The History of Electronic Wind Instruments
The MIDI Association has close relationships with many websites around the world that focus on music production and so often carry articles about MIDI. In fact many of these websites […]
Legends of Digital Synthesizers Event at Kakehashi Foundation – June 15, 2025
🎹 Legends of Digital Synthesizers – A Special Event in Tokyo Date: June 15, 2025Location: Artware Hub KAKEHASHI MEMORIAL, Tokyo The Kakehashi Arts & Culture Foundation is proud to present […]
#MakeMusicwithMIDI
#MakeMusicWithMIDI on June 21 Make Music Day June 21 is International Make Music Day. We are asking everyone to help us create a worldwide day of celebration of making music […]
Music Accessibility Webinar June 5th 10 AM Pacific
Date: Youtube Premier On Saturday June 5, 2025 at 10 am Pacific The Music Accessibility Special Interest Group will host a Youtube Premier on June 5th at 10 am Pacific […]
MIDI and Music Education: Expanding Access and Engagement Worldwide
Date: Youtube Premier On Saturday May 31, 2025 Event: MIDI In Music Education Working Group Presentation and Webinar The MIDI Association will host an education-focused webinar, bringing together music educators, […]
AMEI Receives Award in Music Technology from Music Awards Japan
We are pleased to announce that our partner MIDI organization in Japan (AMEI) have received an award for their achievements in MIDI. This year, for the first time, the “Music […]
MIDI Association Member Booths at Super Booth 2025
MIDI Association Member Booths We published a list before Super Booth of all the MIDI Association companies that would be participating in Super Booth 2025 which is now the largest […]
Super Booth 2025 MIDI Association Booth Report
Here is our report on Super Booth 2025. This year we had a meeting at the Ableton office before Super Booth and then manned our own booth at Super Booth […]
DAW Working Group Meets Face To Face In Berlin
When we started working on MIDI 2.0 we knew it would be a long process to rebuild the entire infrastructure that had been built up for MIDI 1.0. The path […]
Music China 2025 & Music X – Where Music Meets Technology
In 2025, Music China returns to Shanghai with an expanded focus on the fusion of music and technology. This year, the show proudly presents Music X – the Music Technology […]
Super Booth 2025 Booth o243
In May 2024, The MIDI Association (TMA) undertook significant activities in Berlin that included a groundbreaking industry meeting and participation in Super Booth 2024. First DAW Working Group Meeting (Berlin […]
Jordan Rudess on GeoShred, Expressive MIDI, and the Future of Music Tech
Progressive rock icon Jordan Rudess – known to many as the keyboardist of Dream Theater – has also made a name for himself as a cutting-edge music technologist. In a […]
Schedule for 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards Updated
Just this week, we updated the schedule for the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards to give more time to companies and individuals to prepare for this year’s competition. The 2025 MIDI […]
Jordan Rudess and MIT’s jam_bot: A New Era of Human-AI Musical Collaboration
As We May Think
Credit:
Mostafa ‘Neo’ Mohsenvand
Shifting the Soundscape: Highlights from the 2025 ABLE Assembly on Arts and Accessibility
The 2025 ABLE Assembly: Arts Better the Lives of Everyone conference, hosted by the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education, delivered a powerful and inspiring program that continues to shape […]
Drake Music: Pioneering Inclusive Music-Making Technology
Leaders in Music, Disability & Technology Drake Music is a UK-based charity and a global leader at the intersection of music, disability, and technology. For over 20 years, this disabled-led […]
Sound Without Sight: Empowering Blind and Partially Sighted Musicians Through Community and Innovation
In the evolving landscape of accessible music technology, Sound Without Sight (SWS) emerges as a pivotal community-led initiative dedicated to supporting blind and partially sighted musicians and audio professionals. By […]
MIDI Innovation Awards Winner Masary Studios Update
On April 11 on the way to the Able Assembly at Berklee College of music, we stopped in to catch up with Co-Founder and Principal Ryan Edwards and Technical Manager […]
THE ORIGINS OF WAVE SEQUENCING
CCRMA and the Culture of Invention This paper attributes contemporary Wave Sequencing to CCRMA composer Bill Schottstaedt’s 1987 work Leviathan, which radically extended musique concrète techniques by computing over 15,000 […]
The MIDI Association and the IASIG at GDC
The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of both The MIDI Association and the International Game Developers Association has a number of events planned for next week at GDC. IASIG is […]
Seiki Kato Passed Away on February 21, 2025
It was with surprise and grief that I heard the news that Seiki Kato, President of Korg had passed away on February 21, 2025. Here is the official statement from […]
Expressive E Explains MPE
MIDI Association members Expressive E, makers of the Osmose keyboard and the Touché Controller have released a video explaining the benefits of MPE.
MIDI 2.0 Drum Profiles
The MIDI Association has made significant progress this year in developing two Profiles focused on electronic drums and drum machines. The Default Drum Map Profile defines a MIDI-CI Profile for […]
MIDI In Music Education and SAE Mexico
SAE Mexico has been selected to begin work on The MIDI Association’s MIDI In Music Education curriculum by the NAMM Foundation. They will provide the curriculum materials in both English […]
Plugin Formats Open Source Support for MIDI 2.0
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 […]
Latest MIDI 2.0 Developments in Apple, Google, Linux and Microsoft Operating Systems
The MIDI Association and its members provided updates on the latest developments in the major operating systems at Winter NAMM 2025. Microsoft announced updates to both MIDI and Audio at […]
MIDI Association Open Meeting At NAMM 2025
The MIDI Association had a full schedule of events at the 2025 NAMM show. We will be publishing articles on each of those events , but we wanted to start […]
Windows MIDI Services Customer Preview 1
In our NAMM wrap up , we reported on all the exciting things that are happening in the world of MIDI 2.0. Today is a major step in the adoption […]
The MIDI Association NAMM 2025
The MIDI Association and MIDI Showcase at NAMM 2025 continued to grow in both size and attendance at events. Over 30 companies from The MIDI Association had booths at NAMM […]
Network MIDI 2.0 (UDP) Overview
User Datagram Protocol for Universal MIDI Packets (aka Network MIDI 2.0) defines a standard way to connect MIDI devices (MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 protocol) via Ethernet and wireless LAN. […]
Tadao Kikumoto (菊本忠男) and Happy Accidents
Before we go into the details of Kikumoto-san’s career and his personal description of how both the TR-808 (the drum machine that has defined the sound of HipHop) and MIDI […]
CME Introduces the H4MIDI WC and U4MIDI WC
High-Performance MIDI Interfaces for Musicians and Producers CME is proud to announce the release of two cutting-edge MIDI interfaces designed to meet the needs of modern musicians, producers, and live […]
John Bowen-The father of factory presets
It is somehow fitting that in one of the most famous pictures about MIDI (the photo from the 1983 NAMM show where MIDI connected a Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 to […]
MIDI History Chapter 7- MIDI Associations (1983-1985)
MIDI in 1983 – It seems to work, but what’s next? In Chapter 6 of the History of MIDI, we started in 1981 when Kakehashi-san first went to Tom Oberheim with […]
MIDI History Chapter 6-MIDI Begins 1981-1983
In researching this article, we relied on many first person resources and accounts. We have spent a lot of time unpacking these stories from decades ago because we feel that […]
CES 2025 Booth 8578 LVCC, North Hall
We have received our CES Allied Association Booth for 2025 and want to invite everyone to come see us at Booth 8578 of Las Vegas Convention Center in the North […]
The History of MIDI -Chapter 5-Precursors to MIDI
Analog Synths, Drum Machines, and Sequencers In the last chapter of the history of MIDI, we covered the early history of electronic musical instruments, the period from 1900 to 1963. By the […]
The MIDI Association At NAMM 2025
MIDI Association NAMM Booth Events Thursday, January 23 MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement Awards 2025 Thursday, January 23 11:00 AM-11:45 AM 45 minutes (America/Los_Angeles) MIDI Association Booth 10302 (Hall A) In-Person […]
Lemonaide: The World’s First Fairly Trained AI MIDI Plugin
Lemonaide is a state of the art AI Company that creates MIDI and audio plugins that generate inspirational ideas (such as melodies and chord progressions in any key). They are […]
How I Made The MIDICard
I’m Alana Balagot, maker of The MIDICard. I’ve always been excited about music and technology. My piano teacher set up a simple MIDI studio in the 90’s, with a Dell […]
Ethics of AI MIDI
The ethics of AI music became a heated topic at industry panels in 2024, sparking debates around the notion of “fair use”. AI music tech companies have admitted to training […]
Audio Developers Conference 2024
Tickets to ADC24 Tickets to ADC24 are available for both in person and virtual attendance and range in price with discounts for Academics and Students. Click the button below to […]
Tokyo Gakki Expo 2024
We said we would be traveling the globe and promoting MIDI 2.0 around the world. Our friends from the Japan Programmers Association and Association of Musical Electronics Industry (AMEI) recently […]
Synthogy Releases Ivory 3 American Concert D
Synthogy has released Ivory 3 American Concert D, the 2nd virtual piano for its Ivory 3 platform. Ivory 3 American Concert D features their legendary recordings of a vintage New York […]
Music Tectonics features MIDI Association companies at Creators Fair
On October, 23, 2024, Rock , Paper, Scissors hosted a creators fair at the at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica. Rock, Paper, Scissors has been working with The […]
Microsoft’s Major Moves To Make Making Music on Windows Easier
Pete Brown is both the MIDI Association Exec Board Chair and a Principal Software Engineer in the Windows Developer Platform team at Microsoft. He focuses on client-side dev on Windows, […]
Digishow-Jam With Everything
At the MIDI Forum, there were a number of technology presentations and one of the most fascinating was from Robin Zhang about the open source software he developed called Digishow. […]
Audio Modeling’s Experience at MusicChina 2024: Successes, Discoveries, and New Collaborations
The Music China 2024 edition was an extraordinary and opportunity-filled experience for us at Audio Modeling. In collaboration with the MIDI Association and in the MusicX area, we had the […]
Chinese Musical Instrument Association (CMIA), The MIDI Association and The Future Music Technology Committee
The MIDI Association and the Chinese Musical Instrument Association (CMIA) have always had a close and mutually beneficial relationship. We have met every year for over decade to discuss the […]
The MIDI Forum at Music China 2024
With the help of Geoffery Ge from Medeli and Yitian Zhao from CME Pro, Music China arranged for a MIDI Forum with experts from all over the world. The setup […]
MIDI Association Presentations on the Music China 2024 X Stage
Music China and the Chinese Musical Instrument Association (CMIA) have really stepped up their support for MIDI and digital music making and right next to The MIDI Association booth was […]
Music China 2024 (Set Up and Opening Ceremony)
Music China wrapped up on Sunday, October 13, but we wanted to capture our impressions of the show while they were still fresh. Wednesday, October 9 was set up day […]
SoundWithoutSight.com offers accessibility resources and monthly meetups
Jay Pocknell from the Royal Institute For The Blind, Soundwithoutsight.com website and a regular participant in The MIDI Association Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group is a really busy guy. Sound […]
Music X at Music China
Explore a new realm of music, where technology and art meet. The Music X Future Museum is about to open, taking you to listen to the sound of the future […]
Music Tectonics Conference
Music Tectonics ConferenceOctober 22-24, 2024Los Angeles, CA Our friends at Rock , Paper, Scissors have announce that Tickets are on sale for the 2024 Music Tectonics conference! Music Innovators meet at […]
GeoShred Studio for MacOS Released
GeoShred introduces a new paradigm for musical instruments, offering fluid expressiveness through a performance surface featuring the innovative “Almost Magic” pitch rounding. This cutting-edge software combines a unique performance interface […]
AudioCipher Technologies has just announced the release of Version 4.0: The MIDI Vault.
Founded in 2020, the company has slowly made a name for itself as the only text-to-MIDI chord and melody generator on the market. Their latest plugin improves on the classic […]
Meet The Members of The Music Accessibility Standard SIG
We thought it was time to introduce the members who regularly attend these meetings so you can get to know their backgrounds and why they are passionate about making music […]
Synthfest UK
5 OCTOBER 2024 – THE OCTAGON, SHEFFIELDExhibition \\ Retailers \\ Education \\ Modular Meet \\ Seminars & DemosCome and see Keyboards – Desktop Synths – Modular – Software Synths and […]
The MIDI Association At Music China 2024
The MIDI Association has been actively involved with Music China for many years. You can read about that history in the articles at the bottom of this page. But in […]
Audio Developers Conference 2024
Announcing Audio Developers Conference 2024 The 10th Audio Developer Conference (ADC) returns in 2024 both in-person and online in a new city, Bristol, UK. The in-person and online hybrid conference […]
Caedence: browser-based music collaboration and performance software
Caedence is a browser-based music collaboration and performance software that allows people to sync and customize virtually every aspect of performances across devices – in real time – to help […]
InfoComm 2024 Show Report
The MIDI Association didn’t have booth at Infocomm 2024, but there were certainly a lot of MIDI Association members with booths at the show. We sent Athan Billias, Exec Board […]
Xinghai Conservatory of Music and The MIDI Association
Last year at Music China, Shanghai Intex who runs the Music China show arranged for The MIDI Association to have three brand ambassadors from Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou. […]
Seven Years After The Passing of Ikutaro Kakehashi
Ikutaro Kakehashi, Founder of Roland Ikutaro Kakehashi’s impact on music production is undeniable. He founded Roland and oversaw some of the most seminal MIDI products in history. When he passed […]
Fast Company on Music Accessibility
Fast Company interviewed Athan Billias and Scott Chesworth of The MIDI Association on the importance of accessibility of music. Learn more and check out the article.
Anthony Marinelli and the Arp 2600 at the MIDI Association Booth NAMM 2024
Reflections on the Arp 2600 and Alvin Lucier Before we get into Anthony’s presentation at NAMM 2024, I wanted to give a bit of insight about why what he did […]
The Music Accessibility Standard starts to take shape
MIDI Association members have joined with The Royal Institute for the Blind to discuss how MIDI 2.0 can make music accessible to everyone.
MIDI Association NAMM 2024 Booth Schedule
The MIDI Association booth (Booth 10302 at the front of Hall A) at Winter NAMM 2024 is very different than our booths in years past.
The MIDI Association Annual Meeting 2023
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 […]
The MIDI Association Plans for NAMM 2024
The MIDI Association is well under way with our plans for NAMM 2024. We have a 30 ft x 30 ft booth where one third of the space is dedicated […]
ShowMIDI: effortlessly visualize MIDI activity
ShowMIDI is a multi-platform GUI application to effortlessly visualize MIDI activity, filling a void in the available MIDI monitoring solutions. Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant […]
Music China 2023 Show Report
Music China is back after three years During the pandemic, Music China and The MIDI Association worked closely together to keep information and news about MIDI and MIDI products available in […]
Designing AI VSTs for Generative Audio Workstations
DAW plugins have been approaching a saturation point over the past decade. Reskinned VSTs seem to outnumber innovative music software by a margin of ten to one. How many new delay and reverb effect […]
The MIDI Association at Music China 2023
Music China and The MIDI Association continue to work closely together It may seem counter-intuitive, but the global pandemic actually brought Music China and The MIDI Association closer together. Because in-person events were […]
MIDI Innovation Awards Livestream Sept, 16, 2023
The 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards live stream event took place on 16 September 2023 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern and 5 pm GMT. The live stream was hosted […]
The MIDI in Music Education Special Interest Group
The MIDI in Music Education (MIME) Special Interest Group has defined a MIDI Curriculum and a Certification Program Starting in 2021, Athan Billias (MIDI Association President), Denis Labrecque (former MIDI […]
Announcing the finalists in the 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards
On September 16 at 10 am Pacific, a Youtube livestream will showcase the entries of the 15 finalists of the MIDI Innovation Awards, and select the 5 category winners chosen […]
Happy 808 Day 2023
People all over the web are celebrating 808 Day We found a few favorites from MIDI Association members and friends we wanted to share with everyone. The cover image above […]
Microsoft Adds MIDI 2.0, Researches AI Text-to-MIDI in 2023
The MIDI Association has enjoyed an ongoing partnership with Microsoft, collaborating to ensure that MIDI software and hardware play nicely with the Windows operating system. All of the major operating […]
The MIDI@40 Exhibit at NAMM
The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad is featuring a special exhibit dedicated to MIDI The MIDI Association, Dr. Jonathan Piper and Moldover worked together to create a special exhibition to celebrate the 40th […]
Celebrating Innovation: Voting Opens for MIDI Innovation Awards 2023
We are excited to announce that voting for the MIDI Innovation Awards 2023 is officially open. In the tradition of our past two successful years, we continue to celebrate innovation, […]
Turning MIDI Melodies Into Full Songs with Meta’s MusicGen
The popularity of generative AI software has reached an all time high this year, with music lagging behind other mediums like image and text. Nevertheless, two applications dropped in May […]
Detailed timeline of MIDI 2.0 developments since January, 2020
The core specifications for MIDI 2.0 were adopted by the AMEI and The MIDI Association in January of 2020. Since that time the MIDI Association and its members have been developing […]
Bome Software Released 3 Major Product Updates
To celebrate the last day of May is MIDI Month, we are happy to announce 3 major product updates. Florian Bomers (Founder of Bome Software) New BomeBox Firmware 1.5 As of today, Bome […]
Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group Youtube event
Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group kicks off with a Youtube Live Stream Members of the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group (MAS SIG) outlined their vision for the future of […]
New Windows MIDI services Spring 2023 update
Check out Pete Brown’s post on the Microsoft Dev blog for important updates on MIDI 2.0 Pete is not just the designated representative to the MIDI Association for Microsoft, he is […]
The Evolution of MIDI Software and Hardware in 2023
The MIDI association hosted a live roundtable discussion last week, featuring 2022 MIDI Award winners Krishna Chetan (Pitch Innovations), Henrik Langer (Instrument of Things), Markus Ruh (MusiKraken), and John Dingley […]
MIDI In China
MIDI has grown in importance in China as Chinese companies expand in both domestic and overseas markets The MIDI Association is tasked with promoting and managing MIDI specification for MIDI in every […]
MIDI Innovation Awards 2022 Winners Webinar
Check out these in depth interviews with the winners of the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards The MIDI Association invited the winners of the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards to join this round table […]
MIDI In Music Education Webinar- Saturday, May 13, 2023
Hosted by MIDI In Music Education Working Group Chair, Lee Whitmore, VP of Education for Focusrite, the webinar featured virtual tours of several MIDI In Music Education institutions including Belmont […]
MIDI@40 Concert World Premiere
May 6 at 10 am Pacific on Youtube The world broadcast premiere is scheduled for Saturday. May 6 at 10 am Pacific. Click on the Youtube link below to watch the […]
MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement Awards at April NAMM 2023
At the 2023 April NAMM show, The MIDI Association honored the people who created the modern music production environment of synths, drum machines, and sequencers, including Bob Moog, Don Buchla, […]
The MIDI Showcase at April NAMM 2023
There was a lot going on for the MIDI Association at April NAMM 2023 so this is a part of the series of articles covering NAMM April 2023 MIDI Association events. 27 […]
HipHop@50 Events at April NAMM 2023
At the 2022 June NAMM show, MIDI Association Executive Board member Lawrence Levine and President Athan Billias were invited to sit at the Broadjam table by MIDI Association supporter Roy Elkins. Roy’s […]
MIDI@40 and Hip-Hop@50 Anniversary Celebrations Await at The 2023 NAMM
The 2023 NAMM Show will celebrate two of history’s most impactful musical innovations: the 40th anniversary of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) with MIDI@40 and the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, with Hip-Hop@50. […]
MIDI is about collaboration, not competition
All kinds of companies, all kinds of devices One of the things that has always made MIDI unique in the world of standards is that no one owns MIDI and the MIDI Associations […]
Tsutomu Katoh and Korg
Early History KORG’s founder, Tsutomu Katoh was born in Nagoya on August 28, 1926 (Taisho 15) to a merchant family that ran a livestock feed wholesale business along the Iida […]