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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 making accessible to everyone. The Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group in The MIDI Association has been meeting regularly for over a year now every other Wednesday at 8 am Pacific Time.


Juho Tomanien, Chaor of the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group

Juho Tomanien- MASSIG Chair

Juho Tomanien is a student from Finland who had a vision for a Music Accessibility Standard. Just because you are blind, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a vision. Take Stevie Wonder whose Inner Visions album is considered one of the greatest records of all time.

Juho reached out to the MIDI Association after someone of KVR Audio suggested that perhaps The MIDI Association might be a good place to start up a conversation about Accessibility.


It turned out that there were already a number of MIDI Association member companies who had been working with accessibility consultants like UK producers/recording engineers Scott Chesworth and Jason Dasent and had already been adding accessibility features to their products. Juce which runs the Audio Developer Conference was also already onboard and had been hosting accessibility workshops at ADC for several years.

In 2023 at the ADC conference Jay Pocknell from the Royal Institute for the Blind hosted a packed session of developers trying to learn how to use Juce to add accessibility features to their products.

Workshop: An Introduction to Inclusive Design of Audio Products – Accessibility Panel – ADC23

MIDI Association members from Audio Modeling, Arturia, Native Instruments, Roland and more have joined together with The Royal Institute for the Blind and visually impaired producers and musicians like Juho, Scott Chesworth Jason Dasent and more to discuss how MIDI 2.0 might enable Music Accessibility and make making music accessible to everyone.


Jay Pocknell-SoundWithoutSight.org and the Royal Institute For The Blind

Jay Pocknell, SoundWithoutSight.org and the Royal Institute For The Blind

As a sight-impaired musician, I first considered plans for a project in 2018. I was achieving my dream of working in commercial recording studios but also found that there were significant barriers to accessing the equipment and culture. I became aware that my fully-sighted peers could be more agile within the industry. Rather than becoming frustrated, I wanted to use my experience as motivation to inspire change. I refused to believe that I was the only person to have struggled.

Jay Pocknell, https://soundwithoutsight.org/

Vanessa Faschi, MASSIG Vice Chair Person

Ph.D. student at the Music Informatics Laboratory at the University of Milan, in collaboration with Audio Modeling.

From a young age, I was captivated by the transformative power of music. However, as I delved deeper into the world of digital instruments, I began to notice a glaring gap in accessibility. The tools that are supposed to empower creativity often come with barriers that exclude many from fully engaging in music-making. This realization fueled my desire to create digital instruments that are not only innovative but also inclusive, designed to be accessible and usable by everyone, regardless of their physical abilities or technical expertise.

Through my research, I aim to challenge the status quo by designing instruments that are adaptable and intuitive, ensuring that the joy of music is within reach for all. To deepen my understanding and to extend my vision of accessibility, I joined MASSIG (the Music and Accessibility Special Interest Group). Being part of this community has allowed me to connect with musicians who face real challenges in their everyday interactions with digital instruments. These interactions have been invaluable in shaping my research, providing me with insights into the practical needs and problems that must be addressed.

My journey is driven by the belief that music should be a universal language, and to achieve that, the tools we create must be as inclusive as the art form itself. As I continue my work, I am committed to breaking down barriers and ensuring that every musician, regardless of their background or ability, has the opportunity to express themselves through digital music.
Short bio:
I’m Vanessa, and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Music Informatics Laboratory at the University of Milan, in collaboration with Audio Modeling. My passion for music and technology has led me to a research project that sits at the intersection of both fields: the ideation and development of accessible digital music instruments.


Emanuele Parravicini, co-founder and CTO of Audio Modeling

Emanuele Parravicini is the co-founder and CTO of Audio Modeling. He holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a Master’s in Information Technology. With a deep passion for music and music technology, Emanuele is a strong advocate for inclusivity, particularly in the realm of musical technology.

At Audio Modeling, he leads the development of innovative products, including the UniMIDI Hub, a software platform designed to integrate various accessible devices. This platform enables real-time control of digital instruments or music production software by multiple users simultaneously, whether they are individuals with disabilities, students, amateurs, or professionals.

Emanuele’s commitment to making music technology accessible to everyone is the driving force behind his involvement in the MASSIG – Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group. His expertise and dedication to inclusivity in the field align perfectly with the group’s mission.

I am Emanuele Parravicini, co-founder and CTO of Audio Modeling. I hold a degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a Master’s in Information Technology. With a deep passion for both music and music technology, I am a strong advocate for inclusivity, especially within the realm of musical technology.

In my role at Audio Modeling, I oversee the development of our products, including one of our latest projects, the UniMIDI Hub. This software platform aims to integrate various accessible devices, allowing real-time control of digital instruments or music production software by multiple users at once, whether they are individuals with disabilities, students, amateurs, or professionals.

My commitment to making music technology accessible to everyone is what led me to join the MASSIG – Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group. I believe that inclusive technology can empower people to create and enjoy music, and I am dedicated to contributing to this important mission.

Emanuele Parravicini

Haim Kairy- CEO – Arcana Instruments

Our vision is to make music accessible for everyone. Our goal was to create an instrument that meets the special needs of those with physical and cognitive disabilities, children, elderly and other audiences, globally.


Micheal Strickland , Specialized Faculty in Music Technology at Florida State University

Michael Strickland Photo

Michael Strickland is a passionate advocate for music education and accessibility, leveraging his expertise in music technology to create innovative learning and performance environments. As a member of the MIDI Association, he participates in the Music Education and Accessibility Special Interest Groups, where he promotes the use of MIDI as a tool for enhancing musical expression and inclusion. He is also a skilled performer, engineer, and researcher, with a diverse background in physics, music, and improvisation. He is honored to serve as a judge for the MIDI Innovation Awards and celebrate the creative potential of MIDI.


Sam Prouse- Music Technologist

Sam Prouse demoing accessibility settings to the Music Accessibility Standard SIG

Samuel Prouse is a passionate music technologist whose journey with sound began in the vibrant 1980s, inspired by the iconic synths that defined the era. Growing up, He channelled this passion into building rigs, DJing, and live performances, initially as a hobby. In 2008, a deep love for music technology led to a bold career shift, prompting him to pursue formal education in the field. However, just before beginning these studies, life took an unexpected turn with the sudden loss of sight in the left eye, later leading to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. By the end of his BTEC studies, He was registered visually impaired, which brought unique challenges to his educational journey and professional aspirations.

Despite these obstacles, Samuel demonstrated remarkable resilience, earning a foundation degree, a BA Hons, and an MSc in Music Technology. Throughout this academic journey, Samuel explored the creative implications of device interfaces, both hardware and software, with a particular focus on visual accessibility. In 2021, when JUCE released version 6.1 with enhanced accessibility features, he developed skills in C++ and interface design, driven by a commitment to improving accessibility in music technology.

After graduating with distinction, Samuel ‘s PhD bursary proposal was accepted, allowing him to focus his research on universal design concepts within the music technology industry. As an active member of the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group, Samuel has found a collaborative space to share innovative ideas and concepts, further strengthening his research. Being part of such a committed group has provided constant inspiration to develop new ways of interacting with music technology. Today, he is dedicated to pioneering new ways of interacting with music technology, ensuring that the industry evolves to be more inclusive and accessible for all.

Same Prouse Highlights Music Accessibility on YouTube

Demystifying screen readers #1 We can drag and drop.
Accessible prototype synthesiser with voice activated parameters
Accessible piano roll and break point generator prototypes
Designing Plugins for low vision

Music Accessibility at Music China and ADC

We are planning a number of upcoming Music Accessibility events – one at Music China in October and then another led by Jay Pocknell at Audio Developers Conference in November.

Stay tuned to MIDI.org for more information comign soon.

Here is a promo video for the event at Music China.

The 2024 MIDI Innovation Awards Show

The 2024 MIDI Innovation Award Show is scheduled to be aired on Youtube on September 21 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern and 7 pm GMT.


Hosted by Martin Keary “Tantacrul”

As the VP of Product at Muse, Martin plays a crucial role in overseeing and mentoring the teams responsible for a diverse range of products, including Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore Studio, MuseScore.com, Audacity, Audio.com, and the Muse Hub.

He also runs a YouTube channel called ‘Tantacrul’, where he shares his thoughts on music, technology, philosophy, and design.


The 2024 MIDI Innovation Award Judges


Michelle Darling

Assistant Chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department at Berklee College of Music


Mark Isham

Film Composer and recording artist with over 4 billion dollars in gross of films scored


Bian Liunian

Chinese Erhu musician, composer and musical director of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Closing Ceremony and the CCTV New Year’s Gala, one of the most watched television programs in the world


Moldover

Musician and instrument designer and is widely recognized as the godfather of controllerism


Jeff Rona

American composer for film and games and the founder and first president of The MIDI Association


Michael Strickland

Specialized Faculty in Music Technology at Florida State University and an active member of both the MIDI In Music Education and the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Groups of The MIDI Association.


Join us as our esteemed panel of judges review and discuss the three finalists in each of the five categories of the MIDI Innovation Awards and selects a winner for:

Artistic/Visual Project or Installation

Software Prototypes/Non-Commercial Products

Commercial Software Products

Hardware Prototypes/Non-Commercial products

Commercial Hardware Products

For more information on the finalists, click on the link below.

Synthfest UK

5 OCTOBER 2024 – THE OCTAGON, SHEFFIELD
Exhibition \\ Retailers \\ Education \\ Modular Meet \\ Seminars & Demos
Come and see Keyboards – Desktop Synths – Modular – Software Synths and much more.

SynthFest UK 2024 takes place in Sheffield on Saturday 5th of October 2024 (10:30am – 6:30pm) and has been created by Sound On Sound magazine to give companies of all sizes an opportunity to showcase their synth products in front of the public in what promises to be a great day out for all musicians, whether a pro, semi-pro or hobbyist.
The Octagon Centre, Clarkson Street, Sheffield, S10 2TQ
(Next to the University of Sheffield Student Union building)

For more information, check out the Synthfest UK website.

https://www.synthfest.co.uk/

Tickets

Tickets for SynthFest UK 2024 now on sale via See Tickets

Early Bird Ticket – £15.99 (plus fee) available until 31 August.
Advance Price Ticket – £17.99 (plus fee) from 1 September.
Walk-Up Ticket – £25 on the day.

Students, Registered Claimants and Senior Citizens (60 Yrs+) – £9.00 (plus fee)
Children (14-18 Yrs) – £7.00 (plus fee)

Children (Under 14 Yrs) – Free

Ticket price includes free entry to Seminars and Demos.

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS

Sound On Sound is the media partner of The MIDI Association for The MIDI Innovation Awards and MIDI Innovation Awards finalists, Sound On Sound staff and representatives of The MIDI Association will all be there.

Following companies exhibited in 2023 and many of them have booked for 2024 already with more to come. MIDI Association members are in bold.

1010 Music

Ableton

ADAM Audio

Advanced Music Construction Systems
AJH Synth
Allen Synthesis
AM Synths
AMS Stands-Obelisque Design
Analogue Solutions UK

Arturia
ASM Hydrasynth
Audio Computer
Bjooks
Buchla
Cong Burn
Decksaver
DPW Design

Electronic Sound Magazine

Euterpe Synthesizers Laboratories

Eventide
Exclusively Analogue (E-mu Modular Clone)
Expert Sleepers
Expressive E Osmose

Focusrite

Ferrofish
Genelec
GS Music
Haken Audio

Ian Boddy (DiN Records)

Icon Pro Audio

IK Multimedia
James Orvis Training
Kenton
KMR Audio Retailer
Korg

Kurzweil
Leaf Audio
LOCI Stands
Mellotron
MIDI Association Innovation Awards
MIDI Cake
Modular Perfection Cases
Moog
Moon Modular
Motas Electronics
Movuku FlowFal

myVolts

Nonlinear Labs

Novation

Oberheim
Officina del Malista

Omnibus Press

Play All Day

PWM
Rhodes

Riban Modular
Rides In The Storm

RME

Ryk Modular

Sequential

Solid State Logic

SOMA
Sonocurrent
Sound On Sound Magazine

Soundgas
Sound Technology
Source Distribution

Studio Electronics

Studiologic

Sweet Discrete
Synclavier

Synth Cables
Synth Evolution
Teenage Engineering

Thonk

Tierra Audio

Tileyard North
Transistor Sounds Labs
Udo Audio
Waverley Instruments
Wonkystuff
Yamaha

Yorkshire Sound Women Network

Zoom

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 this article, we’ll focus on Music China 2024 because there is a lot going on.


Statistics About Music China

Date: October 10-13, 2024 (Thursday-Sunday)

Last year there were 122,184 people who attended Music China from 92 countries and there were 1,832 from 23 countries. You can get an idea of what Music China 2023 was like from this picture.

The MIDI Association Booth

MIDI Association 2024 Music China Booth
Rendering of The MIDI Association Booth design

The MIDI Association booth will have areas for MIDI 2.0 products, MIDI Innovation Award products and explanations of our major initiatives- MIDI In Music Education, Interactive Game Audio, and Music Accessibility.

This is a picture of Andrea Martelloni, one of the winners of the 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards at last year’s MIDI Association booth at Music China. He traveled to China and spent 4 days demoing to both end users and companies who were interested in his technology.

MIDI Association Companies at Music China

A number of MIDI Association companies will have booths at Music China in the Hall N, MusicX area.

The following MIDI Association companies will have booths at Music China (some in the Music X Area and some in the other halls at Music China).

  • Music X area
    • Artiphon
    • Amenote/Azotech
    • Audio Modeling
    • CME
    • Donner
    • MIDIPlus
    • Synido
    • Novation
    • ASM-Ashun Sound Machines
    • Avid
  • Medeli: W4B42
  • Ringway: W4E42
  • Amason: W1D20, N1C55
  • Donner: W5C52
  • Hotone: W5E32
  • Mooer: W5C44

The Chinese Users Choice Awards

Music China arranged for all 15 finalists in the 2024 MIDI Innovations Awards to be entered into the Chinese Users Choice Awards.

This year’s winners of the Chinese User Choice awards are:

  1. Audio Modeling- UniMIDIHub
  2. Artiphon-Chorda
  3. Manifest Audio-Sonification Tools
  4. Christo Squier-Particle Shrine
  5. Playmodes Studio-PPFF

The winner of the Chinese Music Choice Awards will be automatically entered into the Future Shock Awards which includes which includes entrants outside of The MIDI Innovation Awards and also entrants from China.


Presentations at the X Stage in Hall N

The MIDI Association will be doing three presentations at Music China’s X Stage in Hall N.

  • Chinese Users Choice and MIDI Innovation Award Winners
  • MIDI In Music Education
  • Music Accessibility

We’ll provide more details on the presentations and times soon.

Presentations at the Music Lab last year at Music China 2023

Performance at the opening ceremony of Music China 2024 by Brian Hardgroove, Bian Liunian and Kong Hongwei

Brian Hardgroove-Musician/Producer and bass player for Public Enemy
Bian Liunian- Chinese Erhu musician, composer and musical director of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Closing Ceremony and the CCTV New Year’s Gala, one of the most watched television programs in the world and 2024 MIDI Innovation Award judge.
The renowned Chinese jazz pianist, Kong Hongwei (known by his nickname-
Golden Buddha) is celebrated as China’s most influential and inspiring jazz musician. 

Mr. Hardgroove first started a close relationship with The MIDI Association at the 2023 NAMM show when his band Resonant Alien performed at the celebration at the MIDI@40/HipHOP@50 celebration.

Brian is attending Music China on the behalf of Sennheiser and he has written a song specifically for the occasion that will be mixed in immersive audio. It will feature recorded performances by Mr. Bian and Mr.Kong.

Hardgroove, Bian and Kong will perform the song live at the Music China opening ceremony where people will be invited to come to The MIDI Association to listen to the immersive audio mix on Sennheiser HD-490 headphones.

At The MIDI Association booth, people will be able to scan a code for a free download of the song and enter a raffle to win a variety of prizes including a pair of the Sennheiser headphones, an Artiphon Chorda, NFR codes Audio Modeling SWAM software and Manifest Audio Sonification Tools an other prizes.

Opening Ceremony at Music China 2023

Stay tuned for more about The MIDI Association

at Music China 2024

There is obviously a lot going on at The MIDI Association right now, but check back regularly because there are some really exciting things planned that we are just in the process of confirming. Also check out the following articles detailing our long and friendly relationship with Music China.

By the way for many people around the world, you no longer need a visa to visit China and even for the US, UK and Canada, it is pretty easy to go to Music China under a 6 day transit visa (you just need to travel to another country rather than go directly back to your country of origin).

Here is the place for more information.


Other MIDI.org articles about Music China

Music China 2020 MIDI Technology Forum

Entering a New Era for Music and Musical InstrumentsThe Future of MIDI 2.0 Technology  Joe Zhang from Medeli and the  MIDI Association Technical Standards Board At Music China 2020’s MIDI Technology Forum, Joe Zhang (pictured in the article cover photo) gave an in-depth presentation covering a variety of MIDI topics. Joe is in the R&D department of MIDI Association corporate member Medeli and also…

Continue Reading Music China 2020 MIDI Technology Forum

Music China 2021 and the Chinese Musical Instrument Association launch new MIDI Initiatives

This is a translation of an article on the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s website.  The original article is linked below. Music China is now scheduled for  January 14-17, 2022  Creating an interconnected space for music technology and leading the cross-border integration of the musical instrument industry  Under the background of the Internet+ era, science and technology…

Continue Reading Music China 2021 and the Chinese Musical Instrument Association launch new MIDI Initiatives

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 country in the world except Japan where the Association Of Music Electronics Industry (AMEI) is responsible for MIDI. Thanks to the leadership of Yitian Zhao,…

Continue Reading MIDI In China

AES 2024

The MIDI Association will be participating in the Audio Engineering Society 2024 which happens October 8-10 at the Jacob Javits Center In New York City.

While a large group of MIDI Association members will be on planes headed to Shanghai for Music China, another group of MIDI Association members will head to the Big Apple to represent The MIDI Association at AES.

Lee Whitmore, Chair of the MIDI In Music Education initiative will be there in his role a VP of Education for Focusrite and Steve Horowitz, Chair of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group will be giving several talks on Game Audio. Here are some topics lead by Steve Horowitz and then a few others by Micheal Bierylo, fomr Berklee College of Music that would be of interest to MIDI Association members.

Get Smart! – Everything you wanted to know about game audio education but were afraid to ask!Steven Horowitz, Dafna Naftali, Alistair Hirst
Take the Blue Pill-Interactive and Adaptive Music In the 21st centurySteven Horowitz
The Technical Legacy of Dr. Robert MoogMichael Bierylo, Steve Dunnington
Expressive Control in Electronic InstrumentsMichael Bierylo, Jesse Terry, Richard Graham
AI in Electronic Instrument DesignMichael Bierylo, Akito van Troyer
Sustainability in Music Technology ManufacturingMichael Bierylo
New Directions in Modular Synthesizer DesignMichael Bierylo

There are a number of MIDI Association companies who have booths at AES.

Avid, Eternal Research (makers of MIDI Innovation Award contestant Demon Box), Icon Pro Audio and Juce’s parent company Pace will be at the show.

Step into a world of audio innovation and inspiration at AES Show 2024 NY, the flagship event of the Audio Engineering Society. This annual gathering unites over 10,000 audio professionals, enthusiasts, and exhibitors from around the globe. Whether you’re a seasoned expert, a novice, or a student, the AES Show provides a platform for collaboration, discovery, and learning.

Audio Engineering Society

Below are the prices for attending AES which include a ticket just for exhibits which is quite reasonable.

Pricing for AES Tickets

Attendees at Game Sound Con

GameSOUNDCon 2024

Game Sound Con Logo and Banner

2 Days of Video Game Music, Sound, Dialogue and More​

Game Music and Sound Design Conference

GameSoundCon 2024- October 29-30- Burbank Convention Center- Burbank, CA & Online

GameSoundCon 2024 is hybrid!

You can attend in person in Burbank, CA, or remotely with our online only ticket! Online access gives you real-time access to GameSoundCon sessions, live text chat and more. Both in-person and online attendees can watch sessions they missed for up to 6 months after GameSoundCon.

Casual to AAA, big studio to indie — For composers, sound designers, dialogue specialists, researchers, educators and others who want to keep up with the cutting edge in video game sound, music, dialogue and technology.

Topics include:

  • Video Game Music Composition
  • Game Sound Design
  • Technology
  • Business/Career
  • Virtual/Mixed Reality Audio
  • Dialogue/Performance
  • Interactive Audio Research
  • Ludomusicology and the study of game music and sound
  • Tutorials
  • Game Music and Sound Design Education

Game Sound COn pricing, in person $449 until Sept 14, Online Only $125

The MIDI Association and IASG Team at Game Sound Con

The MIDI Association will be sharing a booth with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) as Steve Horowitz, IASIG chair is also the executive director of the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at SCFM. If you are at GameSound Con, please come by and say hi!

Steve Horowitz Picture

Steve Horowitz

Chair of the Interactive Audio Special Interest group
Executive director of the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at SCFM.

Athan Billias

Former President of The MIDI Association
MIDI Association Executive Board Member
Chair of the Orchestral Articulation Working Group


Pat Scandalis Photo

Pat Scandalis

CEO at moForte
Chair of the MPE Working Group


Austin Smith Photo

Austin Smith

IASIG Steering Committee
Content Manager Game Audio Institute



Other articles about the IASIG


AES 2024

The MIDI Association will be participating in the Audio Engineering Society 2024 which happens October 8-10 at the Jacob Javits Center In New York City. While a large group of MIDI Association members will be on planes headed to Shanghai for Music China, another group of MIDI Association members will head to the Big Apple…

Continue Reading AES 2024

Steve Horowitz-IASIG Chair

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of the MIDI Association is the longest running SIG in the organization. IASIG is an organization in partnership with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and the MIDI Association (TMA) that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for…

Continue Reading Steve Horowitz-IASIG Chair

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of The MIDI Association

The IASIG is an organization in partnership with the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) and MIDI Association (TMA) that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for games, websites, VR content, and other interactive performances. Our members share tips and techniques, study trends, and create…

Continue Reading The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of The MIDI Association

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group Sponsors Sessions at Game Developers Conference

A Week of Game Audio Lessons  The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) of the MIDI Association is the special interest group that represents MIDI and audio to the gaming community. This year the all virtual Game Developers Conference includes a number of sessions sponsored by the IASIG and other sessions on audio that should…

Continue Reading The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group Sponsors Sessions at Game Developers Conference

Game Music and MIDI- The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)

What Is Interactive Audio   Game Music is incredibly unique because unlike almost every other form of music which is based on a linear temporal framework (a song starts and plays uninterrupted from begin to end), game music is inherently interactive because it depends on the user’s game play to decide what music plays at what time. If…

Continue Reading Game Music and MIDI- The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)

ADC Talk in the main hall

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 will take place 11-13 November 2024.

Talks at ADC range from audio research, to professional practices, to standards in audio development, as well talks about application areas and career development. Experimental projects are welcome. 

ADC Talk about AudioKit v5

Topics include, but are not limited, to:

  • Digital Signal Processing
  • Audio synthesis and analysis
  • Music technology, DAWs, audio plug-ins
  • Game audio
  • 3D and VR/AR audio
  • Creative coding
  • Other applications of audio programming (e.g. telecommunications, multimedia, medicine, biology)
  • Design and evaluation of audio software and hardware systems
  • Programming languages used for audio development (e.g. C++, Rust, Python)
  • Software development tools, techniques, and processes
  • Performance, optimisation, and parallelisation
  • Audio development on mobile platforms
  • Embedded, Linux, and bare metal audio programming
  • Low-latency and real-time programming
  • Best practices in audio programming
  • Testing and QA
  • Educational approaches and tools for audio and DSP programming
  • Planning and navigating a career as an audio developer
  • Other relevant topics likely to be of interest to the ADC audience

The MIDI Association and ADC

The MIDI Association is a community sponsor of Audio Developers Conference and several MIDI Association companies are paid sponsors of the event.

ADC is run by PACE Anti-Piracy Inc., an industry leader in the development of robust protection products, and flexible licensing management solutions. PACE acquired JUCE a few years ago.

JUCE is the most widely used framework for audio application and plug-in development. It is an open source C++ codebase that can be used to create standalone software on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, as well as VST, VST3, AU, AUv3, AAX and LV2 plug-ins.

Several MIDI Association companies are sponsors of Audio Developers Conference including Gold Sponsors Juce and Focusrite, Silver sponsor Avid, and Bronze sponsor Steinberg.

Franz Detro from Native Instruments will be doing a talk introducing ni-midi2, a modern C++ library implementing MIDI2 UMP 1.1 and MIDI CI 1.2 and also the open source software available on MIDI2.dev.

Description of Franz Detro's talk introducing NI-MIDI2 at ADC

Franz is on The MIDI Association Technical Standards Board and an active participant in the MIDI 2.0 Working Group, the DAW working group which is working on open source software for how plugin formats including Apple Audio Units, Avid Audio Extension, Bitwig CLever Audio Plug-in, and Steinberg VST3.

He will be available at ADC to answer questions about MIDI 2.0 and The MIDI Association. The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (Tom Poole from JUCE is on the IASIG steering committee) will hold an online meeting during ADC.

The MIDI Association will have both in person and on line representation at ADC and ADCx Gather.

The ADCx Gather one-day online event is free and open to everyone in the audio developer community (registration required). ADCx Gather is hosted in Gather.Town, a browser-based virtual online platform that allows attendees to interact and collaborate in real-time.

ADCx Gather takes place on the 1st of November starting at Noon UTC.

Registration for this event has not yet started. Sign-up for the ADC  newsletter and be the first to know when ADCx Gather attendee registrations begin.

Tickets for ADC

There are different tickets available for ADC with in person tickets for corporate, individual, academic and also the same categories for online participation.

Picture of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Steve Horowitz-IASIG Chair

Logo.

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of the MIDI Association is the longest running SIG in the organization.

IASIG is an organization in partnership with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and the MIDI Association (TMA) that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for games, websites, VR content, and other interactive mediums. Our members share tips and techniques, study trends, and create reports and recommendations that game developers, tool makers, and platform owners use to create better products.

IASIG was born out of the Audio Town Meeting at the Computer Game Developers conference in April of 1994. The group first met in June of 1994 to discuss a means for improving audio development tools and upgrading multimedia audio performance. Initially called the AIAMP (Association of Interactive Audio and Music Professionals), the MIDI Association (TMA) assumed responsibility for the group in August of 1994.

IASIG is a partner of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and the MIDI Association (TMA).


IASIG operates as an official Special Interest Group of the IGDA, & under the auspices of the MIDI Association, with its own Advisory Board, Steering Committee and Working Groups. The majority of activity is in discussion of various topics of interest to the members, which is conducted via private internet mailing lists. Every participant is free to choose their own level of contribution, and all are encouraged to define issues and establish solutions with assistance from the greater community.

Working Groups are the foundation of the IASIG, which operate as explained in the IASIG Working Group Process. Working Groups are supervised by the IASIG Steering Committee. The Steering Committee ultimately serves the General Membership of the IASIG.

In addition, IASIG may convene an Advisory Board. Advisory Board members are not involved in the day to day management of the organization. As the name suggests, they serve to advise the Steering Committee in areas of specialized expertise, and as ambassadors for the IASIG to specific industry segments.

The process, in general, is geared towards gaining consensus, and the wider SIG membership is given ample opportunity to comment on the progress of each Working Group through reports given at regular physical meetings as well as via e-mail, internet chat rooms, or regular mail (as the case may be). IASIG recommendations will be forwarded to the IGDA, the MIDI Association, and all other interactive audio industry groups as needed to complete the IASIG mission to positively influence the development of interactive audio hardware and software.

Steve Horowitz-IASIG Chair

Steve Horowitz is not only a criticially acclaimed composer and the Chair of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group, he is also the executive director of Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at SFCM, a position he took over in January, 2024.

Horowitz comes to SFCM after 23 years as Audio Director at Nickelodeon where he worked on scoring hundreds of video games.

Horowitz is also the author of The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games on Focal press, and newest book The Theory And Practice Of Music For Games, published January 2024.


Other Articles About The IASIG


AES 2024

The MIDI Association will be participating in the Audio Engineering Society 2024 which happens October 8-10 at the Jacob Javits Center In New York City. While a large group of MIDI Association members will be on planes headed to Shanghai for Music China, another group of MIDI Association members will head to the Big Apple…

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GameSOUNDCon 2024

2 Days of Video Game Music, Sound, Dialogue and More​ Game Music and Sound Design Conference GameSoundCon 2024- October 29-30- Burbank Convention Center- Burbank, CA & Online GameSoundCon 2024 is hybrid! You can attend in person in Burbank, CA, or remotely with our online only ticket! Online access gives you real-time access to GameSoundCon sessions,…

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The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of The MIDI Association

The IASIG is an organization in partnership with the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) and MIDI Association (TMA) that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for games, websites, VR content, and other interactive performances. Our members share tips and techniques, study trends, and create…

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The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group Sponsors Sessions at Game Developers Conference

A Week of Game Audio Lessons  The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) of the MIDI Association is the special interest group that represents MIDI and audio to the gaming community. This year the all virtual Game Developers Conference includes a number of sessions sponsored by the IASIG and other sessions on audio that should…

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Game Music and MIDI- The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)

What Is Interactive Audio   Game Music is incredibly unique because unlike almost every other form of music which is based on a linear temporal framework (a song starts and plays uninterrupted from begin to end), game music is inherently interactive because it depends on the user’s game play to decide what music plays at what time. If…

Continue Reading Game Music and MIDI- The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)


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.

They were students who were studying at the school and were proficient in English and music technology. They are an amazing help in communicating with people at the Music China show. Not only could they translate, but we had videos we had create descriptions in Chinese and they were quick to figure out how to use the Visibox software to trigger the multiple videos via MIDI.

But it wasn’t until the last day of the show that we realized they were also really creative software engineers. The young student in the picture above had created software to work with a beat boxer to do duo performances.

We were provided a sneak peak at a number of entries to the 2024 MIDI Innovation awards from students at the University and an article about the school.


Students at the Xinghai Conservatory of Department of Musical Instrument Engineering are leading the integration of technology and artistic vision. Their diverse curriculum in musicology, design, physics, computer science,engineering,and mathematics equips them for innovative contributions in electronic instrument design and development. Their works reflect a blend of technical skill, imaginative exploration, and the rich heritage of musical tradition with digital technology. Next you will see some of the students’ best work!


FMB Sequencer made by Bin Yuan(Tyler)

FMB Sequencer made by Bin Yuan(Tyler), FM sequencer part which uses pitch multiplication, and then connected to the triangle waveform of the FM waveform, while connected to the capture module, through the different pitch threshold set up to capture, so as to realize the real-time adjustment of the FM drum machine.The Bassline section is first set up with a panel control module, which facilitates direct visual control of all the connected functions. The settings for pitch and pitch grab are similar to the FM sequencer, but the waveform settings are different. I set up three waveforms: sawtooth, pulse, and triangle, which can be used separately or together for synthesized sound effects.

The sound effects created by the FM sequencer and Bassline are finally integrated with the mixer and then connected to the three effect modules to add richness to the sound. The three sound effects are Delay, Phaser and Reverb. In the panel design, in order to increase the visual effect, I added a two-position spectrum module, according to the sound or effect triggering adjustments and change the waveform or lighting cue changes, so that the sound and rhythm of the changes in the panel directly show, and at the same time, increase the user’s direct senses.


The “Moon Performance System,” a project by Zilu Li

The Moon Performance System seamlessly integrates MIDI controller, FM synthesizer, and drum sequencer presenting a cohesive and visually appealing design. The unique dual-circuit board MIDI controller allows users to simultaneously control the synthesizer and drum sequencer, enabling instant switching and concurrent play within the same system. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, this music system opens up new possibilities for music creators and performers. The Moon Sequencer offers a rich array of features, including the ability to adjust drum tones and pitch, select different effects, and engage in mixing processes without the need for additional sound packs. The Moon Fm Synthesizer boasts a cutting-edge frequency modulation (FM) engine, allowing the use of other oscillators to modulate specific ones, narrowing down the digitalized FM synthesis sound. With its unique XY-axis visual adjustment for envelopes and filtering, coupled with effects like distortion, delay, and chorus, it facilitates the effortless creation of captivating sounds. In summary, the Moon Performance System provides a diverse range of possibilities for music creation.


Yizhong Zheng has created two distinct works, XIAO and DYZZY’s SEQ

The first work is a Kontakt sample-based sound source plugin centered around the traditional Chinese instrument, the xiao. It includes samples of fundamental techniques used in woodwind instruments such as blowing, vibrato, air-driven sounds, and percussion. These samples are categorized into three musical intensity levels: pp, mf, and ff, catering to the needs of music arrangement and production. The plugin also incorporates effects like delay, reverb, chorus, and compression, all of which can be adjusted and viewed through the user interface. In terms of design, Yizhong Zheng  used 3D modeling software to create a three-dimensional model of the xiao as the right-side skin window, incorporating elements of vinyl and metal to appeal to modern music producers while blending in elements of both Chinese and Western culture.

The second work, named “DZZYZ’S SEQ,” was crafted by Yizhong Zheng using Reaktor software. In developing this drum sample combination sequencer, he combined existing sequencer functionalities available in the market with innovative features. This drum sequencer comprises four types of drums: kick drum, hi-hat, snare drum, and percussion. Each drum can be modulated through various effects, resulting in completely distinct drum sounds. Furthermore, individual drums can be adjusted for pitch and effects, and mute switches are available for each section to create real-time drum effects ranging from subtle to complex. The user panel’s bottom section corresponds to the beats of the four drums (kick, hi-hat, snare, and percussion) from top to bottom along the horizontal axis. Beneath the green box on the user panel are the corresponding beat positions, allowing users to adjust the volume of individual beats by moving the black square within the box. Finally, a filter effect is placed after all channels to modulate the overall music, enhancing the overall musical experience.


OXIDE-Lofi by Liangsen Chen

“OXIDE-Lofi”is a sophisticated lo-fi effect processor offering a rich toolkit for vintage lo-fi sound production.It features advanced input/output level adjustments for significant sound control flexibility. With its panning control, music can be precisely positioned within the stereo field, enhancing auditory effects. The filter functionality supports various modes to accommodate diverse musical styles and requirements, expanding creative possibilities. Integrated reverb effects enrich the spatial depth of compositions, while seamless DAW integration ensures efficiency and convenience in the music production process. These characteristics demonstrate a commitment to technical innovation and enhancing the user experience in music creation.


The “Ya Sequencer” by Zeya Li

The “Ya Sequencer” by Zeya Li is an advanced 16-step sequencer, equipped with a unique array of features such as four distinct drum kits, versatile melodic and harmonic voices, and a dedicated keyboard timbre for nuanced synthesizer production. It stands out with its live performance capabilities, including a page-turning function, an immersive surround sound system, and seven specialized synth-based sound modules, making it a robust tool for both studio and live settings.


Ya Synth by Zeya Li

The“Ya Synthesizer” , also by Zeya Li, offers a dual approach to sound synthesis, combining additive and subtractive methods. The additive section features a versatile oscillator for generating basic waveforms and enriching the sound with overtones, complemented by pitch modulation, filter options, and an ADSR envelope for dynamic sound shaping. The subtractive section expands the sound palette with waveform selection, noise addition for texture, and comprehensive modulation options including filters, an ADSR envelope, delay, pan control, and reverb, designed to cater to a broad range of users from beginners to experts.


Metal E series by Zichong Wang

The “Metal E” series, crafted by Zichong Wang , showcases a suite of personal music plugins designed for simplicity and efficiency. The series spans across three generations, starting with a synthesizer adept at simulating instruments like trumpets, violins, and guitars with unique control features. The second generation introduces a drum machine sequencer tailored for electronic music, featuring an enhanced interface for optimal usability. The third generation evolves into an effects processor that utilizes C sound’s robust data processing capabilities, offering diverse sound synthesis options. Inspired by guitar effects processors, it allows for seamless effect switching and combinations, illustrating Wang Zichong’s commitment to innovation and user-friendly design in music production tools.


RADARR Semi-automatic playing system by  Zichong Wang

RADARR Semi-automatic playing system developed by  Zichong Wang, is a revolutionary plugin for enhancing live performances of loop-based electronic music. Utilizing Max/MSP for its development, RADARR comprises a synthesizer section, drum machine, track section, and modulation section. It’s engineered to streamline the workflow of live performances, ensuring stability and orderliness on stage. With a focus on simplicity and a modular interface design, RADARR invites musicians to explore new dimensions of electronic music performance and creation, reflecting Wang Zichong’s vision for the future of music technology.

Here is a performance from last year at Music China featuring an amazing beat boxer from Xinghai Conservatory and the RADARR semi-automatic playing system.


Morphium by Shengxuan Huang

Shengxuan Huang has created an ambient music generator patch called Morphium with Max/MSP, employing algorithmic composition principles. The patch comprises two core sections: sound generation and effects processing. It allows users to craft evolving soundscapes with two independent sound generators for atmospheric and percussive elements. Effects like reverb and tape delay add depth.Envelope followers and a randomizer module shape the sounds, ensuring ongoing evolution. The interface is user-friendly, with oscilloscope visualizations, categorized sections, and extensive sound-shaping options. This patch is perfect for generative background music, infinite pad textures, sound installations, or live performances. It provides endless sonic possibilities, making it a valuable tool for creative endeavors, from studio production to multimedia projects. Let it inspire your next ambient masterpiece!


Spaceship by Shengxuan Huang

“Spaceship” is a software synthesizer plugin developed by Shengxuan Huang, built with SynthEdit to offer extensive sound design capabilities through an intuitive interface. It features a multi-waveform oscillator for creating rich analog-style sounds, adjustable in pulse width and volume. Additional sound shaping is provided by a second oscillator, LFO modulation, a multi-mode filter, and an ADSR envelope, along with a playable keyboard for real-time performance. Aimed at musicians and producers, the plugin encourages exploration and experimentation in electronic music and sound effects, highlighting ease of use, creative potential, and depth in sound programming.

Creative Music Production in China

To sum up, these innovative projects indicate significant advancements in the electronic instrument field. Their work, evidencing comprehensive study and creative exploration, signals the creation of new instruments.

As we prepare to examine these students’ works further, it’s apparent their efforts will enliven the future of music, showcasing a new chapter in electronic instrument design and hinting at transformations in music creation and performance methods.

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 away on April 1, 2017, we created an article about his life and times.

You can find that article HERE.

Today marks the seventh anniversary of his passing.

Just a week ago, Athan Billias, MIDI Association Exec Board member was in Tokyo after meetings in Hamamatsu with the AMEI Piano Profile working group. He was able to catch up and meet with Kakehashi’s son, Ikuo.

Ikuo Kakehashi, Athan Billias, Takanori Kojima
Ikuo Kakehashi (son of Roland Founder Ikutaro Kakehashi, Athan BIllias (MIDI Association) and Takanori Kojima (Tokyo Gakki Expo)

Ikuo updated The MIDI Association on what is going on with Kakehashi Foundation.

The Kakehashi Foundation is a non-profit organization that contributes to the promotion and spread of art that applies electronic technology.


Message from the Chair

The Kakehashi Arts and Culture Foundation is a public interest incorporated foundation based on the surname “Kakehashi” of the foundation’s founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi (founder of Roland Co., Ltd.), and the foundation of the arts and culture that give dreams and hopes to people in Japan and around the world. I was reborn with the desire to become a “kakehashi”
Unfortunately, the promotion of art and culture in Japan is lagging behind developed countries due to economic priority and results-based culture. I would like to create a society where culture leads the economy.
From now on, our foundation will continue to spread joy and excitement to as many people as possible through electronic technology and electronic musical instruments, in accordance with our basic philosophy of promoting and disseminating artistic culture that applies electronic technology.
Specifically, we hold performances and lectures using electronic technology, conduct appropriate and effective support activities in the field of art and culture, and conduct educational development projects such as the Japanese representative office for the Royal Musical Examinations. We would like to contribute to the spread of this technology.
We will continue to carry out even more fulfilling business activities in the hope of realizing a rich and creative society.
 We look forward to your continued support and cooperation.
Akiko Santo, Chairman of the Kakehashi Arts and Culture Foundation


Artware Hub in Shinjuku

MIDI Association member AVID has partnered with the Kakehashi Foundation and created a very unique space for electronic music performances.

Shinjuku has a long history as one of Tokyo’s most vibrant areas, and Waseda is arguably the district’s cultural and creative nexus. The area is home to the renowned Waseda University, as well as numerous museums, theaters, night clubs, and performance spaces.

Waseda’s newest venue, the Artware hub, opened its doors in late 2019. Commissioned by the Kakehashi Foundation (Arts and Cultural Foundation), the space is the realization of a lifelong dream of Roland Corporation founder and visionary Ikutaro Kakehashi.

What appears at first glance to be a fairly typical live performance venue is, in fact, much more. Designed as an experimental acoustic space, the facility incorporates an unparalleled 36.8 multi-channel immersive audio system based around an Avid VENUE | S6L live sound system and FLUX::Immersive’s Spat Revolution software engine.

AVID

You can read more about the ArtHub setup in this article on the AVID website.


What’s next for Ikuo?

It was great to catch up again with Ikuo and see how he is continuing his father’s legacy. In fact, he let us in on a little secret.

Ikuo is a professional percussionist and had helped design the ATV AFrame drum. Here is a video of Ikuo at the 2018 NAMM show demoing the AFrame.

Ikuo is working on a secret project and is planning to enter this new MIDI product into the MIDI Innovation Awards in 2024.

It will be great to see the son of one of the founders of MIDI involved in the MIDI Innovation Awards.

Fast Company on Music Accessibility

Fast Company recently contacted The MIDI Association about the Music Accessibility Standard.

Janko Roettgers from Fast Company reached out to us and we arranged some interviews with members of the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group (MASSIG).

It really seems like this Music Accessibility initiative is gaining more and more traction.

The MASSIG meets every other Wednesday at 8 am Pacific to accommodate the many EU based members.

You can join The MIDI Association’s Music Accessibility Standard by registering on the site and indicating Music Accessibility as one of your interests or send an email to info@midi.org and we can get you set up.


Here are some quotes from the article.

The MIDI Association’s work in this field includes an effort to create a technical standard that could help vision-impaired musicians to more easily control their recording and production gear by loading accessibility settings whenever they plug one of their devices into another. The nonprofit also plans to help spread the word about accessibility, and potentially steward open source software efforts in the field.

For Chesworth, the biggest thing music tech companies can do to further accessibility is to actually listen to blind and vision-impaired people. “ The best people to write a screen reader user experience are screen reader users,” he says. Chesworth believes that companies would ideally hire blind developers to work on accessibility, and he even taught himself programming to contribute to the Reaper accessibility extension.

Written for Fast Company by Janko Roettgers, a San Francisco-based reporter who has written for Variety, Protocol, and Gigaom, among other publications.

BTW, the image for this article was generated by AI with the simple prompt ” Futuristic Music Production Studio for people with accessibility challenges”.


The MIDI In Music Education Initiative Moves Forward

SAE Studio Scene

The MIDI Association Selects SAE Mexico to create a MIDI Curriculum

Starting in 2021, Athan Billias (MIDI Association President), Denis Labrecque (former MIDI Association Exec Board member) , and Lee Whitmore (MIDI Association Board Member and Treasurer)  initiated biweekly meetings of the MIDI Association MIDI in Music Education (MIME) Special Interest Group. 

The group includes various MIDI users and stakeholder types associated with music, audio, and education, from academia, manufacturers, retailers, and other thought leaders.

The MIME Special Interest Group has discussed and worked on topics including:

  • A definition of MIDI users in education and their needs
  • A MIDI curriculum outline given the rollout of MIDI 2.0
  • Ideas and a draft for proposal to the board for a MIDI skills certification program

Regular Participants – In addition Athan, Denis, and Lee, the following are among
organizations’ representatives that regularly participate in the MiME Special Interest Group:

  • 1500 Sound Academy, CA
  • Belmont University, TN
  • Columbia University
  • Florida State University
  • Full Sail University, FL
  • Guitar Center
  • Indiana University
  • Musicians Institute, CA
  • Next Point Training (Avid Certification)
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Riverside City College
  • Romeo Music, Dallas
  • SAE Institutes Latin America
  • Sweetwater
  • Tufts University, MA
  • And Many More 

Lee Whitmore, Chair of the MIDI IN Music Education working group

Lee is the VP of Education for Focusrite and has previously held positions as Berklee’s Vice President for education outreach and social entrepreneurship, and also as the inaugural executive director for the Grammy Music Education Coalition so he is a perfect fit as the Special Interest Group chair.


The MIDI in Music Education Charter 

The MIME Working Group developed a charter to establish a concrete set of goals. 

To raise awareness about MIDI in education at schools (secondary, college and university, and pro schools), and for manufacturer and reseller staff members. Current work includes:

  • Establishment of standardized, readily/publicly available content (text/video/modules) for use on MIDI.org, to be added to college courses, more; and,
  • Creation, launch, and actively manage of a MIDI certification program (perhaps a couple levels, general, MIDI 1 and 2, for coding, etc.).

Motivation behind (benefit to the market) of addressing this topic:

  • Teaching of MIDI is fragmented and there is no standardized curriculum
  • We need to explain the benefits of MIDI 2.0 and how it works to music educators.
  • The MIDI Association is the central repository for information on the latest developments in MIDI.
  • In a recent survey our MIDI Association Corporate members identified educators as a key segment to reach out to.

Paul Lehrman

Paul Lehrman from Tufts University and former MIDI Association Executive Board member drafted a proposed MIDI Curriculum. 


Core Curriculum 


First Course: Introduction to MIDI

Module I –  What is MIDI?

  • What can MIDI be used for?
    • Musical instruments, mixing and processing, live performance, education, synchronization, robotics, stage mechanics, multimedia, toys, web, personal electronics
  • MIDI History: Pre-MIDI (Voltage Control, Digital Control)
    • Original use of MIDI was to have one keyboard control several instruments, has gone way beyond that
  • Benefits of Digital (vs. Analog) Instruments
    • Control, memory, reproducibility

Module II – MIDI Setups

  • MIDI signal flow and connectivity, live and studio
  • Local control, MIDI In/Out/Thru
  • Device-to-device, device-to-computer, inside computer

Module III – Composing with MIDI

  • Sequencing:
    • Basic Operation of Hardware, Software
    • Tracks/Channels, Data Editing, Data Manipulation, Step Time, Quantizing, etc.
  • Editing
    • Graphic, Numerical, and Notation 
  • Looping, Clips
  • Tempo Map: Time Fitting and Scaling
    • Bouncing MIDI tracks

Module IV – The MIDI Specification

  • Serial data protocol, Bits and Bytes
  • MIDI Connections: DIN, USB, Bluetooth, Ethernet, iOS, Web MIDI
    • Thru Jacks, mergers and splitters, Computer interface
  • MIDI Commands: Command/Status Byte, Data Bytes, Program Change
    • Channels, Notes, Controllers, Modes, and System Messages

Second Course, Advanced MIDI

Module V – MIDI Products

  • Hardware:
    • Instruments, modules, controllers
  • Software:
    • Softsynths, DAWs, Plugin Formats, Max/PD, OSC

Module VI –  MIDI files and General MIDI

  • SMF, GM, GM2, GM extensions, DLS
  • General MIDI devices

Module VII – Advanced Topics

Clocking, MTC, Tuning, SysEx, RP and NRP, MPE, Sample Dump

Module VIII – Other applications

  • Games
  • Robotics
  • MIDI Show Control, museums, multimedia

MIDI 2.0 Topics

(This information can be integrated into any of the above modules. i.e. Each section above could include a “MIDI 2.0 Implications” section )

  • Expanded control and data bytes
  • Two-way communication
  • Property Exchange/CI
  • PROFILES
  • Backwards compatibility

Topic Based Courses

Course A: MIDI for Music Creation

  • Using physical controllers—alternative control surfaces
  • Combining hardware and software synths
  • Synth programming
  • Synth control
  • Plug-ins control
  • MIDI clocks-synchronization
  • Looping and clips
  • Bouncing
  • Mixing

Course track B: MIDI for audio production 

  • Control surfaces
  • DSP control
  • Mixing
  • MIDI-to-audio, audio-to-MIDI
  • Pitch-shifting, harmonizing
  • Synchronization-MTC

Course  track C: MIDI for live performance and show control 

  • Alternate controllers
  • Mapping
  • Synth control
  • DSP control
  • Looping and clips
  • Mixing

Course track D: MIDI for scoring video, multimedia and post production 

  • Control surfaces
  • Synchronization-MTC
  • SFX, sampling
  • Ambience, DSP
  • Mixing

SAE Mexico Selected To Begin Work On The Curriculum

After recieving proposals from Indiana University, Next Point Training and SAE Mexico, the MIME Working Group has recommended that SAE Mexico be selected to start work on the curriculum.

There were a number of compelling reasons for selecting SAE Mexico.

First, they will be able to provide the curriculum materials in both English and Spanish. Second, they have a unique relationship with Coursera, the for-profit U.S.-based massive open online course provider. It has become more and more challenging to actually give away courses on Cousera.

All of the materials created for The MIDI In Music Education curriculum will be given away under a Creative Common license. This means anyone is free to take the materials, modify and adapt them for whatever purpose that need. Universities can include portions in their already existing materials without any concerns about copyrights or licenses. It is a great example of what we do.

The MIDI Association gets really smart people to volunteer to work on really difficult problems. Once we solve those problems, then we give away those solutions for free to allow creative people to make music and art with MIDI.

Athan Billias

MIDI Association Executive Board Member

Help Make This Curriculum A Reality


The Music Accessibility Standard starts to take shape

This is all that Ellis and Stevie see every day

Juho Tomanien is a student from Finland who had a vision for a Music Accessibility Standard. Just because you are blind, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a vision. Take Stevie Wonder whose Inner Visions album is considered one of the greatest records of all time.

Juho reached out to the MIDI Association after someone of KVR Audio suggested that perhaps The MIDI Association might be a good place to start up a conversation about Accessibility. It turned out that there were already a number of MIDI Association member companies who had been working with accessibility consultants like UK producers/recording engineers Scott Chesworth and Jason Dasent and had already been adding accessibility features to their products. Juce which runs the Audio Developer Conference was also already onboard and had been hosting accessibility workshops at ADC for several years.

In 2023 at the ADC conference Jay Pocknell from the Royal Institute for the Blind hosted a packed session of developers trying to learn how to use Juce to add accessibility features to their products.

MIDI Association members from Audio Modeling, Arturia, Native Instruments, Roland and more have joined together with The Royal Institute for the Blind and visually impaired producers and musicians like Juho, Scott Chesworth Jason Dasent and more to discuss how MIDI 2.0 might enable Music Accessibility and make making music accessible to everyone.

Music Accessibility Standard Meeting at NAMM Booth 10302 Friday, January 26 at 3:00 PM

Jay Pocknell from
the Royal Institute of Blind People / Sound Without Sight

At Winter NAMM 2024, we had a meeting of the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group and discussed the next steps in creating a standard. Audio Modeling who has been working on a reserach project into this area for several years now outlined their vision of what a music accessibility standard could bring to people.

Audio Modeling’s visions for a music accessibility standard for everyone

Stevie Wonder visits the MIDI Association at CES 2024

We had a special guest at our CES 2024 booth

 As you may know, we are working on a Music Accessibility Standard to make making music accessible to all. 

Thanks to MIDI Association member Audio Modeling, we got in touch with Lamar Mitchell and Cristian Perez from Stevie Wonder’s team a few weeks ago and explain to them our ideas about a Music Accessibility standard.  

Then a few days Tony Baras, an industry friend from Ultimate Ears called us and let us know that Stevie had some specific ideas about the needs of people with accessibility challenges.  

Thanks to Tony, Lamar and Cristian, Stevie visited our CES booth and we were able to explain the goal of the Music Accessibility Standard directly to him and gain his insight on specific needs of people who are visually impaired.  

Having worked for Yamaha for many years, I had the pleasure of meeting Stevie before and was actually running the Yamaha booth the year that Ellis Hall (another amazing blind musicia) was playing at the booth and Stevie showed.  Ellis moved to electronic drums and they did several songs together.   Yamaha also put on a clinic a few years ago at West LA that featured Ellis and Alan Parsons.  Stevie showed up to see Ellis at that event too. 

It was an honor to be able to share our ideas and goals with Stevie and of course he agreed that making music should be accessible to all.  

Come see us at NAMM Booth 10302 on Friday, January 26 at 3 pm for the Music Accessibility Standard panel discussion and then stick around to enjoy Ellis Hall, the ambassador of soul perform. 

Ellis is performing at both our booth on Friday right after the Music Accessibility Standard panel discussion and then again at Ultimate Ears booth with Matthew Whittaker, Nate Barnes and Jeremy Jeffers at the Ultimate Ears booth 10720 on Saturday afternoon.

MIDI Association NAMM 2024 Booth Schedule


Four Days Showcasing MIDI


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.

It is larger with a 30′ by 30′ footprint.  A 10′ by 30′ area will be divided into thirds with displays of MIDI 2.0 products, a MIDI Showcase stage for presentations/performances and an area focused on our MIDI In Music Education, Music Accessibility Standard and Interactive Audio Special Interest Groups.  But 75% of the booth is dedicated to 50 seats each with a set of wireless headphones so people can come and comfortably watch and listen to presentations and performances.

We also have Booth 10604 which is a 10′ by 10′ booth shared between Intuitive Instruments who won the Commercial Hardware category in The MIDI Innovation Awards in 2023 and the other MIDI Innovation Award winners

  • Audio Modeling- Camelot Pro
  • Hitar- augmented guitar for percussive fingerstyle
  • Netz-an immersive mixed reality musical instrument
  • Sound Sculpture-an interactive musical instrument comprised of 25 location-aware cubes
Studio 108 is a small meeting space for private meetings during the show.

We are being helped again this year by Jennifer Amaya, Associate Professor of Music at the Riverside City College Coil School for the Arts and member of The MIDI In Music Education Special Interest Group.

We will have 70 students helping with all aspects of the booth including running the Yamaha TF3 digital mixer.

We have put together over 20 different presentations and performances highlighting the innovative power of creating music and art with MIDI.

Below is a listing of all the presentations we have planned. The list starts with a Youtube video summary of the each day’s events and then includes the details of each individual event.

Each day ends with a solo performance by one of the artists who performed in our MIDI@40 celebration at the April 2023 NAMM show on the Yamaha Grand Plaza stage.


Thursday, January 25


Friday, January 26


Saturday, January 27


Sunday, January 28

Full Four Day Schedule (3 minutes and 38 seconds)



MIDI Association Companies at NAMM

37 MIDI Association companies will have booths at the 2024 Winter NAMM show.

Many are in the MIDI showcase area, but there are plenty who are spread around the show in different areas including some of the larger companies like Avid, Steinway and Yamaha.

Here is an alphabetical list of The MIDI Association companies at the 2024 Winter NAMM show with their booth numbers.


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 by composer/UX designer Martin Keary (aka Tantacrul) and British musician, synth maker, and author of the YouTube channel Look Mum No Computer, Sam Battle.

Now in their third year, the awards are a joint initiative created by Music Hackspace, The MIDI Association, and NAMM, created to showcase both products and projects using MIDI .0 and2.0 in fresh and original ways, and to highlight the role of MIDI technology in empowering musical creativity.

The show highlighted the innovative use of MIDI by all 15 finalists and featured interviews with an all-star panel of judges that included:


WINNERS IN THE FIVE CATEGORIES WERE ANNOUNCED AT THE SEPTEMBER 16 LIVE STREAM EVENT, BROADCAST FROM TILEYARD STUDIOS IN LONDON.


Commercial Hardware Product Intuitive Instruments – Exquis

Exquis MIDI Controller

Exquis combines a hardware surface equipped with a hexagonal matrix of keys with a companion mobile app, aiming to provide musicians of all levels with a fun and intuitive way to create new melodies and progressions. By default, thirds are placed next to each other, with backlit keys able to display any musical scale or custom mapping, and chords all placed in ergonomic shapes that make them easy to play, learn and understand.

The keys are firm enough to play short notes with precision or trigger percussion sounds, but have enough play to modulate long notes with physical movement — Exquis also boasts MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) support, meaning that modulation can be applied on a per-note basis within chords. MIDI, CV and USB connectivity is provided, and the included app makes it possible to choose sounds, record loops and quickly try out different parts and arrangements.

https://dualo.com/en/exquis/


Commercial Software ProductAudio Modeling – Camelot Pro

Camelot Pro Software

Camelot Pro is a cross-platform (macOS, Windows and iPad OS) app that is capable of acting as a MIDI patchbay/router, setlist manager, digital mixer, software instrument and effects host, PDF music score display and multitrack audio player! Designed to remove the complications of combining MIDI-enabled hardware and software from different manufacturers, the app allows users to control their entire setup from a single location with minimal knowledge of MIDI.

It can be used to switch modes or manage multi-part patches on connected devices without the need to touch the hardware itself, as well as switching between different routing configurations without having to disconnect and reconnect cables. It is also capable of hosting software instruments and effects, and it’s not just MIDI that’s catered for: the device can also be used to manage audio sources, as well as playing backing tracks, displaying scores or sticky notes and much more.

https://audiomodeling.com/camelot/overview/


Prototypes & Non-Commercial Hardware Product Andrea Martelloni – HITar

HiTar

Aimed at percussive fingerstyle guitarists, the HITar is a device that can be fitted to a regular acoustic guitar and is said to reinvent the way in which a player can interact with the instrument’s body. The unit employs five piezo sensors placed underneath the areas most commonly struck by players, and uses an AI engine to determine which part of the hard is used for each percussive hit.

The resulting MIDI output can then be used to integrate hardware or software instruments or samples into a performance, allowing guitarists to trigger drum and percussion samples or blend sample libraries and virtual instruments with their playing.

https://linktr.ee/hit4r


Prototypes & Non-Commercial Software Products Max Graf And Mathieu Barthet – Netz

Netz

Netz is a mixed reality (MR) software instrument that blends the real and virtual worlds by displaying 3D virtual objects within a real environment. It is a self-contained instrument that features an embedded sound engine, allowing users to produce sounds directly from the head-mounted display using hardware such as a Meta Quest 2. Additionally, it can also be used as an MPE MIDI controller to interface with external virtual instruments over WiFi or USB.

The software’s interface appears as a network where nodes represent notes, which can be mapped to a tangible surface for tactile feedback or be positioned in the air. Performers’ hand poses and gestures are tracked in in real time, allowing Netz to translate subtle hand movements to expressive musical controls; gestures such as the opening and closing of fingers — or movements such as wrist rotation — are recognised and interpreted by the system and can be assigned to specific instrument parameters and MIDI controls.

https://maxgraf.space/about/


Artistic/Visual Project Or Installation Ryan Edwards And Masary Studios – Sound Sculpture

Sound Sculpture is a large-scale interactive music sequencer designed for installation at venues such as museums, schools, community centres and public art festivals. Comprising 25 cubes kitted out with positioning tags, batteries, processors, a WiFi antenna and an LED array, the installation allows participants to generate musical patterns by physically moving and rearranging the blocks.

A software application continually scans the locations of the blocks, and uses their physical placement to generate a musical composition, typically with the x-axis representing rhythm and the y-axis representing pitch.

https://www.masarystudios.com/projects#/sound-sculpture/


TO VIEW THE LIVE STREAM, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW. 

MIDI Innovation Award finalists were also featured at SynthFest UK 2023 that took place in Sheffield, England on Saturday October 7th 2023 (10:30am – 6:30pm) and at Music China in Shanghai on October 11-14, 2023.


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 Association Exec Board member) , and Lee Whitmore (MIDI Association Board Member and Treasurer)  initiated biweekly meetings of the MIDI Association MIDI in Music Education (MIME) Special Interest Group. 
 
The group includes various MIDI users and stakeholder types associated with music, audio, and education, from academia, manufacturers, retailers, and other thought leaders.
The MIME Special Interest Group has discussed and worked on topics including:
 
  • A definition of MIDI users in education and their needs
  • A MIDI curriculum outline given the rollout of MIDI 2.0
  • Ideas and a draft for proposal to the board for a MIDI skills certification program
 
Regular Participants – In addition Athan, Denis, and Lee, the following are among
organizations’ representatives that regularly participate in the MiME Special Interest Group:
  • 1500 Sound Academy, CA
  • Belmont University, TN
  • Columbia University
  • Florida State University
  • Full Sail University, FL
  • Guitar Center
  • Indiana University
  • Musicians Institute, CA
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Riverside City College
  • Romeo Music, Dallas
  • SAE Institutes Latin America
  • Sweetwater
  • Tufts University, MA
  • And Many More 
 


Lee is the VP of Education for Focusrite and has previously held positions as Berklee’s Vice President for education outreach and social entrepreneurship, and also as the inaugural executive director for the Grammy Music Education Coalition so he is a perfect fit as the Special Interest Group chair.


The MIDI in Music Education Charter 

The group developed a charter to establish a concrete set of goals. 

Name of WG: MIDI In Music Education

MIDI In Music Education (MiME) Special Interest Group (SIG)

Topic and purpose (goal) of this WG:

To raise awareness about MIDI in education at schools (secondary, college and university, and pro schools), and for manufacturer and reseller staff members. Current work includes:

  • Establishment of standardized, readily/publicly available content (text/video/modules) for use on MIDI.org, to be added to college courses, more; and,
  • Creation, launch, and actively manage of a MIDI certification program (perhaps a couple levels, general, MIDI 1 and 2, for coding, etc.).

Motivation behind (benefit to the market) of addressing this topic:

  • Teaching of MIDI is fragmented and there is no standardized curriculum
  • We need to explain the benefits of MIDI 2.0 and how it works to music educators.
  • The MIDI Association is the central repository for information on the latest developments in MIDI.
  • In a recent survey our members identified educators as a key segment to reach out to.


Paul Lehrman from Tufts University and former MIDI Association board member drafted a proposed MIDI Curriculum. 

The MIDI Association MIDI Education Course Outline

Guidelines for a 3-semester program of courses for MIDI education and certification 


 First semester. Introduction to MIDI


I. What is MIDI? 

What can MIDI be used for?

Musical instruments, mixing and processing, live performance, education, synchronization, robotics, stage mechanics, multimedia, toys, web, personal electronics

MIDI History: Pre-MIDI (Voltage Control, Digital Control)

Original use of MIDI was to have one keyboard control several instruments, has gone way beyond that

Benefits of Digital (vs. Analog) Instruments

Control, memory, reproducibility

 II. MIDI Setups

MIDI signal flow and connectivity, live and studio

Local control, MIDI In/Out/Thru

Device-to-device, device-to-computer, inside computer

III. Composing with MIDI 

Sequencing:

Basic Operation of Hardware, Software

Tracks/Channels, Data Editing, Data Manipulation, Step Time, Quantizing, etc.

Editing

Graphic, Numerical, and Notation

Looping, Clips

Tempo Map: Time Fitting and Scaling

Bouncing MIDI tracks

IV. The MIDI Specification 

Serial data protocol, Bits and Bytes

MIDI Connections: DIN, USB, Bluetooth, Ethernet, iOS, Web MIDI

Thru Jacks, mergers and splitters, Computer interface

MIDI Commands: Command/Status Byte, Data Bytes, Program Change

Channels, Notes, Controllers, Modes, and System Messages


 Second Semester, Advanced MIDI


 V. MIDI Products

Hardware:

Instruments, modules, controllers

Software:

Softsynths, DAWs, Max/PD

 VI. MIDI files and General MIDI 

SMF, GM, GM2, GM extensions, DLS

General MIDI devices

VII: Advanced Topics 

Clocking, MTC, Tuning, SysEx, RP and NRP, MPE, Sample Dump

VIII: Other applications 

Games

Robotics

MIDI Show Control, museums, multimedia

IX: MIDI 2.0 

Expanded control and data bytes

Two-way communication

Property Exchange/CI

PROFILES

Backwards compatibility


Third semester, track A: MIDI for Music 

Using physical controllers—alternative control surfaces

Combining hardware and software synths

Synth programming

Synth control

Plug-ins control

MIDI clocks-synchronization

Looping and clips

Bouncing

Mixing


Third semester, track B: MIDI for audio production 

Control surfaces

DSP control

Mixing

MIDI-to-audio, audio-to-MIDI

Pitch-shifting, harmonizing

Synchronization-MTC


Third semester, track C: MIDI in live performance 

Alternate controllers

Mapping

Synth control

DSP control

Looping and clips

Mixing


Third semester, track D: MIDI for video/multimedia production 

Control surfaces

Synchronization-MTC

SFX, sampling

Ambience, DSP

Mixing 


Join the MIDI in Music Education Special Interest Group 

Just select MIDI in Music Education in the form below.


MIDI Association Initiatives

Please select all the MIDI Association Initiatives you are interested in.

Full Name

 
 
MIDI Association Initiatives Interests
 






 
Marketing by


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 by the jury.

Tune in to discover some of the most exciting music technology products of the moment, and inventors quizzed by an all-star jury composed of Roger Linn, Nina Richards, Bian Liunian, Pedro Eustache, Jean-Michel Jarre and Michele Darling.

The event is co-hosted by @Tantacrul and @LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER

Just click this link to sign up for the Youtube Live event. 


Your votes selected the three finalists from each product category. 
You can click on the image to go to the full article about the product. 


MIDI Innovation Award 2023 Finalists


COMMERCIAL HARDWARE FINALISTS


INSTACHORD IC-31

InstaChord is a strummable MIDI chord instrument/controller. By assigning the Nashville Number method to each buttons, even beginners can play right away.

AE-30 AEROPHONE PRO

Roland’s world-class sounds in a high-performance wind instrument that responds to the dynamics and expression worthy of professional woodwind and brasswind players.

Exquis

The expressive MPE controller and intuitive software to produce, perform and learn music


HARDWARE PROTOTYPES AND NON-COMMERCIAL FINALISTS


Abacusynth

Abacusynth is a kinetic synthesizer inspired by an abacus. Its playful interface allows anyone to explore synthesis and timbre, regardless of their musical experience.

Hitar

An augmented guitar for percussive fingerstyle, using AI to transform the body into an expressive MIDI controller for rich multi-dimensional control of drum synthesisers.

Musimoto

MusiMoto is a SW+HW system designed to empower anyone who likes playing MIDI musical instruments to do it while walking, jogging, riding, skating or dancing.


COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE FINALISTS


Beat Scholar

Innovative MIDI sequencer that uses a “Pizza”-like circular interface to give you granular control over any beat division.

Camelot Pro

One program to rule them all: MIDI patchbay/router, setlist manager, digital mixer, software instrument and effects host, PDF music score display, multitrack audio player

Ivory 3

Breakthrough technology combines the realism of digital sampling with the expressivity of modeling. Limitless tone color featuring all new recordings of a German Steinway D.


SOFTWARE PROTOTYPES AND NON-COMMERCIAL FINALISTS


HOT LICKS

A MIDI enabled VST plugin to incorporate a multitude of audiovisual devices into a musical performance.

Music Tapestry

Music Tapestry is a new musical analysis technology that visualizes musical performances in real-time and produces a piece of art.

Netz

Discover Netz, an immersive mixed reality musical instrument and controller featuring a keyboard-like interface with expressive MPE MIDI that learns your gestures using AI.


ARTISTIC/VISUAL INSTALLATIONS FINALISTS


sononyms

sononyms: an immersive sound installation based on the Jazz Cerkno archives and local objects from Cerkno Museum.

Sound Sculpture

Sound Sculpture is an interactive musical instrument, comprised of 25 location-aware cubes. It is a physical sound and light environment that facilitates cooperative sound composition.

THE “DRANKORGEL” PROJECT

The “drankorgel” project is an artistic installation of a MIDI instrument that generates sounds by hitting bottles with spoons and by blowing air over bottles.


We will be sending out more detailed information about the MIDI Innovation Awards live show soon so stay tuned.

Your Friends at The MIDI Association 


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, creativity, and the fantastic array of talent in our MIDI community. As MIDI marks its 40th birthday this year, we’re thrilled to see how far we’ve come and anticipate the future with MIDI 2.0, which is set to inspire another revolution in music.

This year, you can discover and cast your votes for the most innovative MIDI-based projects across five categories until July 21st. The categories are:

Commercial Hardware Products

Commercial Software Products

Prototypes and non-commercial hardware products

Prototypes and non-commercial software products

Artistic/Visual Project or Installation

The MIDI Innovation Awards 2023, a joint effort by Music Hackspace, The MIDI Association, and NAMM, showcases over 70 innovative entries ranging from MIDI controllers to art installation. The three entries with the most votes will be shortlisted and presented to our stellar jury who will select each category winner.

Discover all the entries of this year and cast your vote now!

We’re proud to announce new partnerships for 2023 with Sound On Sound, the world’s leading music technology magazine, and Music China, who will provide exhibition space to our winners at their Autumn 2023 trade fair in Shanghai. Our winners also receive significant support from The MIDI Association and Music Hackspace for the development of MIDI 2.0 prototypes, coverage in Sound On Sound, and an opportunity to exhibit at the 2023 NAMM Show.

The MIDI Innovation Awards entries will be evaluated by a distinguished jury representing various facets of the music industry. The esteemed judges include Jean-Michel Jarre, Nina Richards, Roger Linn, Michele Darling, Bian Liunian, and Pedro Eustache. They’ll be assessing entries based on innovation, inspiring and novel qualities, interoperability, and practical / commercial viability.

Mark these key dates in your calendar:

July 21st: Voting closes, jury deliberation starts

August 16th: Finalists announced

September 16th: Live show online – winners revealed

October: Finalists are invited to participate in the Sound On Sound SynthFest UK and Music China, including the User Choice Awards competition

Vote for your favorites now, and help us champion the most innovative MIDI designs of 2023!

For more details, visit the MIDI Innovation Awards page.

Together, let’s keep the music playing and the innovations flowing! 


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 Music Accessibility in a Youtube Live event on the MIDI Association Youtube channel.

Musicians and producers who face accessibility challenges including Juho Toumainen, Jason Dasent and Scott Chesworth joined developers and representatives from companies like Arturia, Audio Modeling, Native Instruments and Roland who are participating in the MAS SIG.  The group meets every two weeks.


Juho Toumainen’s Vision for the MASSIG




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 (Digigurdy). Amongst the winning products you’ll find the Somi-1 MIDI controller, a motion-sensor wearable that converts users’ body movements into MIDI data. MusiKraken’s MIDI controller construction kit similarly tracks your hands, face, voice and device rotations. 

The warm reception toward these mixed reality music products underscores a greater trend towards immersion, novelty, and disruption that’s persisted into 2023. 

The MIDI medium is the message

Changes to the way we create music can have an impact on the types of music we produce.

Media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously said that the medium is the message, meaning that our tools reveal something about our collective mindset toward the problems at hand. Conventional MIDI keyboard designs are inherited from the classical piano, for example, and with them comes the assumption that musicians should press buttons and keys to make music. Next-generation controllers like MusiKraken and Somi-1 reimagine the controller landscape by turning human bodies into expressive instruments.

Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music offer a second example of unconscious bias that comes baked into our technology. Artists are required to release songs with a fixed duration, arranged into singles, EPs and albums. This model for music is inherited from legacy formats in the recording industry. As a result, they exclude modern formats like adaptive music and may be limiting our pace of musical innovation.

YouTube differs from other music streaming platforms with their support of continuous music in a 24/7 streaming format. Extreme AI artists Dadabots took advantage of this opportunity by publishing a number of infinite music videos, like the infinite metal example shown below. WarpSound offers adaptive AI music experiences on YouTube, empowering fans to can cast votes and impact the music during their YouTube livestream. These kinds of experiments are only possible because the medium supports them. 

Toward more immersive music making experiences 

MIDI software is often experienced through an LCD screen, but that could soon change with the rising popularity of virtual and mixed reality hardware.

Earlier this month, Spatial Labs announced their upcoming AR DAW called Light Field. It’s not available commercially but you can watch a demo of their prototype below. Like a laser keyboard, the interface is projected onto a hard surface and users can interact with UI elements to sequence beats, chop samples, and more.

Virtual reality music games and DAWs are another domain where music creation has evolved. Experiences like Virtuoso VR, LyraVR, Instrument Studio VR, SoundStage, SYNTHSPACE and Electronauts have the power to change our ideas about what a digital audio workstation should be and how we should interact with them. 

BREAKTHROUGHS IN MIDI COMPOSING SOFTWARE DURING 2023

Artificial intelligence has had a major impact on the creative arts this year. The popularity of text-to-image generators has coincided with a parallel trend in MIDI software. AudioCipher published its third version of a text-to-MIDI generator this year. The app turns words into melodies and chord progressions based on parameters like key signature, chord extensions, and rhythm automation. You can watch a demo below.

The text-to-music trend has continued to gain traction this year. Riffusion paved the way for text-to-song in December 2022, with Google’s MusicLm following suit in May 2023. Riffusion and MusicLM don’t compose in MIDI. They generate low fidelity audio clips replete with sonic artifacts but they’re nevertheless a step forward.

Most people hear AI Music and think of AI voice generators, due to the recent popularity of AI songs that imitate mainstream artists. An AI Drake song called Heart on my Sleeve reached more than 20,000,000 streams in April and May. United Music Group has made a public statement denouncing this practice.

Earlier today, rapper Ice Cube made a public statement calling AI music demonic and threatening to sue anyone who used his voice. Meanwhile, other artists like Grimes and Holly Herndon have sought to come up with models for consensual licensing of their voices.

So far, there has been very little discussion over the tens of millions of music clips used by Google to train MusicLM. As the owners of YouTube, Google has the right to train on the clips in their database. Many of these songs are protected by copyright and were uploaded by everyday users without the original artist’s consent.

This intro to Google’s AI music datasets outlines their training architecture in more detail and addresses some of the ethical concerns at play, as more companies seek to train on instrumental tracks to build their AI models. 

THE RISE OF AI DAWS IN 2023

Digital audio workflows can have a steep learning curve for beginners, but artificial intelligence may soon remove that barrier to entry.

WavTool, a browser-based AI DAW, comes equipped with a GPT-4 assistant that takes actions on any element in the workstation. Users can summon the chatbot and ask it to add audio effects, build wavetables, and even compose MIDI ideas. A full demo of the software is shown below.

The AI assistant understands prescriptive commands like “add a new MIDI instrument track with a square wave”.

Vague requests like “write a catchy melody” yield less satisfying results. In many instances, a prompt like that will generate a major scale that repeats twice. Rich descriptions like “write a syncopated melody comprised of quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes in the key of C minor” deliver marginally better results.

The AI text-to-midi problem could eventually be solved by AI agents, a special class of text generation that breaks down an initial goal into a series of subtasks. During my own experiments with AutoGPT music, I found that the AI agent could reason its way through the necessary steps of composing, including quality-assurance checks along the way.

For an AI agent to actually be useful in this context, someone would need to develop the middleware to translate those logical steps into MIDI. WavTool is positioned to make these updates, but it would require a well-trained MIDI composition model that even the biggest tech teams at OpenAI’s MuseNet and Google’s Magenta Suite have not achieved to a satisfactory degree. 

POLYPHONIC AUDIO-TO-MIDI CONVERSION SOFTWARE

For years, Melodyne has been the gold standard for monophonic audio-to-midi transcription. In June 2022, a free Spotify AI tool called Basic Pitch went live, delivering polyphonic audio-to-MIDI within a web browser.

A second company called SampLab has since delivered their own plugin and desktop app this year, with more features than Basic Pitch. Both tools are pushing updates to their code as recently as this month, indicating that improvements to polyphonic MIDI transcription will be ongoing through 2023.

Suffice to say that MIDI has remained highly relevant in the era of artificial intelligence. With so many innovations taking place, we’re excited to see who comes out on top in this year’s MIDI Innovation Awards! 

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 on May 20, 20323 to discuss the evolution of their award winning products, discuss how they work with MIDI and share their thoughts on MIDI 2.0. 

Participants: 

Krishna Chetan, Pitch Innovations

Henrik Langer, Instruments of Things

Markus Ruh, MusiKraken

John Dingley, Digigurdy

Moderated by JB Thiebaut, chair of the MIDI Innovation Awards and Secretary of the MIDI Association


Entries for the 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards close on May 23, 2023


For 2023, The MIDI Innovation Awards are proud to welcome new partners including Sound On Sound, the world’s leading music technology magazine, and Music China, who will provide exhibition space to the winners at their Autumn 2023 trade fair in Shanghai.

Musicians and inventors around the world will have a unique opportunity to present their ideas on a global stage, and the winners will gain invaluable help in bringing their products to market. Prizes include an exhibition booth at the 2023 NAMM Show, coverage in Sound On Sound, an opportunity to exhibit at Music China, and significant support from The MIDI Association and Music Hackspace for the development of MIDI 2.0 prototypes.

The MIDI Innovation awards are open to individuals, artists, and companies who work with MIDI to build innovative products or interactive experiences. The 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards categories are:

  • Commercial Hardware Products
  • Commercial Software Products
  • Prototypes and non-commercial hardware products
  • Prototypes and non-commercial software products
  • Artistic/Visual Project or Installation

The MIDI Innovation Awards welcomes entries from, but not limited to: MIDI instruments, controllers, software, art installation, MIDI peripherals, I/O boxes, lighting systems, automated systems, and more.

Entries to the competition are open, and applicants are invited to submit their entry via the button below.

Here is the detailed MIA 2023 schedule.

  • May 23rd: Registrations close
  • May 30th: Voting starts
  • July 21st: Voting closes, jury deliberation starts
  • August 16th: Finalists announced
  • September 16th: Live show online – winners revealed
  • October: Finalists are invited to participate in the Sound On Sound SynthFest UK in the UK and also in Music China including the User Choice Awards competition



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 University, Columbia University, Full Sail University and Riverside City College.

The MIDI In Music Education Special Interest Group (SIG) formed in 2014 is a community of educators, musicians, and music technology enthusiasts dedicated to advancing the use of MIDI in music education.

By providing resources, support, and advocacy for the use of MIDI in music education, the SIG is helping to shape the future of music education and empower the next generation of musicians and music creators.

You can view the webinar by clicking on the link below.



The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group of The MIDI Association

The IASIG is an organization in partnership with the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) and MIDI Association (TMA) that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for games, websites, VR content, and other interactive performances. Our members share tips and techniques, study trends, and create reports and recommendations that game developers, tool makers, and platform owners use to create better products.

The IASIG will be hosting a number of events at the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco’s Moscone Center held March 20-24. 


IASIG Town Hall
When: Friday, March 24, 2023 – 12:15 PM -1:15 PM
Where: West Hall, Room 3006

The IASIG will be holding its GDC Town Hall in person for the first time in several years.

Want to improve game audio workflow or the professional audio tools available to you? Join fellow game audio educators, sound designers, composers, audio programmers, and other audio professionals at the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) Town Hall.

Get an update on current IASIG efforts, and share your own ideas, suggestions, and recommendations for improving the state of the art in audio for interactive media.

If you do audio, come and be heard.

IASIG Town Hall Sponsors



The Game Developers Conference Audio Track

GDC has its own Audio Track with a full schedule focused on Audio and Music in games.

https://gdconf.com/conference/game-audio 


With the support of IGDA, the IASIG will be holding a meet and greet in the South Hall of Moscone Center on the second floor in Room 203 on Tuesday – 3:00pm PST.  

The IASIG is working with GDC on the plans for the annual IASIG Townhall and will send out invites in advance of the conference. 


Many companies who have participated in the IASIG have booths at the Game Developers Conference including:  

Audiokinetic Booth S941 


Dolby Laboratories Booth S1041

FMOD Booth S1227


Chase Bethea, IASIG Chair at GDC

IASIG Chair Chase Bethea

Chase Bethea – the new IASIG Chair- is a NYX award-winning and VGMO nominated freelance Composer/Technical Audio Designer for Video Games and a variety of other Media. He will be at GDC and hosting the Town Hall and looking for Game Audio professionals who want to be on the IASIG steering committee.

With new leadership, a growing relationship as a Special Interest Group of IGDA and the decades long relationship with The MIDI Association, the IASIG is poised to drive new advances in interactive audio in games and continue to serve audio professionals in the game industry. 


Chase is also presenting two talks at Game Developers Conference.

Hunting with Hits: Tempo-Slaying Monsters in ‘Harmony”

This talk demonstrates the creation and implementation of an interactive score for a Hunting RPG with rhythm combat mechanics.

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/hunting-with-hits-tempo-slaying-monsters-in-harmony/889896

Microtalk with other industry colleagues

In this series of microtalks, developers from six studios will present custom toolsets they’ve built and/or used to help development run more efficiently and comfortably.

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/independent-games-summit-tech-toolbox-custom-tool-microtalks/892205 


Steve Horowitz, is a member of the IASIG Steering Committee and an Audio Director/Composer at Nickelodeon Digital. Steve is also a Faculty Lecturer in Game Audio at San Francisco State University.  


Steve is also presenting a talk at GDC.

Developing Together: Game Audio and Game Development Roundtable (Presented by the IGDA)

This roundtable brings together composers, sound designers, game designers, animators, programmers, producers, and anyone else involved with game production and design. Organizers will open up the floor and discuss the latest and greatest trends in games, as well as the most common production roadblocks.

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/developing-together-game-audio-and-game-development-roundtable-presented-by-the-igda/894062 


This is what the Federal Trade Commission had to say recently about the gaming industry.

“Today, gaming is the largest category in the entertainment industry, with revenues that far exceed those of both the film and music industries. This year, the gaming industry is expected to be worth more than $170 billion in global revenues, five times greater than global movie box office revenues.”

With autonomous cars on the horizon and Analog Devices already implementing MIDI 2.0 over A2B in a few years people won’t be driving their cars, they’ll be playing games in them or mixing their latest album in immersive audio.

Please join us at the 2023 Game Developers Conference and get involved with one of the fastest growing industries for Audio Professionals. 


2023 MIDI Innovation Awards Now Open for Entries

Are you exploring new ways for musicians to interact with digital musical instruments? Have an idea for an original electronic instrument or controller? Trying to raise investment or attract attention for a new product? If you’re looking to make waves in music technology, you need to know about The MIDI Innovation Awards.

In 2023, MIDI celebrates its 40th birthday. The universal language of synths, controllers, and electronic instruments, MIDI 1.0 revolutionised music in the 1980s. Now, MIDI 2.0 is poised to unleash a second revolution. Massively extended and reimagined for the computer age, yet fully backwards compatible, MIDI 2.0 opens up endless possibilities for creative developers.

A joint initiative created by Music Hackspace, The MIDI Association, and NAMM, The MIDI Innovation Awards are now in their third year. The Awards showcase products and projects that are using MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 in fresh and original ways, highlighting the role that MIDI technology has to play in enabling musical creativity.

For 2023, The MIDI Innovation Awards are proud to welcome new partners including Sound On Sound, the world’s leading music technology magazine, and Music China, who will host the awards ceremony at their Autumn 2023 trade fair in Shanghai.

Musicians and inventors around the world will have a unique opportunity to present their ideas on a global stage, and the winners will gain invaluable help in bringing their products to market. Prizes include an exhibition booth at the 2023 NAMM Show, coverage in Sound On Sound, an opportunity to exhibit at Music China, and significant support from The MIDI Association and Music Hackspace for the development of MIDI 2.0 prototypes.

The MIDI Innovation awards are open to individuals, artists, and companies who work with MIDI to build innovative products or interactive experiences.

The 2023 MIDI Innovation Awards categories are:

  • Commercial Hardware Products
  • Commercial Software Products
  • Prototypes and non-commercial hardware products
  • Prototypes and non-commercial software products
  • Artistic/Visual Project or Installation

The MIDI Innovation Awards welcomes entries from, but not limited to: MIDI instruments, controllers, software, art installation, MIDI peripherals, I/O boxes, lighting systems, automated systems, and more.

Entries to the competition are open, and applicants are invited to submit their entry here- https://www.midi.org/awards-submit.

A jury is being assembled to represent the wider music industry and its many facets, including artists, engineers, and innovators. Entries will be judged on four attributes: innovation, inspiring and novel qualities, interoperability, and practical / commercial viability.

Registration will close in April 2023, and a public vote will begin in June 2023.

The winners will be announced at Music China in Autumn 2023.

For more details, see the MIDI Awards section of this website. 



Tapis Magique: A Choreomusical Interactive Carpet


Tapis Magique is a pressure-sensitive, knitted electronic textile carpet that generates three-dimensional sensor data based on body postures and gestures and drives an immersive sonic environment in real-time. Demonstrating an organic and expressive relationship between choreography and music has been a never-ending feat in the performance arts, as seen in previous work by Cage and Cunningham, Horst and Graham, or Stravinsky and Balanchine. Our work unveils dancers’ creative, unconventional possibilities of agency, intimacy, and improvisation over the music through a textile interface. 

Motivated by the craftsmanship and connections of cultural textiles such as Javanese Batik or Balinese Ikat to their traditional performance arts, we began to apply an artistic approach into technological textile design and merge new materials, sensing technologies, and digital fabrication with contemporary dance and music into one united and harmonious piece of object and performance.



The tapis design is composed of multi-layer knitted textiles. The top and bottom layers are orthogonal conductive line matrices knitted within a single operation using multi-material twisted yarns. The middle layer is a knitted piezo-resistive textile, a pressure-sensitive layer that interfaces with the conductive matrices to create a sensing grid. The dense geometrical patterns of the stars scattered around the brushstroke details in the tapis represent 1800 pressure-sensing pixels (distributed in 15 MIDI Channels) and are inspired by the galactic space. Parametric design transformed these patterns into a 3-D spatial illusion to illustrate the multi-dimensionality of the sensor data.

The knitted conductive lines are connected to a system hardware consisting of multiplexers, shift-registers, operational amplifiers, and microcontroller that sequentially reads each pressure sensing pixel and sends it to a computer. These pixels collectively generate continuous 3-D spatiotemporal sensor data mapped into MIDI streams to trigger and control discrete notes, continuous effects, and immersive soundscapes through science-inspired musical tools. 



Several musical pieces were designed to invoke various emotions to inspire conversations between the choreographer and the instrument. Behind the scenes, runs a digital modular synthesizer made of several patches, each for a different type of performance. The incoming stream of MIDI data is first fed into quantizer modules that align the notes to major, minor, and pentatonic scales, as well as mystic chords. The sounds are then generated by a collection of subtractive, additive, and granular synthesizers. “Venus Sunrise”, one of our performance pieces, as shown in the video above, presents a metaphorical celestial sound of the universe as the dancer is twirling around the stars, traveling through space and time.

Tapis Magique demonstrates the interplay between art and technology, highlighting the deep emotional link between contemporary textiles, dance, and music through the physical-digital connection. It provides a canvas for dancers and sound artists to modulate sound, perform and compose a musical piece based on choreography and vice versa; it also creates an auditory-gestural synesthetic environment that invites and encourages audiences to interact and express themselves with the tapis, experiencing a magical connection that stimulates the body and mind.


An Interview with GLASYS: Tugging on my Heartchips

GLASYS (Gil Assayas) was a winner of the MIDI Association’s 2022 Innovation Awards for artistic installations. He’s a keyboard player, composer, sound designer, and video content creator who currently performs live with Todd Rundgren’s solo band. The internet largely knows GLASYS for his viral MIDI art and chiptune music.

We spoke with Gil to learn more about how he makes music. I’ll share that interview with him below. First, let’s have a quick review of his newly released chiptune album.  

MIDI Art that Tugs on my Heartchips

The latest record from GLASYS, Tugging On My Heartchips, debuted January 2023 and captures the nostalgia of early 8-bit game music perfectly, with classic sound patches that transport the listener back in time. The arrangements are true to the genre and some of the songs even have easter eggs to find. 

Gil created MIDI art to inspire multiple songs on the album, elevating the album’s conceptual value into uncharted meta-musical territory. He even created music video animations of the MIDI notes in post production. On track two, The MIDI Skull Song, you can almost hear the swashbuckling pirates in search of buried treasure. Take a listen here:

The MIDI Gargoyle Song features an even more complex drawing, with chromatic lines to put any pianist’s hands in a pretzel. Once the picture is finished, Gil’s gargoyle comes to life in a funny animation and dances to the finished song. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone create animations from MIDI notes in the piano roll! 

Heartchips delivers all the bubbly synths and 8-bit percussion you could want from a chiptune album. But with Gil, there’s more to the music than aesthetic bravado. Where other artists lean on retro sounds to make mid-grade music sound more interesting, GLASYS has mastered the composing and arrangement skills needed to evoke the spirit of early 90s games.

It can take several listens to focus on each of the album’s sonic elements. The mix and panning are impeccable. Gil rolls off some of the harsh overtones in the instrument’s waveform, to make it easier on our ears. But there’s something special happening in the arrangement, that  we discussed in more detail during our interview. 

Drawing from a classic 8-Bit technique

The playful acoustics of Heartchips mask Gil’s complex harmonic and rhythmic ideas like a coating of sugar. 

Gil gives each instrument a clear sense of purpose and identity, bringing them together in a song that tells a story without words. To accomplish this, he uses techniques from early game music, back when composers had only 5 instruments channels to use.

In the 1980s and 90s, as portable gaming consoles became popular, there was a limit to the number of notes a microchip could store and play at once. Chords had to be hocketed, or broken up into separate notes, so that the other instrument channels could be used for lead melody, accompaniment and percussion.

As a result, the classic 8-bit composers avoided sustained chords unless the entire song was focused on that one instrument. Every instrument took on an almost melodic quality.

While Heartchips doesn’t limit itself to five instrument channels per song, it does align with the idea that harmony and chord progressions should be outlined rather than merely sustained as a chord.

When GLASYS outlines a chord as an arpeggio in the bass, you’ll often hear two or three countermelodies in the middle and upper registers. Each expresses a unique idea, completely different from the others, yet somehow working perfectly with them. That’s the magic of his art.

There are a few moments on the album when chords are sustained for a measure at a time, like on the tracks No School Today or Back to Reality. These instances where chords are used acquire an almost dramatic effect because it disrupts your expectations as a listener.

Overall, I found Tugging on my Heartchips to be a fun listening experience with lots of replay value. 

What’s up with GLASYS in 2023?

In February 2023, GLASYS branched out from MIDI piano roll drawings to audio spectrograms. This new medium grants him the ability to draw images with more than MIDI blocks.

A spectrogram is a kind of 2D image. It’s a visual map of the sound waves in an audio file. It reads left to right, just like a piano roll. The X axis represents time and the Y axis represents frequency.

Some other artists (Aphex Twin, Dizasterpeace) have hidden images in spectrograms before, but those previous efforts only generated white noise. GLASYS has defied everyone’s expectations with spectrogram art created from his own voice and keyboards.

Here’s one of his latest videos, humming and whistling accompaniment to a piano arrangement in order to create a dragon. It may be the first time in history that something like this has been performed and recorded: 

An Interview with GLASYS (Gil Assayas)

I’ve really enjoyed the boundary-defying MIDI art that comes from GLASYS, so I reached out on behalf of the MIDI Association to ask a few questions and learn more. Here’s that conversation.

E: You’ve released an album in January called Tugging On My Heartchips. Can you talk about what inspired you to write these songs and share any challenges that came up while creating it?

G: Sure. Game boy was a big part of my childhood. It was the only console we had, because in Israel it was more expensive and harder to get a hold of other systems.

The first games I had were Links Awakening, Donkey Kong, Battletoads, and Castlevania. I loved the music and what these composers could achieve with 4 tracks, using pulse wave and noise. Somehow they could still create these gorgeous melodies.

My experience growing up with those games was the main inspiration for this album. I never really explored these sounds in previous albums. I always went more for analog synths.

E: Your first GLASYS EP, The Pressure, came out in 2016 but your Youtube channel goes back almost a decade. Can you tell me a bit about the history of GLASYS?

G: When I first got started, I was playing in a band in Israel and every so often I would write a solo work that didn’t fit the band’s sound. So I created the GLASYS channel to record those ideas occasionally. After moving to the United States, I had a lot more time to focus on my own music and that’s when things started picking up.

E: Can you tell me more about your mixing process? Do you write, record, and mix everything yourself?

G: Yes, I write everything myself and record most of it in my home studio. Nowadays I mix everything myself, though in the past I’ve worked with some great mixing engineers such as Tony Lash (Dandy Warhols, Elliot Smith).

E: I think the playful tone of Heartchips will carry most listeners away. It’s easy to overlook the difficulty of creating a chiptune album like this, not to mention all the video work you do on social media to promote it. You’ve nailed the timbre of your instruments and compositional style.

G: Yeah, mixing chiptune can be trickier than it seems because of all the high end harmonic content. None of the waveforms are filtered and everything has overtones coming through. I found that a little bit of saturation on the square waves, pulse waves, and a little bitcrushing can smooth out the edges a bit. EQ can take out some of the harsh highs, and you can do some sidechaining. These are things you can’t do on a gameboy or NES.

E: How much of your time is spent composing versus mixing and designing your instruments?

G: Mixing takes a lot longer. Composition is the easy part. The heard part is making something cool enough to want to share. I can be a bit of a perfectionist. So I’ll do a mix, try to improve it, rinse and repeat ten revisions until I’m happy with it. That’s one of the reasons it can be better to do the mix myself, haha.

E: Before this interview, we were talking about aphantasia where people can’t visualize images but they can still dream in images. Do you ever dream in music?

G: Dreams are such an emotional experience. When you get a musical idea in your dreams, more often than not you forget it when you wake up. But when you do remember it, it’s very surreal. Actually, my first song ever was based on a purple hippo I saw in my dream. I was 5 years old, heard the melody, figured it out and wrote it down with my dad.

E: What inspired you to get into MIDI art?

G: Well, there were a couple of things. Back in 2017, an artist by the name of Savant created some amazing MIDI art – I believe he was the first to do it in a way that sounds musical. He inspired other artists to create MIDI art, such as Andrew Huang who created his famous MIDI Unicorn (which I performed live in one of my videos).

There was another piece in particular that blew me away, this Harry Potter logo MIDI art that uses themes from Harry Potter, masterfully created by composer Hana Shin. I don’t particularly care for Harry Potter, but I just found the concept and execution really inspiring and I thought it would be awesome to perform something like that live. In 2021, Jacob Collier did a few videos where he spelled out words in real time, which proved that it’s possible and motivated me to finally give it a shot.

My idea was to build on the MIDI art concept and draw things that were meaningful to me, such as video game logos and characters – and do it live, so I needed to write them in a way that would be possible to play with two hands. I actually just wanted to do it once or twice but it was the audience who motivated me to keep going. It got such a huge response, I’ve ended up doing nearly fifty of them. I’m now focusing on other things, but I might get back to MIDI art in the future

E: Do you have any advice for MIDI composers who struggle coming up with new ideas?

G: Sure, I do get writers block sometimes. As far as advice goes… I know how it goes where you keep rewriting something you’ve already created before. Everyone has their subconscious biases, things that they tend to go to without thinking. So even though they’re trying to do something new, they end up repeating themselves. It can be a struggle for sure.

If you find yourself sitting in front of your daw not knowing what to do, then don’t sit in front of your daw. Go outside and take a guitar with you and start jamming. Sometimes a change of environment, breaking the habit and getting out of the rut doing the same thing over and over can really help you.

Listen to something entirely different, then new ideas will come. A lot of the problem comes from listening to the same stuff or only listening to one genre of music. So everything you write starts to sounds like them.

Listen to music outside of the genres you like. For example, if you never listen to Cuban music, listen to it for a week. Some of it will creep into your subconscious, you might end up writing some indie rock song with cuban elements that’s awesome and would sound entirely new.

E: Are there any organizational tricks that you use to manage the sheer volume of musical ideas you come up with?

G: Yeah I used to have a lot of little ideas and save them in different folders, but it was too difficult to get back to things that I had written a year ago. Time goes by, you forget about how you felt when you wrote that thing, you feel detached from it.

If I decide to do something, I work on just one or two tracks until I’m done with them. I don’t record every idea I have either. I have to feel motivated enough to do something with it.

E: Do you have perfect pitch? Can you hear music in your head before playing it?

G: Definitely, yeah I can hear music in my head. I do have perfect pitch but it has declined a little bit as I get older.

E: What can we expect from GLASYS in 2023?

G: Lots of new music and videos – I’ve got many exciting ideas that I’m looking forward to sharing!

To learn more about Gil’s musical background, check out interviews with him here, here, and here. You can also visit the GLASYS website or check out his Youtube channel.

If you enjoyed this artist spotlight and want to read more about innovative musicians, software, and culture in 2023, check out the AudioCipher blog. We’ve recently covered Holly Herndon’s AI music podcast Interdependence, shared a new Japanese AI music plugin called Neutone, and promoted an 80-musician Songcamp project that created over 20,000 music NFTs in just six weeks. AudioCipher is a MIDI plugin that turns words into music within your DAW.

MIDI – The Music Education Tool K-12 Can’t Live Without: New Benchmarks for Chromebooks

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is the technical standard for connecting electronic musical instruments and computers to record, edit, and playback music.Created in 1983 and 40 years later, it is still essential in music education because playing any keyboard note can generate:

  • Notation
  • Pitch
  • Velocity
  • Panning
  • Vibrato
  • Clock Signals
  • Key Pressure

… and much more, plus hundreds of instruments and sounds; these MIDI messages act as instructions for the computer and music education software. 

All this and a bag of chips:looping, randomizing, instant transposing, cut, copy, paste, drop and drag and more. 

But it is Web MIDI, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for MIDI on the Internet that has driven Chromebook adoption in the music education market.  

The MIDI Association worked closely with W3C and MIDI Association member Google to get the standard adopted by W3C.


Chromebooks are a new type of computer designed to help you get things done faster and easier. They run ChromeOS, an operating system that has cloud storage, the best of Google built-in, and multiple layers of security.Enter your quote here…

by Google

Google Chromebooks and Web MIDI To The Rescue

Chromebooks flourished after the adoption on Web MIDI in 2015 as it answers urgent music education needs. Chromebook advanced rapidly in its first 10 years, under Acer Inc. and Samsung.Then Lenovo, Hewlett Packard and Google itself entered the market in 2013. It is forecasted that nearly 30 million Chromebooks will be shipped globally in 2022, more than double in 2019.

The education market has 40 million Chromebook users world-wide, a jump of 33 percent over last year. Currently, Google services 148 American school districts and there is a list of those districts here. 

https://edu.google.com/why-google/for-your-institution/k-12-solutions/reference-districts/?modal_active=none

World-wide, Chromebook is well established educationally in the international market, notably in Australia, New Zealand and in the UK among other global markets. This is in part due to its excellent, strong security preferences.

Chromebooks are Cloud based which means there is no need to install music programs onto Chromebooks. There are manycreative web-based music programs for students that run from the Cloud. Hence, no problematic installs or technical support and since Chromebook’s tight security controls make installing apps more difficult, they are perfect for education because the school can control what websites the students can access. As a web-browser, Google Chrome is ideal for MIDI operations which is a blessing for Internet-driven Chromebooks. Students can store songs and all of their work and result in the cloud (Google Drive) for easy retrieval. The challenge is finding suitable web-based music programs so we have created a list. 

Chromebooks Versus Traditional Notebooks

The main difference between Chromebooks and laptops is of course the operating system. While many laptops run on either the Mac OS or Windows operating system, Chromebook runs on the web-based Chrome OS, which is fully open-sourced Linux based and its simplicity produces attractive speed. Chrome OS also boasts a stronger security layer with minimal risk for security breaches, hacks, malware, viruses, and other malicious content.

Chromebooks aren’t for everyone, but they probably are well suited for the education market. Educators and students tend to prefer a Chromebook because, 1) light weight for backpack convenience, 2) lower price, 3) longer battery life without charging at school, and 4) better security since students can’t easily load virus-vulnerable programs and other technology issues. 

While other laptops are typically more expensive than Chromebooks, they are typically more powerful along and offer more full featured DAW programs like Ableton, Bitwig, Cubase, Performer, and Logic.

The only real disadvantage with a Chromebook disadvantages is that unless you are connected to the Internet, there is not that much you can do with them.

If you are a music educator you should consider Chromebooks are worth the investment, depending on the students needs. Chromebook can now meet a wide variety of computing needs, and a good Chromebook OS laptop or two-in-one can advantages in an educational setting. 

Watch this  presentation entitled “Are Chromebooks Worth It In 2022?”


Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an all-in-one place for teaching and learning. This secure, easy-to-use tool helps educators manage, measure, and enrich learning experiences.Google Classroom is a free, blended learning platform developed by Google for educational institutions that aim to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. For example, you can:Switch from class to assignment to student in just a few clicks\

Track student progress in your gradebook and export scores to your school’s student information system (SIS)

Keep grading consistent and transparent with rubrics displayed alongside student work

Store frequently used phrases in a customizable comment bank

Prepare and schedule tasks, assignments, and quizzes across multiple classes


Mastering Music

Mastering Music at https://masteringmusic.online is a complete, pure music suite offering integrated instruction with performance, MIDI and digital sequencing, music theory, ear training and film scoring.The magic of this program is its extremely user-friendly interface for the classroom and for home creativity.


Here is a convenient list of Mastering Music Online features:

  • Works on all devices including PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, tablets and iPads
  • Provides 400+ self-paced, step-by-step tutorial lessons for personalized learning mapped to the curriculum
  • K-12 Lessons categorized by year level and activity type (performing, composing, publishing and musicianship (aural + theory)
  • Easy-to-use instruction and video help in all lessons with the correct editor and tools loaded ready for immediate use to focus students on the lesson content rather than the technology
  • All song lessons have attached rubrics to guide teachers on marking criteria
  • Schools and educators can easily login using their Google or Microsoft Education Accounts Stores songs and results in the cloud (Google or One Drive) for easy retrieval
  • Use Google Classroom or interface directly with other LMS to easily deploy lessons
  • Teacher admin functions for account, custom lesson plans, classes and monitoring student results
  • Contains a full MIDI sequencer for composing, arranging, mixing and notation for playing and printing stand-alone or inside lessons
  • Record real-time compositions from a connected MIDI keyboard and sync to YouTube videos using drag/drop functionality.

A new music teacher tells the story of how she assigned the students to download another music software to their laptops to complete an exercise to discover that the students were all using Chromebooks and couldn’t install the app. They are now using Mastering Music Online because it works so well on their Chromebooks at home or in class.

The folks at Mastering Music are looking to offer a free one-year subscription to some Google school districts using 1:1 Chromebooks to trial Mastering Music Online and to provide them with feedback. 


Auralia

Auralia® is the most comprehensive ear training software available. It has 59 topics and endless customization.Each of the 59 topics has carefully graded levels, allowing you to easily use Auralia® with beginner through advanced students. The integrated course of lessons provides ideal preparation for each topic.All the fundamentals of pitch, rhythm, intervals, chords, scales and tuning are covered and progress through cadences, dictation, harmony, jazz progressions and melodic transcription.

Sophisticated tracking allows you to easily monitor and assess students. You’ll set tasks and assignments, and run exams with high quality content that your students will love.Check it out at https://www.risingsoftware.com/.

When my daughter was a freshmen college performance major, she called me with distressing problem that she was failing first semester ear training. Fortunately, she had access to Auralia and she earned an A grade. The product worked as advertised.

People like Auralia’s clean, elegant interface, designed to keep students focused on an essential ear training task.


Musition 

Musition at https://www.risingsoftware.com/musition is a music education music theory software program. Even if you play by ear, music theory can build understanding of what other musicians are playing and increase your awareness of their melodic, rhythmic and harmonic language. Regardless of your preferred style, classical, jazz or contemporary, Musition’s music theory topics make you a better musician. 

I suggest you view by its content topics to better understand its curriculum goals at https://www.risingsoftware.com/musition/topics/.  


Noteflight

Noteflight at https://www.noteflight.com/ took flight in 2008 as an online music writing application to create, view, print and hear professional quality music notation right in your web browser. Noteflight is an international product with over 7 million users world-wide because it serves individual music-makers and music educators at all levels with its family of products.Its playback sound choices are excellent with a good variety of authentic sounding soft synth palettes, plus playback can be straight or swing. This powerful notation program has a fantastic well-organized manual at https://www.noteflight.com/guide#mixInstruments to further exhibit its robust notation capabilities. It offers live recording options as well as transcribing a MIDI performance with impressive importing and exporting options.

Noteflight integrates well with Google Classroom to create a seamless experience for students and teachers. It is a robust notation program that is very popular world-wide with a variety of different timbres available for customized playback.Noteflight for Teachers platform, you and your students get access to features from the premium Noteflight Crescendo membership. This allows students to create an unlimited number of pieces with up to 50 instruments.

Noteflight also provides a marketplace to purchase and sell music all as digital Noteflight notation files. It also offers three different plans for purchase at https://www.noteflight.com/plans


Flat

Flat at https://flat.io/ is a collaborative music notation platform for new composers and professionals alike. Uniquely, you can compose and write music with others.It has a great feature when you lose the Internet, your work will be reinstated whenever you reconnect.For MIDI composition, you use your MIDI device to input notes and chords with easy transposition and adapt a score to your instrument or register in a few clicks with MusicXML/MIDI Files, you can easily move in and out of other software products.

Flat offers Advanced Layout Customization to change the density and the style of your musical content.


Soundtrap

Soundtrap owned by Spotify  at https://www.soundtrap.com/ is a free premium online cross-platform digital audio workstation (DAW) for browsers to create music or podcasts. This DAW is operated by Soundtrap AB, which Spotify bought in November 2017. Soundtrap is offered in English, Spanish, French, German, and Swedish. The Soundtrap DAWincludes inputs for external instruments, an instrument player, a way to input and export MIDI files, collaboration features, Patterns BeatMaker and a built-in autotune provided by Antares Audio Technologies. You’ll have fun creating with its extensive collection of beats, loops and instruments. Soundtrap’s modern DAWs has a central interface that allows a user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final production including music, songs, speech, radio, television, soundtracks, podcasts, sound effects.


Bandlab

BandLab is a dynamic DAW for recording, mixing and collaborating your music projects from start to finish with its “Best-In-Class” award from SBO magazine, [JK1] 100% free Mix Editor. Today’s high school music teachers are very fortunate to have at their fingertips this cutting-edge.The MIDI-driven BANDLAB for EDUCATION is a wonderful music production-education tool to help music educators to meet and exceed standards.It is ideal for and exciting discovery learning and makes differentiated instruction much easier. And it is especially well designed for distance learning needs.Public and private students love the flexibility of creative options BandLab offers.

Band Lab for Education is designed to make life easier for the teacher and a lot more fun and innovative for students. To support this purpose their website is loaded with good information and enticing features.

Perhaps the best news is Band Lab for Education is available to educators via a free subscription at https://edu.bandlab.com. Currently, it can be used on all PCs (using the Chrome and Edge browsers) and an iOS version for mobile devices.This is the most user–friendly and industry–friendly music creating teaching tool on the market because Band Lab for Education is built to integrate with other services, music educators often use it to complement their existing suite of tools.

Band Lab for Education allows a win–win atmosphere for teachers and students, creating true ownership of music skills, pride of achievement and life-long lovers of music.You can take a closer look at:

https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/bandlab-breaks-the-music-education-midi-sound-barrier.

Wrap Up 

Compare these robust Chromebook music applications all designed for ideal school and home creativity. There may well be other such music products, but these are arguably the most well-known.

Chromebook is a good fit on the economic and creative horizon of music education.Full MIDI compatibility and seamless Cloud connectivity simplifies teaching and learning for engaging creativity.I hope this inspires K-12 music educators to take a fresh look at this innovative music technology.

More Playful Products with MIDI at NAMM 2022

Join MIDI Association President Athan Billias, artiphon’s Emma Supica and Oddball’s Pasquale Totaro for a discussion of playful (and round) products that use MIDI from the June 2022 NAMM show 

Follow the bouncing ball as it sends out MIDI messages and learn how music teachers in Anaheim are getting kids to express their emotions with MIDI. 



Playful Products with MIDI at NAMM 2022

Join MIDI Association President Athan Billias, Big Ear Games Aviv Ben-Yahuda , Playtronics’ Sacha Pas and Playtime Engineering’s Troy Sheets for a discussion of playful products that use MIDI from the June 2022 NAMM show. 

Sorry, it took awhile to get this interview up. But it was an entertaining conversation. Just remembering how great it was to get everyone together at the June NAMM show has us looking forward to April NAMM 2023 and the 40th anniversary of MIDI!



The NAMM Foundation and the MIDI Association announce the Launch of The MIDI Fund

Los Angeles, CA – June 2, 2022

The NAMM Foundation and the MIDI Association are pleased to announce the MIDI Fund, a new donor-advised fund in The NAMM Foundation

The MIDI Fund will support projects and programs that advance engagement in music-making and the varied and unique options to make, create and explore music made possible by MIDI, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface that allows musical instruments to connect to computers, tablets, cell phones, and each other. 

For the past several years, the MIDI Association has delivered programs for the public benefit. Between 2020 and 2021, the MIDI Association raised $50,000 and donated that money to the Children’s Music Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides music therapy programs to children affected by chronic conditions or life-altering illnesses, to help them on their journey towards a better quality of life. The MIDI Association had planned to create its own 501(c)3 to focus on these and other projects for the public benefit. 

However, at the recommendation of NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond, and with the help of NAMM Foundation Executive Director Mary Luehrsen, establishing a new donor-advised fund enables the MIDI Association to avail itself of the considerable experience and administrative resources of the NAMM Foundation

The first major project the MIDI Fund is focusing on is the development of a MIDI curriculum and certification program to raise awareness about MIDI in education at secondary and post-secondary schools, and for manufacturer and reseller staff members.

Current work includes: Establishment of standardized, readily/publicly available MIDI education content Creation, launch, and active management of a MIDI certification program 

For more information about the MIDI Fund and to donate, please visit https://www.nammfoundation.org/donate. 


We support MIDI In Music Education. Do you?

The MIDI Association Executive Board committed to funding the MIDI Fund with $25,000 and matching any donations made to the fund before June 30, 2022.

Ed Cannon, CEO of Zivix, makers of the Jamstick MIDI Guitars has pledged $5000 from the Cannon Family Foundation.

Roland has committed $3000 as a Platinum sponsor.

Steinberg has committed $1500 as a Gold Sponsor.

Casio and IK Multimedia have both pledged $750as Silver sponsors.

That is $11,000 in sponsor pledges matched by another $11,000 in matching funds from the MIDI Association bringing the current total funding of the MIDI Fund to $47,000.

But we are not done yet.

You can fill out the form below to commit to a founding MIDI Fund sponsorship and we will continue to promote your company and your products as we promote the MIDI Fund for years to come.

MIDI Fund Sponsorship

Please feel out this simple form for MIDI Fund Sponsorship.

MIDI Fund Sponsorship Level





It’s easy for individuals to donate as well.

Go here. https://www.nammfoundation.org/donate

Click on the donate button. Enter an amount. 

Right under the amount, you select where you want the donation to go.

Select the MIDI Fund.

The MIDI Association will match this donation one to one until June 30, 2022 and you will receive a receipt for your tax deductible donation.


$5000 Founding Sponsor


$3000 Founding Sponsor


$1500 Founding Sponsor


$750 Founding Sponsors


MIDI In Music Education Webinar -Saturday, May 21

Join the inaugural webinar of the MIDI Association’s MIDI in Music Education (MiME) working group. 

To celebrate “May is MIDI Month,” we welcome Craig Anderton – who’s played Carnegie Hall, written 45 books on music technology, and lectured around the world for over four decades.
His talk on “Music, MIDI, and the Art of Inspired Instruction” will open your eyes to the exciting future of music education.

Active MiME members can then join in a moderated panel discussion with Craig, after which we’ll discuss new MIDI Association education initiatives – including a proposed MIDI certification program, and the launch of a trailblazing philanthropic endeavor with the NAMM Foundation. 

Simply go to this URL using a Web MIDI enabled browser on May 21 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern and 6 pm London



...

Live

THE MIDI ASSOCIATION, a global community of people who work, play and create with MIDI and the central repository of information about anything related to MIDI.


Register for the MIME Webinar

Register to Attend the May 21 Event


The MIDI Innovation Awards Show 2022

On May 28 at 10 am Pacific, 1 PM Eastern and 6 PM in the UK, LJ Rich will host the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards


This year we are incredibly lucky to have LJ Rich hosting the MIDI Innovation Awards (MIA) show which will feature the 15 finalists from the 5 categories interacting with our international panel of judges.

World-renowned performer LJ Rich presents on the International Technology show BBC Click. She’s also a NASA Datanaut and host of the United Nations ITU #AIForGood Summit.

While filming with Click, LJ’s interviewed founders, hackers, and artists across the globe, meeting everyone from Stevie Wonder to Steve Wozniak. Since reading music at Oxford, LJ’s predicted consumer tech trends for over a decade for the BBC, with particular interest in AI, Music and the human/computer interface.


Meet our international panel of judges 

We have an amazing panel of judges with incredibly diverse backgrounds, but they all share one thing – a passion for innovation and for MIDI.  Here are some details of each of the seven 2022 MIA judges. 

Craig Anderton

CRAIG ANDERTON is an internationally recognized authority on technology and music. He has toured, played Carnegie Hall, mastered hundreds of tracks, and been involved with dozens of major label releases as either a player, producer, or engineer. He’s also written over 30 books (including the seminal Home Recording for Musicians) and thousands of articles, as well as co-founded Electronic Musician magazine.

Known for his ability to de-mystify complex subjects, Craig has given seminars on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and 3 languages.

Michele Darling

Michele Darling is an accomplished sound designer, composer, recording engineer, and educator, who fell in love with electronic music and sound creation at an early age. She worked for 10 years as part of an Emmy award winning interactive production team at Sesame Workshop in NYC.

Also throughout her career, she has worked on a wide range of media from national television shows to video games, from online and mobile platforms to electronic toys and music software for clients such as 4Kids Entertainment, HBO Family, The Learning Channel, Toca Boca, Hasbro, Morton Subotnick, The Criterion Collection, iZotope, and more. Michele worked as a member of the Ableton sound design team for Live 10, creating sound presets for the well-known software for multi-genre music producers worldwide.

Currently, Michele is the Assistant Chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

John Kao

From John Kao’s website”

“The Economist tagged me with the nicknames “Mr. Creativity” and a “Serial Innovator.” Eclectic is how I would describe my experience, from teaching at Harvard Business School and the MIT Media Lab, to producing feature films and theater, starting high tech ventures and even sharing the bandstand with Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention. I’ve explored what leaders can learn from jazz musicians in my book Jamming and what it takes for a country to innovate in my book Innovation Nation. And my greatest pleasure is working with leaders of all kinds who are on the hot seat to deliver some form of meaningful innovation agenda.”

Helen Leigh



Helen Leigh is an author, education writer, and maker with a focus on creative use of new technologies. She has written playful technology education materials for National Geographic and Intel Education, and has developed a Design, Coding, and Electronics Course for the Royal Court of Oman.

Moldover

“A musician at heart, inventor born of curiosity, and innovator by necessity, I believe the world calls him the ‘Godfather of Controllerism’ for damned good reasons.” – John Tackett, Crowd Wire

History only notes a handful of artists who successfully pushed the limits – both with their music and the design of their musical instruments. What Bach was to the keyboard and Hendrix was to the guitar, Moldover is to the controller. Disillusioned with “press play DJs”, Moldover fans eagerly welcome electronic music’s return to virtuosity, improvisation, and emotional authenticity. Dig deeper into Moldover’s world and you’ll uncover a subversive cultural icon who is jolting new life into physical media with “Playable Packaging”, sparking beautiful collaborations with his custom “Jamboxes”, and drawing wave after wave of followers with an open-source approach to sharing his methods and madness.

Dr. Kate Stone

From Kate Stone’s website:

“I describe myself as a creative scientist because we all fit in more than one box. I studied electronics and physics, these give my work structure and discipline, however my true skill is creativity. Creatively using whatever I find around me to solve any problem I encounter. My grandmother told me to ‘cut your coat from the cloth at hand’.

I founded and run a company called Novalia, we create interactive posters and other everyday objects that embody the magic of interactivity and connectivity. Posters that talk, books that turn in to pianos and walls that play music. I am Chair of the Executive board of the MIDI Association and sit on the Editors Code of Practice Committee to help keep an eye on what the UK press determine to be acceptable.”

Yuri Suzuki

Yuri Suzuki is an experience and sound designer who works at the intersection of installation, interaction and product design.

His work encompasses sound, music, installations, product design, art direction, education and contemporary art for renowned clients ranging from corporations to musicians to start ups. Projects include a bespoke musical instrument for will.i.am, techno DJ legend Jeff Mills and the AR Music Kit – a music based augmented reality android app turning paper into instruments for Google. He recently has done work for Roland designing the  https://808303.studio/.

He was also instrumental in the design in the design of new MIDI logo. 



Promote The Vote in the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards!

Check out over 100 entrants and then vote for your favorites

There are five distinct categories (listed below) for the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards.

From May 1 to May 14, you will be able to select three entrants from each category to be the finalists who will participate in the May 28 MIDI Innovation Awards show on MIDI.org.

When voting, you do not have to vote in all categories, but any category you vote in you must select three entrants.

Clicking on the links below shows you all the entrants for that particular category.

On May 15, three finalists will be selected from each category by 50% weighting of the public vote and the judges vote. 


Commercial Software-22 Entries

Fluid Chords from Pitch Innovations

Pictured above is this year’s entry from last year’s winner, Pitch Innovations

It’s clear that one of the trends in MIDI Innovation is more precise control over pitch and tuning. 

In the commercial software area, there are a lot of entrants that focus on pitch and pitch control via MIDI Polyphonic Expression. 

Entonal Studio is an audio application and plugin that gives musicians the ability to use and create alternative tunings in their music, in any environment.

Infinitone Dynamic Micro-Tuning plugin empowers musicians with Freedom of Pitch, through opening access to the full harmonic spectrum, a.k.a. the “notes between the notes”.

GeoShred, an award-winning, fluidly expressive musical instrument with a performance surface that uses MIDI/MPE to control expressive physics-based models of musical instruments.

But there are entries in other categories that support this trend as well.


Commercial Hardware-31 Entries

Piano De Voyage

 If there is one major trend in Commercial Hardware, it seems to be portability. 

Piano de Voyage (pictured above) was one of the first MIDI products to have a modular design that allowed greater portability. It is a modular, 88 full-size keys portable piano keyboard. 

The Vboard 49 is a portable foldable MIDI keyboard.

The Vboard 25 is a folding MIDI keyboard with standard key width, pads, knobs, and a wealth of features.

POPUPIANO SMART PORTABLE KEYBOARD + POPUMUSIC APP is also a product with a modular design.  It was designed  into two parts. The right keyboard focuses on melody, while the left chords pad focuses on chords & rhythm.
Besides, you can replace the left chords pad via a magnetic extended keyboard, and make PopuPiano a complete E-keyboard.

The POCKETPIANO  is “the First Portable, Professional Piano that fits into your Backpack”.

But there are also some Commercial Hardware products that really push the envelope in innovation. 

Oddball -Create music by simply bouncing, catching and spinning a ball

PTZOPTICS MIDI CAMERA CONTROL

PTZOptics is adding configurable MIDI control to their award-winning PTZ cameras. Set and call presets, plus operate pan, tilt, and zoom from any MIDI device.

Erae Touch is a Polyphonic Expressive MIDI Controller.

It is born out of a desire to combine both sensitivity and versatility in a seamless object.


Non-Commercial/Prototype Software-24 Entries

Count-Me-In allows the audience of a musical event to use their mobile phones and become part of the show!

It’s pretty clear that one of the major trends in MIDI Innovation is collaboration. 

Count-Me-In pictured above is just one example. 

DAWn Audio allows artists anywhere in the world to work together live, even if they’re using different DAWs.

THE DAW COLLABORATION FRAMEWORK (DCF) is Browser-based middleware that interfaces with shared Cubase projects via virtual MIDI ports, establishing online collaboration with real-time videoconferencing and synchronised audio and MIDI track mixing.

Another trend we see all over the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards is creative uses of Web MIDI. 

Here are a few. 

VOGUM is a web application with extensive MIDI controller support for music teachers, learners and performers.

MIDI PROXY-Use a simple MIDI keyboard with pitch-bend to emulate a controller with faders and buttons. And do it from the Web!

WEBMIDI.js is a free and open source JavaScript library that makes it easy for any website to interact with a visitor’s MIDI devices.



Non-Commercial/Prototype Hardware-25 Entries

ProtoZOA is a flexible prototyping tool for MIDI 2.0.

Open source firmware provides MIDI 2.0 interfaces and functions for developers to use in their own hardware and software products.

Okay, we may be a little biased here, but if there is one Non-Commercial/Prototype Hardware entry that we think everyone should at least be aware of it’s this one. 

Why? 

Because the MIDI Association is just about to ship over 50 of these ProtoZOA MIDI 2.0 prototyping tools to MIDI Association members around the world. 

AmeNote developed a USB MIDI 2.0 Device, designed specifically to jump-start prototyping and validation of UMP functions and fuel the MIDI 2.0 revolution by encourage speedier adoption of MIDI 2.0 by:

  •  Providing an affordable, flexible prototyping platform to enable software and hardware developers to start testing and prototyping MIDI 2.0 UMP.
  •  Providing a testing platform which connects via the USB MIDI 2.0 drivers recently released by Apple and Google and a test tool for Microsoft as they create Windows drivers.
  • Providing USB MIDI 2.0 source code that other hardware developers can use under a no-charge permissive license.

But there were also plenty of other interesting entries. 

Super MIDI Pak turns your Super Nintendo into a MIDI synthesizer!

The Meta Glove for Augmented Art is a low cost MIDI controller glove that allows musicians and artists to augment their digital expressivity resulting in high impact, high publicity and social media attention for them and their sponsors.

And of course, the POSITRONIC RECURSION STUDIO is a fractal synthesizer from the future. Recurse your MIDI signals, your CV’s or your grandma’s quantum brownies. Innumerable novel HD fractals at your fingertips.


Artistic/Visual Project or Installation-6 Entries

Tapis Magique is a knitted interactive carpet that generates 3D sensor data based on body locations and gestures and drives an immersive sonic environment in real-time.

Respoken is an interactive light and sound installation that creates an experience from the user´s voice. A stage for self-expression manifesting the spirit in light and sound.


Music Hackspace, NAMM and the MIDI Association Announce Plans for the MIDI Innovation Awards 2022

THE MIDI INNOVATION AWARDS 

The MIDI Innovation awards give a platform to MIDI innovation. This enables winners to accelerate their product ideas through connections to the industry, as well as increase their visibility among musicians and the NAMM community of trade professionals. The MIDI Innovation Awards rewards products, prototypes, installations or concepts that are thought-provoking and inspire new, creative use cases. 

The founding partners of the event (The MIDI Association, Music Hackspace and NAMM) are committed to continuing with MIDI Innovation Awards and have laid out a plan for 2022. 


Check out the highlights from the 2021 MIDI Innovation Awards 


Plans for the MIDI  Innovation Awards 2022

Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, MIDI Association Exec Board member and CEO of Music Hackspace came up with the idea for the MIDI Innovation Awards in December of 2020 and amazingly put together the entire MIDI Innovation Awards 2021 event in a little over a month.

In 2022, we are planning in advance and have more time. The MIDI Innovation Awards activity this year will be focused on MIDI.org.

We will start submissions for entrants to the 2022 MIDI Innovation awards in March.

We will hold a number of MIDI Innovation Award events during May Is MIDI Month 2022.

We plan to announce the MIDI Innovation Award winners at the June NAMM show.

If you are interested in submitting a MIDI Innovation project for 2022, please check the box for entrants/submissions below.

If you are interested in viewing or voting for the MIDI Innovation Awards 2022, please check the viewing and voting box below. 


MIDI Association Initiatives

Please select all the MIDI Association Initiatives you are interested in.

MIDI Association Initiatives Interests











Marketing by


For more information, follow the link below.  


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The MIDI Innovation Awards

THE MIDI ASSOCIATION, a global community of people who work, play and create with MIDI and the central repository of information about anything related to MIDI.


KnittedKeyboard: A multi-modal, textile-based soft MIDI controller


KnittedKeyboard is a recent project coming out from the Responsive Environments Group at the MIT Media Lab. This instrument provides new interactions and tactile experiences for musical expressions, and it can be easily worn, folded, rolled up, and packed in our luggage like a pair of socks or a scarf. The project was initially motivated by discussions with Lyle Mays, a late composer and jazz pianist in the Pat Metheny Group, who wished a rollable fabric keyboard for composing and performing music on the road.

Credit: Irmandy Wicaksono


The KnittedKeyboard leverages digital machine knitting of functional (electrically-conductive and thermoplastic) and non-functional (polyester) fibers to develop a seamless and customized, 5-octave piano-patterned musical textile. The individual and combinations of the keys could simultaneously sense touch, as well as continuous proximity, stretch, and pressure. It ultimately combines both discrete controls from the conventional keystrokes and expressive continuous controls from the non-contact, theremin-inspired proximity sensors (by waving and hovering on the air), as well as physical interactions enabled by the knitted fabric sensors (e.g. squeezing, pulling, stretching, and twisting). The KnittedKaybord enables performers to experience intimate, organic tactile experience as they explore the seamless texture and materiality of the electronic textile. 

The sensing mechanism is based on capacitive and piezo-resistive sensing. Every key acts as an electrode and is sequentially charged and discharged. This creates an electromagnetic field that can be disrupted by hand’s approach, enabling us to detect not only contact touch, but also non-contact proxemic gesture such as hovering or waving on the air, contact touch, as well as to calculate strike velocity. The piezo-resistive layers underneath can measure pressure and stretch exerted on the knitted keyboard. All of the sensor data is converted to musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) messages by a central microprocessor, which will correspond to certain timbral, dynamic, and temporal variations (filter resonance, frequency, glide, reverb, amp, distortion, et cetera), as well as pitch-bend. Audio sequencing and generation software such as Ableton Live and Max/MSP map these MIDI messages to their corresponding channels, controls, notes, and effects.


Credit: Irmandy Wicaksono

“Fabric of Time and Space”, as demonstrated in below video, is a contemporary musical piece exclusively written for KnittedKeyboard to demonstrate and illustrate the multi-dimensional expressiveness of the instrument. The piece is a metaphor for the expanding and contracting nature of the universe and this is represented musically by the glissandi of the melody as well as the interplay between major and minor chords. The metaphorical perturbations of space-time were expressed by the interaction between the performer and the fabric. The musical translation of these expressions were used to shape the envelope of the sound. The underlining technology would enable further exploration of soft and malleable gestural musical interfaces that leverage the unique mechanical structures of the materials, as well as the intrinsic electrical properties of the knitted sensors. For further information about this project, please access its main page.



The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group Sponsors Sessions at Game Developers Conference

A Week of Game Audio Lessons 

The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) of the MIDI Association is the special interest group that represents MIDI and audio to the gaming community.
This year the all virtual Game Developers Conference includes a number of sessions sponsored by the IASIG and other sessions on audio that should be of interest for MIDI companies. 

Join the game industry’s top audio professionals to share knowledge and experience from the real-world addressing audio’s unique aesthetic, technical, business, and logistical problems.

2021 Game Audio Pass Pricing Details

Register for an Audio Pass ($399 – General Registration rate, ends 7/17) to attend all Audio Core and Summits sessions throughout the week.
The Audio Pass also includes access to the virtual GDC Expo, Sponsored Content, Networking & Meetings (with other Attendees & Exhibitors), Advocacy Sessions, Special Events, Main Stage Content, and the 2021 IGF Awards & GDCA. 


IASIG Town Hall

Wednesday, July 21 | 9:40am – 10:40am

Speakers: Kurt Heiden (IASIG), Steve Horowitz (Nickelodeon Digital, GAI, IASIG, SFSU), Scott Looney (Game Audio Institute), Athan Billias (The MIDI Association)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Career Development Pass
Topic: Audio, Special Event
Format: Special Event

Want to improve game audio workflow or the professional audio tools available to you? Join fellow game audio educators, sound designers, composers, audio programmers, and other audio professionals at the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) Town Hall.

Guest speaker Scott Looney will discuss the state of VR hardware, software and tools for VR, AR, MR and more. New developments with MIDI 2.0 and info on the upcoming Women in Game Audio roundtable will also be covered. Share your own ideas, suggestions, and recommendations for improving the state of the art in audio for interactive media. If you do audio, come and be heard!


Loud Secrets of Game Audio RoundTable (Presented by IGDA)

Thursday, July 22 | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

Speakers: Steph Nguyen (Independent), Chel Wong (Independent), Bonnie Bogovich (BlackCatBonifide LLC)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Career Development Pass
Topic: Advocacy
Format: Roundtable

The IGDA Interactive Audio Special Interest Group is hosting a roundtable discussion of women’s experiences in game audio. As the industry grows, more and more women are joining in making amazing audio for games. But the industry has historically been a male dominated one, and there are very clear and prevalent issues that women face. This women led roundtable intends to expose some of these issues, and discuss potential solutions. Some of the topics will include: lauding the professionals who hold the door open for women in the industry, harmful allyship, Women’s health issues, awareness of language, and intersectionality.


Audio Summit:DIY Musical Instruments Using Unity, WWise and Game Controllers

Tuesday, July 20 | 3:20pm – 3:50pm

Summit Speaker: Ressa Schwarzwald (Creative Mobile)

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass, Audio Pass

Topic: Audio

Format: Session
If you’re specialized in interactive audio, not in programming, you’re still able to make musical instruments using the variety of software and gaming hardware we have nowadays. It’s pure fun as those instruments can be customized from the top to the bottom. It’s possible to use different controllers and play recorded or even resynthesized timbres with them. All this can be done easily: with simple scripts, the power of game engines and audio middleware.


Dolby at GDC 2021 

What Dolby is doing at GDC 2021

Join Dolby for an online gathering of the game development community in celebration of GDC 2021, July 19 – 23, 2021

Experience the power of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in games, hear from industry leaders on the future of game technology, and learn how you can start creating and delivering your games in Dolby today.

See the full program and register for access: https://bit.ly/2T46PGe

@DolbyGameDev


IASIG Corporate Sponsors 



A MIDI Controller has a MIDI Controller that sends MIDI Controllers

MIDI Controllers (Products, Physical Controls, and Messages)

Unfortunately the word controller is overburdened in the MIDI lexicon and probably the most overused word in the world of MIDI. 

It can refer to three different things- products, physical controls and messages. 


MIDI Controller=Product 

People can say MIDI Controller and they mean a product like a IK MultiMedia iRig Keys I/O 25 Controller Keyboard.  

They might say ” I’m using The Roland  A88 MK2 as my MIDI Controller”.  


MIDI Controller=Physical Control

But the word Controller is also used to refer to physical controls like a Modulation Wheel, a Pitch Bend wheel, a Sustain Pedal, or a Breath Controller (yes, there is that word again).


MIDI Controller=Control Change Messages (Controllers)

The word Controller is also used to describe the MIDI messages that are sent.  So you could say “I’m sending Controller #74 to control Filter Cutoff’. 

In fact, there are multiple types of MIDI messages that are sometimes referred to as “Controllers”:

  • MIDI 1.0 Control Change Messages
  • Channel Pressure (aftertouch)
  • Polyphonic Key Pressure (poly pressure)
  • Pitch Bend
  • Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs) in MIDI 1.0 that equate to the 16,834 Registered Controllers in MIDI 2.0
  • Non-Registered Parameter Numbers (NRPNs) in MIDI 1.0 that equate to the 16,834 Assignable Controllers in MIDI 2.0
  • MIDI 2.0 Registered Per-Note Controllers
  • MIDI 2.0 Assignable Per-Note Controllers

To make things a bit more convoluted, the MIDI 1.0 specification contains certain MIDI Messages that are named after physical controls specifically- 

Decimal   Hex      Function 

1              0x01    Modulation Wheel or Lever 

2              0x02    Breath Controller

4              0x04   Foot Controller

11            0x0B   Expression Controller 

64            0x40   Damper Pedal on/off (Sustain)

66            0x42   Sostenuto On/Off

67            0x43  Soft Pedal On/Off 

But these are MIDI Control Change (CC) messages, not the actual physical controllers themselves. 

However most products hardwire the Mod Wheel to CC#1 and set the factory default of Damper to be assigned to CC#64, etc.  

Also on most MIDI products you can set your physical controller Mod Wheel to send different CC messages (for example Control Change #2 Breath Controller or Control Change #11 Expression). 

MOD WHEEL is a physical controller that always generates a specific message cc001 Modulation Wheel. cc001 (Control Change) can be applied to most any function, it does not have a fixed function. It is most often used to apply Modulation depth to pitch (vibrato) but that must be assigned to the wheel on a per program basis.

by  Yamaha Product Specialist Phil Clendennin ( AKA Bad Mister)


So a MIDI Controller has a MIDI Controller that sends a MIDI Controller! Or translated into a sentence that makes more sense-

A IK MultiMedia iRig Keys I/O 25 has a Mod Wheel that sends Control Change (CC) #11 Expression. 


The important thing to remember. 

The word MIDI controller can refer to three different things. 

  • A type of product- The IK MultiMedia iRig Keys I/O 25 is a MIDI Controller
  • A physical control- The Mod Wheel on the IK MultiMedia iRig Keys I/O 25 is a MIDI Controller
  • A MIDI Control Change Message- The Mod Wheel on the IK MultiMedia iRig Keys I/O 25 is sending MIDI Controller #11 Expression


MIDI Innovation Webinar May 29, 2021

Innovation: AI, AR and Gamification in Music Apps 

 We hosted our final May Is MIDI Month 2021 webinar on May 29 with a focus on Innovation.  

There were four presenters covering different aspects of innovation around Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and Gamification


A3E Deep Dive™: AI & Artificial Creativity

Paul Sitar, President- A3E: The Future of Music + Entertainment Technology™

Paul Sitar explained the A3E Deep Dive into AI and Artificial Creativity. 

They have assembled a group of AI & Artificial Creativity Think Tank Luminaries to help to do in depth research on these topics.  

Here is the list of people currently involved. 

1. Jack Joseph Puig (Multiple GRAMMY Award-Winning Producer/Engineer & Vice President Creative Innovation Waves Consumer)

2. Drew Silverstein (CEO/Co-Founder of Amper/Shutterstock)

3. Maya Ackerman (CEO/Co-founder WaveAI | Professor of AI | Woman of Influence 2020)

4. Daniel Rowland (Oscar-winning, Grammy-nom Engineer/Producer & Head of Strategy & Partnerships at LANDR Audio

5. Kevin Doucette (Composer, Inventor, Engineer and Technology Futurist, Intel Corporation collaborator)

6. Tom Austin (CEO – The Analyst Syndicate)

7. Marc-Jean Jot (VP of Research, Chief Scientist at iZotope)

They have also launched a broader survey on AI and Artificial Creativity.  

You can take the survey until June 7, 2021 at the link below. 

Taking the survey will also make sure you receive a copy of the survey results. 


AR Pianist combines MIDI and AI to create virtual piano performances in your home

Craig Knudsen- Yamaha Consultant/Production Manager for the Piano Guys

Fayez Salka, M.D Medical Doctor, Musician, Software Developer and 3D Artist

Jon Schmidt of the Piano Guys poses next to his AR Pianist avatar at the Apple Store

Craig Knudsen, Yamaha Consultant and Production Manager for The Piano Guys and Fayez Salka, M.D Medical Doctor, Musician, Software Developer and 3D Artist discussed VR Pianist. 

The full article on VR Pianist can be found at the link below. 



Voice-to-MIDI: A More Intuitive Way to Interact with Music

Chris Samuels, CEO of Bace Technologies

Chris Samuels from Bace Technology discussed his use of AI and neural networks in designing his new Voice to MIDI technology. 

The full MIDI.org article on Bace can be found at the link below. 



...

Voice-to-MIDI: A More Intuitive Way to Interact with Music –  

Three years ago, while on tour with my band, Ritual Howls, I encountered a problem. After five grueling hours of sitting in a van on our way to the next gig, I had an idea for a drum beat but no way to capture


Aviv Ben Yehuda -CEO of Big Ear Games

Aviv Ben Yehuda -CEO of Big Ear Games explained how gamification can be used to create more music makers.  Big Ear Games is affiliated with the Lang Lang Institute which is supported by MIDI Association member, Steinway and Big Ear Games uses MIDI Association member Native Instruments technology inside of their game for sounds. Big Ear just announced MIDI support in the app. 


Big Ear Games | Play With Music

Join Solo, our wannabe musician, to demystify the mystery of how music works and level up your inner musician. Play music puzzles, collect instruments and make music.




Presentation Slides Used In The Webinar 


Voice-to-MIDI: A More Intuitive Way to Interact with Music

The Problem-No Real-Time Solutions 

Three years ago, while on tour with my band, Ritual Howls, I encountered a problem. After five grueling hours of sitting in a van on our way to the next gig, I had an idea for a drum beat but no way to capture it. All my gear was surgically packed away and out of reach. How could I capture my idea and turn it into workable music? 

Typically when inspiration for new music strikes, I open a voice recorder app and record myself beatboxing a beat or mumbling a melody. Once I have access to a computer, I listen back to the recording and try to recreate it by moving MIDI notes into just the right place. While this method would help preserve my idea, it didn’t provide a real-time solution.

Being a musician and product designer, I began researching the marketplace for applications or plugins that could translate my beatboxing into usable MIDI notes. I experimented with a couple of products with audio-to-midi functionality, but nothing worked the way I envisioned. Some plugins even required special microphones to work effectively. I needed something that could work in any setting and with any microphone, like the one on my laptop.

I also tried DAW tools that convert audio into MIDI notes, but it didn’t give me the instant gratification of actually playing music. Further, without perfectly separated audio, it created outputs that didn’t resemble my idea. At this point, I knew there was an opportunity and began to ideate a practical solution.


My Voice as an Instrument 

After an exhaustive survey of the current marketplace, I started researching artificial intelligence in audio processing. To translate my voice into workable MIDI notes, it was clear that I needed to develop an algorithm with enough smarts to differentiate various types of drum sounds.

As a product designer, I could envision the look and feel of the experience but needed to find AI experts to develop the architecture for my idea. So I assembled a team of experienced digital signal processing engineers to build a complete machine learning neural network to accomplish this end. We call this technology, Bace.

Bace prototype showing an accurate detection of a drum kick sound.

For several months we trained Bace’s neural network. We collected sample data from men, women, children, and adults of different races and nationalities to offer the most comprehensive drum sound classifications. To account for variations of the same drum sounds between individuals, Bace has built-in training mechanics so any user can improve or retrain the model with their own sample data. These mechanics provide better results while adding a personal dimension to the technology by empowering users to define their experience.

While in our training phase, we also wanted to leverage vocal frequencies beyond drum classification for more involved melodic ideas. To achieve this, we integrated pitch detection into Bace’s algorithm. Pitch detection allows users to process and map their voices to a piano roll. 


The Future of Music Technology 

In building Bace, I’ve realized that technology can complicate the most straightforward solutions. As product designers and developers, we’ve all seen applications with unnecessarily complex interfaces, special hardware, and elaborate design for design’s sake. While novel and sophisticated, these complicated systems can take a toll on the creative process. Controlling drum sounds with my voice was such a natural idea; I could intuitively recognize its abilities and limitations as an artist.

I see the future of music-making as a way of removing complexity and empowering intuition. Bace was born from my inherent desire to capture a drum beat with my voice and translate it into real music at the moment of inspiration. By making music technology more intuitive, we will not only unleash creativity from experienced creators but provide anyone an opportunity to express themselves in new ways. That self-expression is what makes music unique, and it is our job as technologists to foster rather than complicate it.



The Healing Power of Music Webinar -MIMM 2021 Week 1


Saturday May 8, 2021, May Is MIDI Month 2021 Webinar The Healing Power of Music

The webinar kicked off with Michael Boddicker who has played synthesizer, vocoder, accordion and keyboards on albums by many notables such as Quincy Jones, Randy Newman, The Manhattan Transfer and The Bee Gees and worked on many soundtracks including Saturday Night Fever, Battlestar Galactica and The Wiz.

Boddicker is a Board Member of The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), and he owns an audio post production facility, Sol7 (aka Sol Seven).
In 2019, he co-founded the Los Angeles synthesizer music festival, Synthplex.

He described his relationship with music and music therapy and his chance meeting while out for a neighborhood walk with Raffi Tachdjian.

Check out Synth Wizards interview with Micheal where he show off some sounds from his Moog System 55. 


Next Raffi Tachdjian MD, MPH, UCLA professor of allergy and pediatric pain specialist and founder of Children”s Music Fund talked about meeting the young patient pictured above during his time a Massachusetts General Hospital and that inspired him to get involved with music therapy (Raffi is a musician himself) and found Children’s Music Fund. 
In the past decade, CMF has become a leading organization to deliver research on the positive effects of music therapy in sick children and young adults.


Raffi connected with Suzanne B Hanser who was at Berklee College of Music at the time. Dr. Hanser has a long list of accomplishments.  


  • Professor and Chair Emerita of the Music Therapy Department at Berklee College of Music.
  • Past President of the World Federation of Music Therapy
  • Past President of the National Association for Music Therapy 
  • Current president of the International Association for Music and Medicine. 

It was an incredible honor to have someone who is so important to the world of music therapy attend our webinar and give an impassioned speech about the healing power of music. 

Recently there were studies done on the number of people who feel that they are having symptoms of anxiety.  In 2019, the percentage of people in the US was 8 percent. In studies completed last month, that number has risen to 30 percent.  Given all that is going on the in world.  we all could use the healing power of music so we wanted to share one of the many free Youtube videos from Berklee College of Music that are targeted to help ANYONE apply the basic principles of and reap the benefits of music therapy.  

In this episode, Suzanne explains the ISO principle.  Simply put, most people think that if you are feeling anxious, you should start listening to calming music right away.  But that is actually not how your brain works.  This video will teach you how to apply the ISO principle and develop your own music playlist to get from one mood to another.  

As with all music therapy, this has been researched, tested and documented and it just works.


Walter Werzowa is the founder of Healthtunes.org. HealthTunes® is an audio streaming service designed to improve one’s physical and mental health by pairing medical research with active music links. Binaural beats and isochronic tones are embedded within HealthTunes® music which are two different methods used for brain wave entrainment.

A binaural beat is an auditory phenomenon when two different sine waves, with a close frequency rate, are perceived by an individual through each ear. This experience enables the listener to perceive a third tone. The third tone is a binaural beat.

HealthTunes has been endorsed by UCLA Health Nephrology, UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, and the music artist Moby.

You may have heard much more of Walter’s music than you know. He has designed the sonic branding for Intel, T Mobile, Fox Sports, Samsung and many others.


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HealthTunes – Music for Health

HealthTunes® is a streaming audio service designed to improve your physical and mental health.


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Musikvergnuegen | Audio Branding and Custom Scoring

Experts in audio branding, custom scoring and sound design for film, broadcast, advertising, and VR. We are an all-inclusive music production studio. Home of the Intel sonic branding mnemonic audio identity.

There is a new project that we didn’t get to cover in the webinar, but wanted to share here.   Walter is using AI and MIDI to work on Beethoven’s Unfinished Symphony. 

That’s a project that sounds like it deserves a complete article on MIDI.org in the near future. 


With an extensive background in the music field, Lori Frazer is the lead program facilitator and technical specialist for the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute. She trains and supports hospital and clinical staff, as well as research teams. Lori’s expertise extends into medical, as well as retirement communities, senior centers, and special programs that enable people with a host of challenges to enjoy the benefits of creative musical expression.  She described her work over the past decade with the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute. 

Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute (YMWI) continues to be actively engaged in exploring the impact of creative musical expression on the human genome as presented in two peer-reviewed scientific research investigations


Alton Mitchell, the Minster of Worship and Arts at Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church. He spoke to us from his piano lab and explained how the church pioneered a study on using creative musical expression as a catalyst for reducing cardiovascular risk factors. Active participation in vocal and instrumental gospel music is not only enjoyable but good for the heart and soul. Rodman Street’s Health Ministry is making waves, and creating national news.



Mixing with Virtual Instruments: The Basics

DAW software, like Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools, Studio One, etc. isn’t just about audio. Virtual instruments that are driven by MIDI data produce sounds in real time, in sync with the rest of your tracks. It’s as if you had a keyboard player in your studio who played along with your tracks, and could play the same part, over and over again, without ever making a mistake or getting tired.

MIDI-compatible controllers, like keyboards, drum pads, mixers, control surfaces, and the like, generate data that represents performance gestures (fig. 1). These include playing notes, moving controls, changing level, adding vibrato, and the like. The computer then uses this data to control virtual instruments and effects.

Figure 1: Native Instruments’ Komplete keyboards generate MIDI data, but can also edit the parameters of virtual instruments.

Virtual Instrument Basics

Virtual instruments “tracks” are not traditional digital audio tracks, but instrument plug-ins, triggered by MIDI data. The instruments exist in software. You can play a virtual instrument in real time, record what you play as data, edit it if desired, and then convert the virtual instrument’s sound to a standard audio track—or let it continue to play back in real time.

Virtual instruments are based on computer algorithms that model or reproduce particular sounds, from ancient analog synthesizers, to sounds that never existed before. The instrument outputs appear in your DAW’s mixer, as if they were audio tracks.

Why MIDI Tracks Are More Editable than Audio Tracks

Virtual instruments are being driven by MIDI data, so editing the data driving an instrument changes a part. This editing can be as simple as transposing to a different key, or as complex as changing an arrangement by cutting, pasting, and processing MIDI data in various ways (fig. 2).

Figure 2: MIDI data in Ableton Live. The rectangles indicate notes, while the line along the bottom show the dynamics for the various notes. All of this data is completely editable.

Because MIDI data can be modified so extensively after being recorded, tracks triggered by MIDI data are far more flexible than audio tracks. For example, if you record a standard electric bass part and decide you should have played the part with a synthesizer bass instead, or used the neck pickup instead of the bridge pickup, you can’t make those changes. But the same MIDI data that drives a virtual bass can just as easily drive a synthesizer, and the virtual bass instrument itself will likely offer the sounds of different pickups.

How DAWs Handle Virtual Instruments

Programs handle virtual instrument plug-ins in two main ways:

  • The instrument inserts in one track, and a separate MIDI track sends its data to the instrument track.
  • More commonly, a single track incorporates both the instrument and its MIDI data. The track itself consists of MIDI data. The track output sends audio from the virtual instrument into a mixer channel.

Compared to audio tracks, there are three major differences when mixing with virtual instruments:

  • The virtual instrument’s audio is typically not recorded as a track, at least initially. Instead, it’s generated by the computer, in real time.
  • The MIDI data in the track tells the instrument what notes to play, the dynamics, additional articulations, and any other aspects of a musical performance.
  • In a mixer, a virtual instrument track acts like a regular audio track, because it’s generating audio. You can insert effects in a virtual instrument’s channel, use sends, do panning, automate levels, and so on.

However, after doing all needed editing, it’s a good idea to render (transform) the MIDI part into a standard audio track. This lightens the load on your CPU (virtual instruments often consume a lot of CPU power), and “future-proofs” the part by preserving it as audio. Rendering is also helpful in case the instrument you used to create the part becomes incompatible with newer operating systems or program versions. (With most programs, you can retain the original, non-rendered version if you need to edit it later.)

The Most Important MIDI Data for Virtual Instruments

The two most important parts of the MIDI “language” for mixing with virtual instruments are note data and controller data.

  • Note data specifies a note’s pitch and dynamics.
  • Controller data creates modulation signals that vary parameter values. These variations can be periodic, like vibrato that modulates pitch, or arbitrary variations generated by moving a control, like a physical knob or footpedal.

Just as you can vary a channel’s fader to change the channel level, MIDI data can create changes—automated or human-controlled—in signal processors and virtual instruments. These changes add interest to a mix by introducing variations.

Instruments with Multiple Outputs

Many virtual instruments offer multiple outputs, especially if they’re multitimbral (i.e., they can play back different instruments, which receive their data over different MIDI channels). For example, if you’ve loaded bass, piano, and ukulele sounds, each one can have its own output, on its own mixer channel (which will likely be stereo).

However, multitimbral instruments generally have internal mixers as well, where you can set the various instruments’ levels and panning (fig. 3). The mix of the internal sounds appears as a stereo channel in your DAW’s mixer. The instrument will likely incorporate effects, too.

Figure 3: IK Multimedia’s SampleTank can host up to 16 instruments (8 are shown), mix them down to a stereo output, and add effects.

Using a stereo, mixed instrument output has pros and cons.

  • There’s less clutter in your software mixer, because each instrument sound doesn’t need its own mixer channel.
  • If you load the instrument preset into a different DAW, the mix settings travel with it.
  • To adjust levels, the instrument’s user interface has to be open. This takes up screen space.
  • If the instrument doesn’t include the effects plug-ins needed to create a particular sound, then use the instrument’s individual outputs, and insert effects in your DAW’s mixer channels. (For example, using separate outputs for drum instruments allows adding individual effects to each drum sound.)

Are Virtual Instruments as Good as Physical Instruments?

This is a question that keeps cropping up, and the answer is…it depends. A virtual piano won’t have the resonating wood of a physical piano, but paradoxically, it might sound better in a mix because it was recorded with tremendous care, using the best possible microphones. Also, some virtual instruments would be difficult, or even impossible, to create as physical instruments.

One possible complaint about virtual instruments is that their controls don’t work as smoothly as, for example, analog synthesizers. This is because the control has to be converted into digital data, which is divided into steps. However, the MIDI 2.0 specification increases control resolution dramatically, where the steps are so minuscule that rotating a control feels just like rotating the control on an analog synthesizer.

MIDI 2.0 also makes it easier to integrate physical instruments with DAWs, so they can be treated more like virtual instruments, and offer some of the same advantages. So the bottom line is that the line between physical and virtual instruments continues to blur—and both are essential elements in today’s recordings.

An introduction to Music Therapy by Dr. Deforia Lane

If you don’t know anything about  music therapy, this 18 minute Tedx Talk Youtube video is a great way to understand how music and medicine work together to heal. 

Music therapist, Dr. Deforia Lane takes you inside University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center to experience first hand the response of patients to music therapy: hear of music’s effects on an unborn child; watch the reaction of a laryngectomy patient; see how therapeutic singing helps a man with stroke to speak again.

Dr. Lane shares her personal challenge with cancer and how music benefited her healing. She ends with a probing question for each all who will hear.

Internationally acclaimed music therapist, Dr. Deforia Lane is the founder and Director of Art & Music Therapy at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, OH. She oversees a 9-member team of art and music therapists who serve the 1000-bed hospital. She is a researcher, clinician, clinical training director, teaches at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and has experienced a pioneering career spanning 4 decades.

by TEDx Talks





May Is MIDI Month 2021-Helping Sick Kids Through The Healing Power of MIDI and Music


Was May Is MIDI Month 2020 really only a year ago? 

It seems that everyone has had a bit of trouble keeping time this year. Not musically as that is the one place where time remains constant.  

But in talking to people , they often say that one moment last May seems like it was last week and the next it seems like it was 10 years ago. 

In the late spring of 2020, the world was in the beginning of the global pandemic and there was a huge amount of uncertainty about what the future would hold. The MIDI Association decided that instead of raising money for ourselves for May Is MIDI Month 2020, we would raise money for people affected by the global pandemic. 

Our first plan was to give the money to the Grammy Foundation’s Musicares Coronavirus Relief Fund. Joe LaMond, president of NAMM urged us to find something we could be more directly involved in. 

We were on a call with LA studio legend and Grammy award winner Michael Boddicker discussing our Orchestral Articulation profile. 

 He mentioned his long-time affiliation with the Children’s Music Fund (CMF), and that’s when we knew we had found the perfect partner. 


 UCLA professor of allergy and pediatric pain specialist Raffi Tachdjian MD, MPH founded the organization in 2002, after he was inspired by a patient during his pediatric residency at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Here is a picture of Raffi with the young patient who inspired him to form Children’s Music Fund.  That patient sadly passed away, but lives on in the work that Raffi continues to this day. 

In the past decade, CMF has become a leading organization to deliver research on the positive effects of music therapy in sick children and young adults.


The MIDI Association and Children’s Music Fund 

CMF maintains a network of carefully screened, board-certified music therapists (MT-BC), and follows the practices and standards established by the American Music Therapy Association.

Due to the pandemic, CMF music therapists were unable to do in person sessions and had to switch to remote telehealth sessions. The MIDI Association donated the $18,000 we raised from our May Is MIDI Month 2020 donation drive to help support CMF’s move to telehealth. 


After a few meetings with the CMF board,  The MIDI Association realized that we should not just be donating money to CMF, but working closely with them on an exciting new area, using MIDI for remote music therapy. 

Many MIDI controllers bring a level of accessibility and ease of use that is impossible with traditional instruments and Web MIDI has the capability to add smartphones and tablets to that mix.

This is a vast as yet untapped area in music therapy and we know we have the right partners to significantly improve the lives of many sick children for years to come.

Watch Lisa Harriton from Smashing Pumpkins, Serj Tankian from System of a Down, Scott Shriner from Weezer, and actress/singer/songwriter Minnie Driver explain the important mission of Children’s Music Fund.



You Give a Dollar. We’ll Give $10.  Let’s Give 24 in 21. 

It’s just that simple. If we can raise $2000 in donations from individual MIDI Association members, our MIDI Association corporate sponsors will match it with $22,000. 

Where else can you spend $1 and get $11? 

The MIDI Association is committed to raising $24,000 to help sick kids through the healing power of music and MIDI with caring sponsorships of Art+Logic, Audio Modeling, Bome, imitone, IK Multimedia, Korg, NAMM, Steinberg, Steinway, Sweetwater, and Yamaha.




Celebrate International Women’s Day with Music Hackspace

Whether you are a beginner or advanced we invite you to explore our unique workshops, which range from live coding sound to creating dynamic drum patterns, plus much more….

All sessions will be led by women artists, creators, producers and educators, within a safe and inviting online space.

Here, at Music Hackspace we champion and celebrate women who are active within the music technology field, and hope to support more women (and those who are not often represented including those who identify as non-binary) in learning music technology.

We ask everyone in our community to challenge the status quo in music technology, to create more equal, representative and inclusive space for everyone to create, engage and enjoy.

Find out more about our events and the workshop leaders below.

And spread the word:

#LearnMusicTech #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021Enter your quote here…

by MusicHackspace

 Music Hackspace who pioneered The MIDI Innovation Awards announces International Women’s Day line up


Chagall

Tuesday 9th March: Map your movement to music with Gliss & Glover workshop

Chagall is an Amsterdam-based singer, producer and performer known for her use of the MiMU Gloves to control music & reactive visuals. With performances at South by Southwest, Ableton Loop, TEDx and many more Chagall is one of the most experienced users of the technology. She is also the UX designer for MiMU’s Glover & Gliss.


Melody Loveless

Wednesday 10th March: Live Coding Sound with TidalCycles

Melody is an artist, creative technologist, and educator based in Brooklyn, NYC. Her work ranges from live coding performance, generative sound installations, multisensory performance, and more. She currently teaches at Hunter College and Harvestworks and is part of Cycling 74’s Max Certified Trainer Program


Purvi Trivedi

Thursday 11th March: Tone.js workshop

Purvi is a London based web developer with years of experience in music technology & ux research. She currently works as a Frontend Engineer at Potato, an award-winning digital product studio that works with the likes of Google, PepsiCo, Mozilla, the BBC and NatWest. She has co-produced KALA, an album that explores human emotions through the design of everyday sounds.


Mel Uye-Parker

Friday 12th March: Creating dynamic drum patterns in Ableton Live workshop

Mel is a London based music producer, vocalist and educator. She spends most of her time teaching people how to make music with Ableton Live and Push. When she’s not doing any of the above, she makes educational content and helps music teachers and schools integrate technology into their classrooms. She is particularly interested in training and supporting female and non-binary people to succeed in the music world. 


Anna Lakatos

Saturday 13th March: Racks, Variations and Creative Processing in Live 11

Anna is a London based producer, engineer, vocalist and educator. Anna is a certified trainer for Ableton.

Anna is currently working as a university lecturer in London, teaching music production, creating educational content and working on her next releases as ANNA DISCLAIM. 


First Annual MIDI Innovation Awards Honors The Top 10 Entries: Watch the highlights

The MIDI Association, Music Hackspace, and NAMM held the first MIDI Innovation Awards online. The event showcased the Top 10 entries, as innovators from nine countries competed for a share of $20,000 worth of prizes in a fast-paced, livestreamed show, which also featured live and recorded performances. The show’s climax was announcing the three Grand Prize winners as decided by an expert panel of judges, as well as the winner of the popular vote.

The number of entries, the high standards they represented, and the sheer number of votes exceeded even our most optimistic expectations. Innovation in MIDI is thriving.

by Craig Anderton, President of The MIDI Association

The awards realized our shared dream: give makers and innovators around the world an opportunity to connect with the NAMM community despite the pandemic, spotlight their work to the public, and celebrate the spirit of creativity.”

by MusicHackspace.com and MIDI Innovations Award founder Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut

 The judges awarded 1st place to Krishna Chetan from India for his entry Fluid Pitch, which also won the popular vote. Noted technologist and judge Dr. Kate Stone stated “This novel plug-in re-imagines pitch bending, in a way that enhances and simplifies how keyboard players react with MIDI instruments.” Krishna won over $12,500 in prizes, including a booth at the 2022 NAMM show, 2-year corporate membership in the MIDI Association, consulting from MK2 Audio and MIDI2Marketing, and a full Max 8 license. 

Khrisna has worked for A R Rahman. Mr Rhaman’s work on Slumdog Millionaire (2008) earned him Best Original Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards. In 2009, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. When A R covered Fluid Pitch on his weekly show it got over 150,000 views. He calls it out as the very first MIDI plugin from India. 


2nd place went to Kevin Chang from North Carolina, USA for his entry Sonoclast Plastic Pitch Pro. Judge and YouTube sensationShawn Wasabi said “Plastic Pitch Pro’s innovative approach to microtonality makes formerly obscure tuning techniques easy to use and understand.” Kevin’s prize package, worth over $3,000, includes hardware from Expert Sleepers, a 1-year corporate membership in the MIDI Association, consulting from MK2 Audio and MIDI2Marketing, and a full Max 8 license.


Leigh Davies from Wales, UK won 3rd place for his entry Playces. Judge Helen Leigh, creative technologist said : “This art installation, made from corrugated cardboard and electronics, offers sonic exploration opportunities for children of all ages—and enthralled the judges with its creative use of MIDI and technology.” Watch Leigh’s 3-minute pitch.


The livestream was recorded, and is now available on the Music Hackspace YouTube channel

Preparations will be underway soon for the 2022 event.

To sign up for information, visit Music Hackspace.

To join the global, web-based community of people who create music and art with MIDI, Click Here

Music Hackspace, the MIDI Association and NAMM host the first MIDI Innovation Awards

Livestream awards show on January 21 during NAMM’s Believe in Music week

SK Shlomo

Tim Exile

Shawn Wasabi

Dan Tepfer

It’s time to honor the innovators and DIY enthusiasts who are advancing the state of the art in music technology.

by Craig Anderton, President of the MIDI Association


Pitch Innovations Releases Fluid Pitch – A Revolutionary Pitch Bend System

The Creative Pitch Bending Plugin.

Fluid pitch is an innovative next-generation Pitch bend system, which is not only free of existing limitations  but a Revolutionary Leap Forward in Music expressions for all Musicians 
Fluid pitch introduces the World’s First Scale-Locked-Pitch-Bend System powered by Midi to MPE upscale engine, which gives the power of MPE to any standard Midi keyboard.   Now musicians no longer have to think which scale or where they are using the pitch bend wheel, the fear of landing on a wrong note using the pitch bend wheel is a thing of past, Fluid pitch always takes you to the right note. Fluid pitch is one of those tools you always wish you had but never knew it was possible.

Finally, a way to get that pitch wheel to stay within a scale. Introducing Fluid Pitch bending. You pick the key, and we will handle the rest.

         POLYPHONIC PITCH BENDING

Pitch bending single notes is so 1980! Let’s talk about a chord bending. Yup. Now you can pitch bend whole chords !

                      MICROTUNING

Micro tune individual notes on your midi device and Master Arabic makams and Indian Ragas with a click. Maybe even create a whole new scale

Key Features

  • Scale Locked Pitch Bend System (SLPB)

Fluid pitch Introduces world’s first scale locked pitch bend (SLPB) system which can lock your keyboard’s pitch bend wheel  to any scale you want, giving you access to Fluid pitch bending

  • Realtime access to different pitch bend ranges

You can choose any range for your pitch bend wheel and change it in real time while performing.

  • MPE Upscale Technology

Upgrade your standard MIDI keyboard into an MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) device and access MPE Synths without MPE hardware.

  • Polyphonic Pitch Bending

Introduce chord bending into your music powered by MPE Upscale Technology.

  • Microtuning

With Fluid Pitch, you can now tune any note in the scale up to 100 cents up or down giving you access to a whole new world of microtonal scales, melodies and harmonies. Access a new world of micro tuned scales in Indian ragas and Middle Eastern maqam’s.

System Requirements

Operating Systems:

  • Windows 10 (64-bit).
  • OS X 10.9 and above.
  • Digital Audio Workstation that supports AU or VST. See DAW compatibility down below for more information.MIDI keyboard with a pitch bend.
  • MPE enabled synthesizer for polyphonic mode.


Available Formats:

  • AU
  • VST
  • VST3


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Fluid Pitch – Unlock New Possibilities

Fluid Pitch enables listeners to flow through their music with the world’s first MIDI to MPE Upscale Plugin. Pick a key, set a scale, and leverage our scale-locked pitch-bending system to effortlessly create new melodies in minutes.

Vote for the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finalists

We love the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition!

 Last year the three winners of the Guthman were all MIDI controllers and we interviewed them in one of our our May Is MIDI 2019 webinars. 


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May Is MIDI Month 2019 Webinar: Guthman Musical Instrument Design –  

Guthman Musical Instrument Design CompetitionMay 11, 2019 at 7PM Pacific Time All three winners of the 2019 Guthman Musiclal Design Competition were MIDI Controllers.  Check out Geoshred,AirSticks and The Glide as well as other unique MIDI instr

This year because of the CoVid situation the competition is being done remotely and you get to vote on who the winners are.  There is still a panel of judges and one of them is the godfather of MIDI , Dave Smith. 

Legendary instrument designer and Grammy-winner Dave Smith

There are also not only a number of MIDI controllers among the finalists, but even a number of MIDI Association corporate members.

Here is some information and links to the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finalists page. 


 Orba by Artiphon

Orba is a $99 portable synth, looper, and wireless MPE MIDI controller. We designed it to be played with intuitive techniques that are inviting for kids, hobbyists, and pros alike. Orba has ten core gestures: Tap, Press, Spin, Radiate, Tilt, Shake, Slide, Vibrato, Move, and Bump.  Orba builds on Artiphon’s framework of the multi-instrument: a single instrument that can be played as many. 


 The Sylphyo by Aodyo Instruments

The Sylphyo is an electronic wind instrument that reproduces the feeling of an acoustic wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a mouthpiece and selecting notes using keys on the front of the instrument. However, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sensitive to your movements, as well as the way you touch it, offering novel expressive possibilities.


du-touch-s by Dualo

The Sylphyo is an electronic wind instrument that reproduces the feeling of an acoustic wind instrument. Like them, it is played by blowing into a mouthpiece and selecting notes using keys on the front of the instrument. However, unlike other wind instruments, the Sylphyo is also sensitive to your movements, as well as the way you touch it, offering novel expressive possibilities.


ELECTROMAGNETIC PIANO by Monica Lim

This is an attachment to an acoustic piano that uses magnets to resonate the piano strings. It allows the strings to sustain indefinitely, providing an alternative to the way acoustic pianos have been played and sound for centuries. The piano can also be played in the normal manner, allowing a rich mixture of percussive and sustained texture. Each string has a corresponding magnet tuned to its specific frequency, giving an ethereal, organ-like sound. The midi-triggered magnets come in a portable, easy to set-up format that can be used on any grand piano.


MIDIS by OWOW
 

The MIDIS 2.0 is a product line of four different MIDI instruments. The MIDIS 2.0 are created to make digital music with human passion and intuition. It is our aim to bring that human touch back to digital music productions and give users the feeling that they are playing an instrument instead of a VST plugin with their mouse and keyboard.


The Striso board
 

The Striso board is an expressive instrument which combines multidimensionally sensitive buttons with an innovative note layout that helps understand the structures in music. The buttons capture each subtle finger movement, which allows for levels of musical expression previously only known to acoustic instruments. Additionally, accents and sound effects can be added by shaking and moving the instrument as a whole.


To see all the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Finalists and vote, click on the image below. 

Bandlab Breaks the Music Education MIDI Sound Barrier

Once upon a time, school students had to know how to play an instrument to make music or know enough theory to compose a song. We all gathered in the music room or auditorium of our brick-and mortar high schools to learn music and perform it.

The music education world has seen many changes since then; and recently all education has been drastically altered.Today’s high school music teachers are very fortunate to have our fingertips the cutting-edge, MIDI-driven BANDLAB for EDUCATION.We are not in-a-pickle, rushing to configure remote learning lessons.Why? Because this wonderful music production-education tool to benefits music educators to meet and exceed standards, and offer their students, public or private, and exciting music listing principles of discovery learning and much easier differentiated instruction.And it’s especially well designed for today’s critical distance learning needs due the national shut down of school from the virus pandemic. 


Band Lab for Education can energize an entire band and orchestra or private studio program, opening up an new creative and performing possibilities in a collaborative learning environment. Students and technology are natural magnets and Band Lab for Education fits easily into that zone.Plus, it provides no fuss, low learning curve platform for the teacher.

The recognized potential of Band Lab for Education offers a dream tool for busy music educators to facilitate easy–to–create assignments, real-time independent student collaboration, quick grading and quality feedback without distracting admin tasks or security headaches since it’s entirely COPPA compliant.This is perfect for new remote-leaning and collaborative environments.Our students’ creative world will open up more than ever before now that Band Lab is used in over 180 schools in 40 countries with 12 million+ users worldwide



What also makes this such an attractive, magnetic teaching tool is the wide-ranging musical color palate students get to explore and create with. Think of all they can produce with the bass, brass, strings, piano, woodwind and guitar sounds, plus the creator kits, drum kits, percussion, synths, and special effects! While students can connect their own physical instruments, they don’t actually need them to get started. They can record into Band Lab for Educator’s mix editor and access 6000+ free loops ranging from pop, hip-hop, Latin, rock, EDM genres to Soundscape and Ambient collections

Experimentation is the watchword. Some music educators find it handy to use Band Lab for Education’s linked interfaces to help connect physical instruments into most any DAW, which can be very inexpensive.



Band Lab for Education is designed to make life easier for the teacher and a lot more fun and innovative for students.For this purpose their website is loaded with information and enticing features.

Perhaps the best news is Band Lab for Education is FREE and open for everyone. And, it operates from the Cloud so it is easily accessible.It’s available to all educators via a free subscription at https://edu.bandlab.com. Currently, it can be used on all PCs (via the Chrome and Edge browsers).The iOS version for mobile devices in now in beta.

This is the most user–friendly and industry–friendly music creating teaching tool on the market. Band Lab for Education is built to integrate with other services, so the music educators often use it to complement their existing suite of tools.

Band Lab for Education allows a win–win atmosphere for teachers and students, creating true ownership of music skills, achievement and life-long lovers of music.

Band Lab for Education is perfect for these pandemic times when the music and education must go on. 

Synthesis Fundamentals from the Bob Moog Foundation, Ableton’s Learning Synths, and Chrome Music Lab

The Bob Moog Foundation and the MIDI Association

The Bob Moog Foundation and the MIDI Association have had a close working relationship for many years.  When we talked to Michelle Moog-Koussa, she graciously agreed to provide some materials on synthesizers for the May Is MIDI Month 2020 promotion.  

Thseries of posters in this article are available for purchase here with the proceeds going to the Moog Foundation.  

There are also some Youtube videos from The Foundation of Synthesis six-part tutorial series with Marc Doty.  This course is available in our video curricula.

We have combined it with Ableton’s excellent interactive website for Learning Synths, Google’s Chrome Music Lab, and text from synth master Jerry Kovarsky, monthly columnist for Electronic Musician Magazine and author of Keyboard For Dummies. 

Together these elements come together to make a great introduction to synthesis appropriate for students and musicians of all ages and levels. There are links to more information in each section. 


MIMM 2020 Webinar
The MiniMoog- The Synth That Changed the World 
Saturday, May 9, 10 am Pacific


Join us this Saturday at 10 am Pacific, 1 PM Eastern and 6 PM Greenwich on MIDI Llve to hear a panel discussion about the Minimoog, one of the most influential synths of all time.  

Panelists include Michelle Moog Koussa and David Mash from the Bob Moog Foundation Board of Directors, Amos Gaynes and Steve Dunnington from Moog Music, and synth artists and sound designers Jack Hoptop, senior sound designer for Korg USA, Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for Dream Theatre and President of Wizdom Music (Makers of MorphWiz, SampleWiz, HarmonyWiz, Jordantron), and Huston Singletary, US lead clinician and training specialist for Ableton Inc. 


Composer Alex Wurman Provides Sonic Meditation For All Mothers as Part of Moogmentum in Place
 

The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to announce that EMMY® Award Winning composer Alex Wurman will perform a Facebook live stream concert to benefit the Foundation on Saturday, May 9th at 8pm (ET) / 5pm (PT), the eve before Mother’s Day. Wurman will inspire a worldwide audience with A Sonic Meditation for All Mothers on a Yamaha Disklavier and a Moog Voyager synthesizer. The performance and accompanying question and answer, which will last approximately an hour, is meant to offer musical solace during these times of difficulty. 



Listen to the Synth sound in the video and then check it out for yourself via the link below.

Synth Sound 


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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


Waveforms & Oscillators

A waveform is a visual representation of a continuous tone that you can hear. In analog synthesis the waveforms are somewhat simple and repetitious (with the exception of noise), because that was easier to generate electronically. But any sustaining, or ongoing sound can be analyzed and represented as a waveform. So any type of synthesizer has what are referred to as waveforms, even though they may be generated by sampling (audio recordings of sound), analog circuitry, DSP-generated signals, and various forms of digital sound manipulation (FM, Phase Modulation, Phase Distortion, Wavetables, Additive Synthesis, Spectral Resynthesis and much more). However they are created, we generally refer to the sonic building block of sound as a waveform.  


Simply stated, an oscillator is the electronic device, or part of a software synthesizer design that generates a waveform. In an analog synthesizer it is a physical circuit made up of electronic components. In digital/DSP-driven synthesizers (including soft synths) it is a part of the software code that is instructed/coded to produce a waveform, or tone.  




Listen to the sound in the Buzzy Bee video and then check it out for yourself via the link below. 


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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


Listen to the sound in the Sound Waves video and then check it out for yourself via the link below.



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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.



 Harmonics

Harmonics are the building blocks of sound that make one instrument, or waveform sound different from another. The level of each harmonic as they exist in nature (the harmonic series) together determine the timbral “fingerprint” of a sound, so we can recognize the difference between a clarinet and a piano. Often these harmonics change in their volume level and tuning as a sound develops, and might decay away: the more this happens the more complex, and “alive” a sound will seem to our ears. You can now go back to the original Waveform poster and understand that it is the harmonic “signature” of each waveform that gives it the sonic characteristics that we used to describe each one.  



Filters 

The general dictionary definition of a filter is a device that when things pass through it, the device may hold back, lessen or remove some of what passes through it. In synthesis a filter is used to reshape the harmonic content from the oscillator-generated waveform. The above poster describes three of the most common types of filters from analog synthesis, but many more have been developed which have different characteristics.Different brands of synthesizers have their own filter designs that have a special sound, and many of those classic designs are much sought-after and emulated in modern digital and software synthesizers.  





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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


Filter Resonance 


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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


Amp 

The poster says it straight up – an amp increases and decreases volume of the sound that is output by the oscillator. If the sound only stayed at a single level as determined by the amp level sounds would be pretty boring. Thankfully we have many ways to vary that sound output, via envelopes, LFOs, step-sequencers and more. Read on… 




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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


Envelopes 

  An envelope (originally called a contour generator by Bob Moog!) is a building block of a synthesizer that changes the level of something over time. This is needed to recreate the complex characteristics of different sounds. The three main aspects of a sound that are usually shaped in this way are pitch (oscillator frequency), timbre (filter cutoff) and volume (amp level). Just describing the volume characteristics of a sound, some instruments keep sustaining (like a pipe organ), others decay in volume over time (a plucked string of a guitar, or a struck piano note). In modern synthesizers, and in modular synths an envelope can usually be routed to most any parameter to change its value over time. The poster describes what is called an ADSR envelope, but there are many types, some with many more steps able to be defined, and on the flip side some are simpler, with only Attack and Release stages.




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Learning Synths

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.


LFO- Low Frequency Oscillator 

An LFO is another type of oscillator that is dedicated for use to modulate, or affect another parameter of the sound in a cyclic fashion (meaning it keeps repeating).So it seems related to the function of envelopes, but it behaves differently in the sense that you can’t shape it as finitely. Yet it is easier to use for simple repeatable things like vibrato (pitch modulation), tremolo (amp level modulation), and panning (changing the amp output from left to right in a stereo field).  


How can we use MIDI to interact with these parameters?

The most common use of MIDI to affect these parameters is to map, or assign a physical controller on your keyboard or control surface to directly control a given parameter. We do this when we don’t have the instrument right in front of us (it may be a rack-mount device, or a soft-synth), or it doesn’t have many knobs/slider/controls on the front panel.You would use CC numbers (Control Change) and match up the controller object (slider, encoder, whatever) to the destination parameter you wish to control.

Then when you move the controller it sends a steady stream of values (128 to be exact) to move/change the destination. A device may have those CC numbers hard set, or they can be freely assigned. Most soft synths have a “learn” function, where the synth “listens” or waits to receive an incoming MIDI message and then sets is automatically, so you don’t even need to know what CC number is being used.

Some synths use what are called RPN (Registered Parameter Numbers) and NRPN (Non-Registered Parameter Numbers) to control parameters. While more complicated to set up, these types of message offer finer resolution than CCs (16,384 steps), but do the same thing. Soon there will be MIDI 2.0 which brings 32 bit resolution or 2,147,483,647 steps. Yes, that number is correct!  

From a performance standpoint, a cool benefit of using MIDI to control a parameter is you can choose to have a different type of controller interact with the given parameter than your hardware device offers. Some people like to use a ribbon to do pitch bends rather than a wheel. Or to sweep the cutoff of a filter using an X/Y pad rather than a knob. Or route keyboard after-touch to bring in vibrato or tremolo rather than a Mod Wheel (OK, this one went beyond using CCs but you get the picture).

Another nice way to use MIDI is to assign sliders or knobs to an ADSR envelope in a product that doesn’t already have dedicated knobs to control the stages. So now you can easily soften, or slow up the attack on a sound (or speed it up), lengthen or tighten up the release (what happens when you take your finger off the key).

Using MIDI really becomes an aid when I am recording. If were to record only audio, as I play a synth I need to get all of my interactions with the sound perfect during the performance. My pitch bends, my choices of when to add vibrato and how much to add, and any other interactions I want to make with the sound. I can’t fix them later, as they are forever frozen in the audio I recorded. If I capture my performance using MIDI, each of those aspects are recorded as different types of MIDI messages/data, and I can then go back in and adjust them later. Too much vibrato on that one note? Go into event edit and find the stream of MIDI CC#1 messages and adjust it to taste. Even better, I can record my performance and not worry about other gestures/manipulation I might want to make, and then go back and overdub, or add them in later. So I can manipulate the sound and performance in ways that would be impossible to do in real-time. When I get the performance shaped exactly as I want it, I can then bounce the MIDI track to audio and I’m done. Thank you MIDI!

by Jerry Kovarsky, Musician and Author

A Brief History of the Minimoog Part I

Follow the life of the Minimoog Synthesizer from its inception through its prolific contributions to poplular music throughout the last 4 decades. In this first installment documenting the journey of the Minimoog synth through the 1970’s, we explore the musicians and the people that were instrumental in bringing the instrument to prominence. We also sit with one of Moog Music’s earliest engineers, Bill Hemsath, who recalls the process of the Minimoog’s birth and sheds some light on what sets the Moog synthesizer apart from other analog synths. 

by Moog Music


A Brief History of the MiniMoog Part II 

Chronicling the influential artists who used the Minimoog Model D to explore new genres and discover the sounds of tomorrow.

by Moog Music

Melodics- Using MIDI to Learn Music

Melodics is modern learning for modern instruments

Melodics is modern learning for modern instruments, supporting MIDI Keyboards, Pad Controllers, and electronic drum kits. It’s structured learning for solid progress. Melodics takes the “but where do I start?” out of learning music. Start with a genre you love, or a technique you want to master. Whatever your skill level, there’s something there. Then take a course – Melodics courses take you on a journey, teaching you everything you want to know about a genre or concept.

by Melodics

Founder and CEO Sam Gribben

Melodics was founded by Sam Gribben,  the former CEO of Serato and one of the people responsible for the digital DJ revolution and controllerism.  So it’s not surprising that Melodics started with finger drumming on pad controllers. 

Melodics hardware partners

 It’s also not surprising that Sam took a page out of the Serato playbook and worked with well established hardware companies to create value add bundles with Melodics™. Here is a list of some of the companies that Melodics™ works with.

List of supported devices 


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Melodics – Supported devices

Melodics is an app that adapts to your abilities and musical tastes to help you get better at playing keyboards, pad controllers, and drums.


Because of the relationships he built up in ten years at Serato, Melodics has a stellar collection of artists that contribute lessons and content for the Melodics™ platform.  This is just a small example the Melodics artist roster. 

List of Melodics artists

Melodics – Melodics artists

Melodics is an app that adapts to your abilities and musical tastes to help you get better at playing keyboards, pad controllers, and drums.


Melodics for Pad Controllers

Melodics™ started with training for Pad Controllers like Ableton Push and Native Instruments Maschine. They have guides on techniques and correct posture. Long story short, they treat these new controllers as legitimate musical instruments that you need to practice and learn to play exactly the same way you would with a traditional instrument like a cello or a clarinet.


Melodics for Electronic Drums

Melodics™ is a perfect practice partner for someone with electronic drums. 


Melodics™ for Keyboards

Melodics™ has a unique interface for keyboards that shows you what notes are coming next. 


Melodics and MIDI

Melodics™ uses MIDI for all of it’s core functionality.  SysEx is used to identify what device is connected and automatically configure the hardware controls.  The lessons are MIDI based so Melodics™ can look at your performance and compare it to the notes in the MIDI file.   So Melodics™ can determine if you played the right note and whether you played early or late and provide an ongoing report on your musical progress.  

MIDI underpins everything we do, from the lesson creation process, to how we play back the lessons and display feedback, to how we interact with the instruments. Under the hood, Melodics is a midi sampler. We take the input from what the student is playing, compare that to the midi in the lesson we created, and show the student how they are doing compared to a perfect performance.

by Melodics


Get started for free!

You can download and start learning with Melodics at no charge. 

  • 5 performance minutes per day
  • 60 Lessons
  • Start building your skills!


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Melodics – Melodics Pricing

Melodics is an app that adapts to your abilities and musical tastes to help you get better at playing keyboards, pad controllers, and drums.

Game Music and MIDI- The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)

What Is Interactive Audio 

 Game Music is incredibly unique because unlike almost every other form of music which is based on a linear temporal framework (a song starts and plays uninterrupted from begin to end), game music is inherently interactive because it depends on the user’s game play to decide what music plays at what time. If you are doing well in the game and increasing from one level to the next, the music will build and generate added excitement. But when you fail to move forward and the games ends, completely different music is triggered. More money is spent on developing games than is spent on developing movies and there is a very active group of dedicated game audio professionals who also use MIDI. 

What is Interactive Audio?

“Interactive Audio” is audio for interactive media such as video games, AR/VR environments, and websites… anywhere the audio changes according to listener input. The term “Interactive” is used to distinguish it from “linear” forms of audio (such as in films and in cut scenes in games) where the audio is decided in advance and always is the same no matter who is listening. The creation and delivery of Interactive Audio involves specialized skills and tools, and the close cooperation of composers, musicians, sound designers, programmers, educators, and software/hardware developers

by Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG)

What is the IASIG?

The IASIG is an organization that brings together experts to share their knowledge and help improve the state of the art in audio for games, websites, VR content, and other interactive performances. Our members share tips and techniques, study trends, and create reports and recommendations that game developers, tool makers, and platform owners use to create better products.

by IASIG

The IASIG was born out of the Audio Town Meeting at the Computer Game Developers conference in April of 1994. The group first met in June of 1994 to discuss a means for improving audio development tools and upgrading multimedia audio performance. Initially called the AIAMP (Association of Interactive Audio and Music Professionals), the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) assumed responsibility for the group in August of 1994.

The IASIG operates as an autonomous group supervised by the MMA, with its own advisory board, steering committee and working groups. The majority of activity is in discussion of various topics of interest to the members, which is conducted via private Internet mailing lists. As is often the case in groups like this, every participant is free to choose their own level of contribution, though naturally participants are encouraged (and needed) to work on creating issues and solutions, not to just sit back and review everyone else’s work. The process, in general, is geared towards gaining consensus, and the wider SIG membership is given ample opportunity to comment on the progress of each Working Group through reports given at regular physical meetings as well as via e-mail, fax, or regular mail (as the case may be).

IASIG activities are independent of MMA activities, and membership in one organization does not entitle the member to services of the other. IASIG recommendations will be forwarded to the MMA and all other interactive audio industry groups as necessary to complete the IASIG mission to positively influence the development of interactive audio hardware and software.

IASIG Corporate Sponsors 

 Stay tuned for some exciting announcements from the IASIG coming this month!


Watch this video from Steinberg that describes how to use the Audiokinetic WWise engine in Nuendo for Interactive Audio


For more information on audio game development or to join the IASIG, click the link below.  


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IASIG – Home

IASIG – improving the performance of interactive applications by influencing hardware, software, and tool design.