The MIDI Association member companies that develop plugin formats – Apple (Audio Units), Avid (AAX), Bitwig (CLAP) and Steinberg (VST) are working together to develop open-source software that will enable plugin developers to quickly and easily interface with external MIDI gear without the need for any in depth knowledge of MIDI 2.0 or MIDI-CI. Another MIDI Association member supporting this effort is JUCE – the most widely used framework for audio application and plug-in development.
The MIDI Association DAW working group is creating open source software that will look at MIDI 2.0 messages from external devices, extract the information the plugin needs to support Profiles like the Orchestral Articulation, MPE and Piano profiles and translate those MIDI messages into the native plug formats that plugins already understand.
By utilizing this open source software, plugin companies can start supporting MIDI 2.0 external devices with minimal development costs.
Before Super Booth in May of 2024, The MIDI Association hosted the first meeting of the DAW working group at the Native Instruments office in Berlin, where the companies agreed to work together to develop open-source software available under a permissive MIT license to bridge the gap between external MIDI Devices, Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), and plugins. That cooperative project is ongoing in the MIDI Association’s DAW Working Group.
The DAW Working Group is also working on a DAW Control Profile which would supersede proprietary control protocols like Mackie Control and Logic control with a true industry standard for controlling DAWs via external hardware and software.
The MIDI Association will report on the weekly meetings of the DAW Working Group at Music China 2024, ADC 2024, and NAMM Show 2025.
