The 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards

What are the midi innovation awards?
The MIDI Innovation Awards, established in 2021, celebrate groundbreaking advancements in MIDI technology.
Organized collaboratively by The MIDI Association, NAMM, and Music Hackspace, the awards highlight innovative products and projects that utilize MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 in novel ways, emphasizing MIDI’s role in fostering musical creativity.
This year we had a record number of entries. The 121 entries are presented below.
The awards are open to individuals, artists, and companies working with MIDI to develop innovative products or interactive experiences. Categories include:
- Commercial Hardware Products
- Commercial Software Products
- Prototypes and Non-Commercial Hardware Products
- Prototypes and Non-Commercial Software Products
- Artistic/Visual Projects or Installations
- NEW: Best MIDI 2.0 product (across all categories)
Winners gain opportunities to present their innovations on a global stage, with prizes such as exhibition spaces at major events like the NAMM Show, and Music China. They also receive support from The MIDI Association for developing MIDI 2.0 prototypes.
The MIDI Innovation Awards are also proud to work with partners including Sound On Sound, the world’s leading music technology magazine, contributing prizes and press coverage for the competition.
- March 18th: Registrations opened
- July 08th, 2025: Registrations closed
- July 14th, 2025: Voting starts
- August 04th, 2025: Voting closes, Finalists announced,
- Judges rank the finalists as First Place, Second Place and Third Place
- September 25th, 2025: 10 am Pacific on Andrew Huang’s Youtube Channel – Winners revealed
The 2025 MIDI Innovation Award Finalists
There are 6 distinct categories in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards with 3 finalists in each category.
Native Instruments Kontakt 8 is in both the commercial software and MIDI 2.0 categories.
Connect Through MIDI is in both the software prototypes and MIDI 2.0 categories.
So there are a total of 16 finalists.
In the details section, you can click on the image or the name of the product to see the full page details with videos and added information.
Artistic/Visual Project
EightNote
Monotype MIDI
The JAM_BOT
Commercial Hardware Products
Grid
Native Instruments Kontrol S-Series MK3
Tonova Digital Harmonica
Commercial Software Products
GeoShred Studio
Gig Performer 5
Native Instruments Kontakt 8
Hardware Prototypes
Circle Guitar
DataBass
Mugo
Software Prototypes
Connect Through MIDI
M2TM NOTES
Playtonik
MIDI 2.0 Products
Azoteq MIDI 2.0 Full Motion Key Position Sensor
Connect Through MIDI
Native Instruments Kontakt 8
Details of The 2025 MIDI Innovation Award Finalists
View All The 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards Entries by Category
Andrew Huang Hosts The 2025 MIDI Innovation Award Show
Andrew Huang is a musician, video creator, and bestselling author.
Despite being partially deaf, Andrew has been prolific, with hundreds of songs in his discography and an eclectic mix of other projects: He has composed for Blue Man Group, scored commercials for brands like Volvo and Google, created some of the ringtones that ship with Samsung phones, and developed a sound installation under the mentorship of Metric’s Emily Haines.
Besides composing and producing, he’s also spearheaded the creation of numerous music-making tools such as Ghost, Flip Sampler, and Transit, which won the 2025 Sound On Sound award for Best Software Plugin. His online music production course has been taken by tens of thousands of students, many of whom have gone on to work in the industry.
Andrew is best known for his YouTube channel, through which he’s inspired and educated millions of people with creative videos about all aspects of the music-making process. Most notably, his show 4 Producers 1 Sample has featured appearances from guests as wide-ranging as Hiatus Kaiyote, Son Lux, Daedelus, Flux Pavillion, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, AJR, Jamie Lidell, and Virtual Riot.
In 2024, Simon & Schuster published Andrew’s first book, Make Your Own Rules, in which he writes about his journey while extracting both practical and philosophical takeaways for anyone interested in honing their creative practice or pursuing it as a career.
The 2025 MIDI Innovation Award Judges

Michele Darling
Assistant chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department at Berklee College of Music.

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.

Lucas Cantor Santiago
Lucas Cantor Santiago is a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and author.
He finished Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony with Artificial Intelligence, the ‘completed’ symphony is regularly performed around the world.

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.
View The 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards Entries by Random Order
Click on the Product title to see the details

Misa Quadwave

MIDILLI

MIDIPLUS X MAX

MIDIPLUS TITAN Q6

MIDIPLUS UP

H4MIDI WC

Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer

SPOKE

Halbestunde GmbH

M-Brio 4FADE MIDI CC

IMDI

Morphonium

Rhodes Mk8 Midi

MidiWrist Unleashed

A-88MKII MIDI Keyboard Controller version 2.10

Sonoclast Plastic Pitch MIDI Microtuner

SL88 GT mk2

Music Non Stop – Music Engine (MNS-ME)

The Expression Orchestra

LC-1X+

Gamma Mini Synth

Jamcorder

The DogBite MIDI Controller

Kassiopeia

Keystage

SMK-37 Pro

Roto-Control

TuneTap Music Game Rhythm Machine 音游节奏机

bento

Moon Performance System

Ivory 3 American Concert D

MONTAGE M

Verbera

COSMOLAB

Playtonik

Transkr V2

Monotype MIDI

MIDI 2.0 Core Specification for Autonomous Systems

Aline

MC8 PRO MIDI Foot Controller

Fugue Machine Rubato

Jamstik MFC1

Caedence

Clarii Pro

AI Music Generation Model Explorer

RapidComposer

Synido TempoPAD C16 Wireless Bluetooth MIDI Controller

Piano One

Supreme Drums One Synth

zefiro

Flufs: An accessible real-time & offline loudness meter

AirBending

La Boîte A Musique

Seq

Connect Through MIDI

Werckmeister

Morpheus

Gig Performer 5

Janko Digital Piano

DigiShow LINK

Tone Glide

VirtualKeyboard

TapeOp Composer

EightNote

MIDIMesh

Shetu

Neoharp MK1

OFFLOOP Web MIDI Sequencer

Circle Guitar

DataBass

MEMLNaut

Mugo

AIR

UniMIDI Hub

The Witchy Woo

[VPI] Virtual Piano,the Chord and Scaler Library

Azoteq MIDI 2.0 Full Motion Key Position Sensor Module

MORTRIX

MSC-01 Midi Serial Control (Video Clip Controller)

Tethered by Emotion

NUX TRACK KEYBOARD NTK-37, NTK-49, NTK-61

Learn Music Online

CineGrand2

Supreme Drums Taiko

WebMIDI Sysex Editor Framework

Cosmo

Setlist Manager (Ver.3)

Cristalonde

M2TM NOTES

The Demon Box

CHROMOLA

Dog Paw

BeatBuddy 2

Autotune for Drummers

Smile Powered Pop Music with PhotoSYNTH @ Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2025

The JAM_BOT

Songscription AI

* Sympathetic Synthesizer

Arcana Remote Learning

NUX DM-110 Digital Drum Kit

GeoShred Studio

Scalable

Tiniest Violin

Tonova Digital Harmonica

The Kellycaster

Orbita Color Sequencer

Native Instruments Kontakt 8

Native Instruments Kontrol S-Series MK3

Arpeggio
the 2024 MIDI Innovation Award WINNERS
Here are the winners of the 2024 MIDI Innovation Awards.
A number of the 2024 winners were focused on music accessibility including UniMIDIHub, GEP Contraption and the Arcana Strum.
Click on the link below to learn more about The MIDI Association’s Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest group (MASSIG).

UniMIDI Hub

Particle Shrine

Midinous

GEP Contraption

Arcana Strum
The Finalists in the 2024 MIDI Innovation Awards

UniMIDI Hub

Sonification Tools

seqMPEror – MPE reimagined

ppff

Partymaker: Accordion Synthesizer

Particle Shrine

Morphium

Midinous

Groove Builders

GEP Contraption

Digital Flex Accordion

Chorda

Arcana Strum

Alchem-E E-kit
The 2024 MIDI Innovation Award Categories
Click on a category to see all the 2024 entries.