website with Monday Loves you planned to be launched just before the Winter NAMM and Paul showed a prototype of the design.
He also touched briefly on the three Special Interest Groups (SIGs): Music Accessibility, Interactive Audio, MIDI In Music Education
JB Thiebaut told the group he would be leaving the Executive Board after six years of service. He discussed the MIDI Innovation Awards. There are multiple sponsoring partners and five categories for participants. JB briefly showed the work of the 2023 winners. Registration for 2024 Awards will start soon, and there will be a chance for public participation in choosing finalists.
Lawrence Levine discussed the new MIDI logo. The new license agreement has been signed by a number of companies both big (Apple, Korg, Native Instruments Roland, and Yamaha) and small (Amenote, Bome,8eo). He also pointed out companies like Korg were already using the logo on their website.
Lee Whitmore, co-chair of the MIDI in Music Education SIG (along with Athan and Denis Labrecque) said that the group is always welcoming more volunteer help. Their focus is creation of MIDI education materials. The group is currently reviewing proposals for resources, and plan to develop a certification program with different levels.
Jay Pocknell presented a report on the state of accessibility. He is a partially sighted MIDI user working with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). He pointed out that. “something that is easy to use is easier for everyone.” Companies are getting involved, Jay said, but more collaboration is needed. Possibly a MIDI profile could be created for this?
Michael Loh represented the OS/API WG. The group’s mission is to guide and recommend, not specify. The WG plans to hold six open sessions per year. The first was last week and focused on DAWs and plugins. Contact mloh@amenote.com
Florian Bomers, from the Transport WG, attended the recent Audio Developers Conference in London to update developers on MIDI 2. Florian is overseeing the Network MIDI 2.0 specification, now at feature freeze. The MMA hopes to have plugfest/demos at the NAMM booth in January.
Andrew Mee explained that the Prototyping Working Group is now the Developer Support WG. Andrew is newly elected to the MMA Technical Standards Board (TSB).
Rick Cohen gave the TSB Summary. Each MMA member company has a TSB representative, as well as access to forums (discuss.midi.org). Additionally there are 15 GitHub repositories for code. The TSB produced ten approved specs for 2023. Five more have completed 30-day review and will now move to member voting. Rick provided details about the TSB’s working groups and subcommittees.
Mike Kent detailed forthcoming projects from the MIDI 2 Working Group. DAW Control Profile and SMF2 Container are two that Mike singled out as priorities for the near future.
Pete Brown concluded the hour-long meeting by mentioning the MIDI 2 readiness events that were held in 2023. These included gatherings in Tokyo, Japan and Redmond, Washington. “We have tools to help you with your implementations,” Pete told participants. He added that all major operating systems now offer resources for MIDI 2. He also reminded members to begin using the new MIDI logo
Pete Brown concluded the hour-long meeting by mentioning the MIDI 2 readiness events that were held in 2023. These included gatherings in Tokyo, Japan and Redmond, Washington. “We have tools to help you with your implementations,” Pete told participants. He added that all major operating systems now offer resources for MIDI 2. He also reminded members to begin using the new MIDI logo.