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
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
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.
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.
It is born out of a desire to combine both sensitivity and versatility in a seamless object.
Non-Commercial/Prototype Software-24 Entries
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
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
