MIDI Association members from Audio Modeling and Sound Without Sight present the Music Accessibility Standard Special Interest Group and their work to make music accessible to everyone. Adapted from the ‘Future of Music Accessibility’ session at the NAMM Show 2024.
Link to sign up for the MASSIG: https://midi.activehosted.com/f/37
Link to Sound Without Sight: https://soundwithoutsight.org/
Video chapters:
00:00 Introduction by Athan Billias and Jay Pocknell.
03:03 Useful definitions.
04:14 Why is accessibility important?
05:37 Why design inclusively?
07:12 Inclusion in music-making: the current situation.
09:05 Breaking the loop: what we can do together.
09:48 Practical inclusive design tips from Tim Yates (Drake Music).
16:32 Which companies are already supporting accessibility?
17:37 What needs to happen next?
19:09 The MIDI Association’s Music Accessibility Standard.
25:13 Q&A with Emanuele Parravicini (Co-Founder, Audio Modeling).
Join us on Youtube for the Piano Profile Demo at NAMM 2024 featuring Roland Artist Scott Tibbs.
At the April 2023 NAMM show, Synthogy and Roland collaborated to showcase the first public demonstration MIDI 2.0 technology.
At the 2024 NAMM show they raised the bar again and showcased a demonstration of the new Piano Profile.
This Profile will make creating performances on one piano and playing them back on another more accurate.
Roland Product Specialist Scott Tibbs performed.
Scott has amassed a large body of music with numerous recording artists such as Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Howard Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Nelly, Lil’ Wayne, Jamie Fox, Robin Thicke, Bette Midler, Destiny’s Child, Jazmine Sullivan, Amerie, Jamie Foxx, Teddy Riley, Omar Hakim, Billy Cobham, and more.
Background
The piano is arguably the most important musical instrument in Western music traditions. It is essential to all styles of music from classical to jazz to pop, so when the MIDI Association started to develop Profiles, a Piano Profile was at the top of the list.
This piano Profile is focused on Acoustic Pianos with mechanical key mechanisms driven by MIDI, Digital Acoustic Piano Tone Generators (both hardware and software), and physical MIDI keyboards that send MIDI messages and the most common of all – Digital Pianos which incorporate both Digital Acoustic Piano Tone Generators and physical MIDI keyboard. The Profile does not address electro-mechanical pianos or the extended features of digital ensemble pianos.
Goals
The goal is a Piano Profile that defines the MIDI Messages and bi-directional MIDI-CI communication necessary to allow the performance of an acoustic piano piece on one device that supports the Piano Profile to be accurately rendered on any other device which also supports the Profile.
The Piano Profile defines the MIDI Messages and bi-directional MIDI-CI communication necessary to allow the performance of an acoustic piano piece on one device that supports the Piano Profile to be accurately rendered on any other device which also supports the Profile.
The Profile provides support for remote (over the internet) performance.
The Piano Profile details what information needs to be included in a Standard MIDI File (SMF2) and the mechanisms needed to accurately reproduce a piano performance from a file.
The Piano Profile addresses the following use cases:
Piano + tone generator (the most typical MIDI 1.0 use case)
Online live broadcasting of piano performances
Online lessons with a teacher and student
MIDI Streaming of recorded piano performances
Music production (use of the Piano Profile with DAWs)
Members of the SMF2 Working Group discussed their progress at the Winter NAMM Show 2024. The MIDI Clip file has already been adopted. Many messages things that used to be meta events now have been put into the UMP protocol so chords, lyrics, song and copyright information can now be sent “over the wire”.
The MIDI Clip File Specification defines a file format for MIDI sequences using the Universal MIDI Packet data format. MIDI 2.0 introduced the Universal MIDI Packet, a data format which supports all the original MIDI 1.0 Protocol messages as well as all MIDI 2.0 Protocol messages. The MIDI Clip File serves a role which is similar to the version 1 Standard MIDI File Type 0, with all data in a single sequence of Universal MIDI Packet messages.
This MIDI Clip File Specification will have a complementary specification, the MIDI Container File specification which will be similar to the version 1 Standard MIDI File Type 1.
The MIDI Container File will support the Universal MIDI Packet data format by containing one or more MIDI Clip Files, arranged in one or more tracks. It may also include notation, audio and video data.
This specification could impact any company that publishes digital data.
Join us on Youtube for the SMF2 Discussions at Winter NAMM 2024
Pete Brown from Microsoft gave a talk at Winter NAMM 2024.
This Microsoft project is the next-generation MIDI API for Windows, including MIDI 1.0, MIDI CI, and MIDI 2.0. It includes enhancements, a new USB class driver, new transports, and a suite of essential tools. The project adds many enhancements and bug fixes to our MIDI 1.0 support, and importantly adds support for the latest revisions to MIDI CI and MIDI 2.0 as approved by The MIDI Association.
The open source USB MIDI 2.0 driver has been generously donated by AMEI, the Association of Musical Electronics Industry, and developed by AmeNote ™️ in partnership with Microsoft. Please see the file headers for any additional copyright notices. A huge thank you to AMEI and its member companies for making this happen!
This is an official Microsoft project. Although Microsoft is an active member of the MIDI Association, and Pete Brown is the chair of the MIDI Association Executive Board, and other contributors are on standards boards, this project is not affiliated with the MIDI Association other than as a consumer of and contributor to the standards. Affiliation with AMEI is disclosed above.
The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is a free tool to help developers develop, debug (and deploy) MIDI 2.0 Applications and Devices. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. The Workbench connects to your device or software, to test various MIDI 2.0 implementation features against official specifications. The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is the only automated tool that generates the MIDI 2.0 Compliance Checklist required to license the MIDI 2.0 Logo from the MIDI Association. The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is currently available as source code for you to compile. We will release binaries shortly.
AmeNote ProtoZOA and USB MIDI 2.0 Device
The AmeNote ProtoZOA hardware platform is a flexible prototyping tool for MIDI 2.0 and is the standard testing device chosen by and funded in part by the MIDI Association. Open source firmware provides MIDI 2.0 interfaces and functions for developers to use in their own hardware and software products. ProtoZOA provides a USB MIDI 2.0 Class Compliant Device on a Raspberry Pico, designed specifically to jump-start prototyping and validation of Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) functions and fuel the MIDI 2.0 revolution. ProtoZOA integrates closely with the MIDI 2.0 Workbench.
Tiny USB MIDI 2.0 Device
This is a Tiny USB Device driver for USB MIDI 1.0 and USB MIDI 2.0 as a unified device. Allows implementor to create hardware MIDI devices which are fully compliant with USB Device Class specifications. Includes the fallback mechanism from 2.0 to 1.0 as defined in USB MIDI 2.0.
USB MIDI 2.0 Descriptor Builder
This is tool for easily creating valid descriptors for USB MIDI 2.0 Devices, which are so easy to get wrong. Fill in properties in a form to generate an output of the necessary descriptors. Supports the tusb_ump library, a USB Device used in the ProtoZOA, and the Linux MIDI2 Gadget Driver.
ni-midi2
The library provides the basic functionality of UMP 1.1 and MIDI-CI 1.2 by providing base classes for all UMP 1.1 packet types, (Universal) System Exclusive messages and MIDI-CI messages. There are concrete types for controllers, velocity and pitch, plus type aliases for common message field types. Mathematical operators allow to do integer / fixed point math on pitches and controllers, type constructors allow initialization with values of different resolution. Conrete instances of packets or messages are created using factory functions. Incoming packets and messages are inspected using data views. The library is completed by a number of helper functionalities dealing with conversion from / to MIDI 1 byte stream data format, collecting sysex messages and more.
AM_MIDI2.0Lib
This is a general purposes Library for building MIDI 2.0 Devices and Applications. This library is targeted to work on everything from Arduinos through to large scale applications. It provides foundational building blocks, processing, and translations needed for most MIDI 2.0 Devices and Applications.
*Note: This MIDI2 Developer Collaboration is not a project of the The MIDI Association, but was founded by key participants in the development of MIDI 2.0, working as members of the MIDI Association. The MIDI 2.0 Logo is a registered trademark of the MIDI Association, used under license. The M2 Logo is a trademark of the MIDI2 Developer Collaboration at MIDI2.dev.
Join us on Youtube for the Open Source Code for MIDI 2.0 At Winter NAMM 2024 panel discussion.
There are many orchestral sample libraries in the market, and they are essential for film scoring, game audio, studio, and live MIDI applications. These orchestral libraries have many kinds of articulations.
For example, a string library might have a different set of samples for every articulation including marcato, staccato, pizzicato, etc.
However, there is no industry standard method-the method for selecting these different articulations has been different for each developer. Many developers use notes at the lower end of the MIDI note range for “key switching”, but the actual keys used are different between different developers. Some developers use CC messages to switch between articulations, but again there is no industry wide consistency. Some plugin formats now have the ability for per note selection of articulations, but again the method for inputting that data is different for different applications.
It is the goal of the MIDI-CI Profile for Note On Orchestral Articulation to provide a consistent way to encode articulation information directly in the MIDI 2.0 Note On message, using the Attribute Type and Attribute Data fields.
In arriving at this Profile, a study was made of orchestral instrument families, choir, big band instruments, guitar, keyboard instruments, and various non-western instruments to evaluate the degree to which they share common performance attributes and sound production techniques. Notation symbols and performance indications were also considered to determine, for example, how successfully a violin note marked with a trill might result in a musically meaningful or analogous articulation when the part is copied to an instrument as far afield as timpani—all without the composer having to re-articulate the timpani part, at least initially.
The Profile provides a comprehensive yet concise system of articulation mapping that includes a wide palette of articulation types and supports articulation equivalence across eight instrument categories.
The Profile was designed to offer articulation equivalence — a system of articulation mapping that allows a passage articulated for one instrument to be copied to another track and playedplay back with an equivalent or analogous articulation, regardless of the target instrument type.
When implemented by sample library developers, the Profile will greatly aid composers in highly significant ways.
First, it will simplify the process of substituting or layering sounds from the same or different sample libraries; Second, it will allow composers to quickly audition and orchestrate unison passages by copying an articulated part to other tracks and hear them to play back with equivalent or analogous articulations.
Join us on Youtube for The Orchestral Articulation Profile at NAMM 2024.
In the last few months, a number of MIDI 2.0 capable products have been released into the market.
Here is an alphabetical list including the company name, product name, type of product and the MIDI 2.0 feature supported.
Company
Product Name
Product Type
MIDI 2.0 Features
Amenote
Protozoa
MIDI 2.0 Development Platform
USB MIDI 2.0 and MIDI 2.0 VCM, MIDI-CI, Property Exchange ProgramList, MIDI 2.0 VCM with Articulations
Apple
Logic
DAW
MIDI 2.0 CVM. Can be passed to AU plugins
BomeBox
Bome
Interface Box
KissBox
UMP2TR
Interface Box
Network UMP / Serial UMP gateway
KissBox
IO3CC / IO8CC
MIDI controller I/O system
Network UMP / CVM
Korg
Keystage
Controller
MIDI-CI, Property Exchange Via Manufacturer Specific Property Exchange, ChannelList
Korg
OPSix Native (v1.1.0)
Standalone App
MIDI-CI, Property Exchange Via Manufacturer Specific Property Exchange, ChannelList
Korg
Wavestate Native
Standalone App
MIDI-CI, Property Exchange Via Manufacturer Specific Property Exchange, ChannelList
MultitrackStudio
MultitrackStudio
DAW
USB MIDI 2.0 and MIDI 2.0 VCM, MIDI-CI, Property Exchange Program List, MIDI 2.0 VCM with Articulations
Native Instruments
Kontrol S-Series MK3
Controller
USB MIDI 1.0 VCM, MIDI-CI, Property Exchange ChannelList
PACE
JUCE
SDK
MIDI-CI
Roland
A88 MKII
Controller
High Resolution Velocity
Sound Magic
Supreme Drums Taiko
AU/VST Plugin
High Resolution Velocity
Steinberg
Cubase 13
DAW
Translates some MIDI 2.0 messages into VST3 format, Ready for MIDI 2.0
With support for high resolution velocity, CC, aftertouch, pitch bend, and poly pressure data, Cubase 13 is ready for the widespread adoption of MIDI 2.0.
Steinberg
Nuendo 13
DAW
MIDI 2.0 support, including high-resolution velocity, CC, aftertouch, pitch bend, and poly pressure data
There are many orchestral sample libraries in the market, and they are essential for film scoring, game audio, studio, and live MIDI applications. These orchestral libraries have many kinds of articulations.
For example, a string library might have a different set of samples for every articulation including marcato, staccato, pizzicato, etc.
However, there is no industry standard method-the method for selecting these different articulations has been different for each developer. Many developers use notes at the lower end of the MIDI note range for “key switching”, but the actual keys used are different between different developers. Some developers use CC messages to switch between articulations, but again there is no industry wide consistency. Some plugin formats now have the ability for per note selection of articulations, but again the method for inputting that data is different for different applications.
It is the goal of the MIDI-CI Profile for Note On Orchestral Articulation to provide a consistent way to encode articulation information directly in the MIDI 2.0 Note On message, using the Attribute Type and Attribute Data fields.
In arriving at this Profile, a study was made of orchestral instrument families, choir, big band instruments, guitar, keyboard instruments, and various non-western instruments to evaluate the degree to which they share common performance attributes and sound production techniques. Notation symbols and performance indications were also considered to determine, for example, how successfully a violin note marked with a trill might result in a musically meaningful or analogous articulation when the part is copied to an instrument as far afield as timpani—all without the composer having to re-articulate the timpani part, at least initially.
The Profile provides a comprehensive yet concise system of articulation mapping that includes a wide palette of articulation types and supports articulation equivalence across eight instrument categories.
The Profile was designed to offer articulation equivalence — a system of articulation mapping that allows a passage articulated for one instrument to be copied to another track and playedplay back with an equivalent or analogous articulation, regardless of the target instrument type.
When implemented by sample library developers, the Profile will greatly aid composers in highly significant ways.
First, it will simplify the process of substituting or layering sounds from the same or different sample libraries; Second, it will allow composers to quickly audition and orchestrate unison passages by copying an articulated part to other tracks and hear them to play back with equivalent or analogous articulations.
At the April 2023 NAMM show, Synthogy and Roland collaborated to showcase the first public demonstration MIDI 2.0 technology.
This NAMM show they are raising the bar and showcasing a demonstration of the new Piano Profile.
This Profile will make creating performances on one piano and playing them back on another more accurate.
Roland Product Specialist Scott Tibbs will perform.
Scott has amassed a large body of music with numerous recording artists such as Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Howard Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Nelly, Lil’ Wayne, Jamie Fox, Robin Thicke, Bette Midler, Destiny’s Child, Jazmine Sullivan, Amerie, Jamie Foxx, Teddy Riley, Omar Hakim, Billy Cobham, and more.
Background
The piano is arguably the most important musical instrument in Western music traditions. It is essential to all styles of music from classical to jazz to pop, so when the MIDI Association started to develop Profiles, a Piano Profile was at the top of the list.
This piano Profile is focused on Acoustic Pianos with mechanical key mechanisms driven by MIDI, Digital Acoustic Piano Tone Generators (both hardware and software), and physical MIDI keyboards that send MIDI messages and the most common of all – Digital Pianos which incorporate both Digital Acoustic Piano Tone Generators and physical MIDI keyboard. The Profile does not address electro-mechanical pianos or the extended features of digital ensemble pianos.
Goals
The goal is a Piano Profile that defines the MIDI Messages and bi-directional MIDI-CI communication necessary to allow the performance of an acoustic piano piece on one device that supports the Piano Profile to be accurately rendered on any other device which also supports the Profile.
The Piano Profile defines the MIDI Messages and bi-directional MIDI-CI communication necessary to allow the performance of an acoustic piano piece on one device that supports the Piano Profile to be accurately rendered on any other device which also supports the Profile.
The Profile provides support for remote (over the internet) performance.
The Piano Profile details what information needs to be included in a Standard MIDI File (SMF2) and the mechanisms needed to accurately reproduce a piano performance from a file.
The Piano Profile addresses the following use cases:
Piano + tone generator (the most typical MIDI 1.0 use case)
Online live broadcasting of piano performances
Online lessons with a teacher and student
MIDI Streaming of recorded piano performances
Music production (use of the Piano Profile with DAWs)
MIDI Association members from Audio Modeling, Arturia, Native Instruments, and The Royal Institute for the Blind will discuss the Music Accessibility Special Interest group and their work to make music accessible to everyone
The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is a free tool to help developers develop, debug (and deploy) MIDI 2.0 Applications and Devices. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. The Workbench connects to your device or software, to test various MIDI 2.0 implementation features against official specifications. The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is the only automated tool that generates the MIDI 2.0 Compliance Checklist required to license the MIDI 2.0 Logo from the MIDI Association. The MIDI 2.0 Workbench is currently available as source code for you to compile. We will release binaries shortly.
AmeNote ProtoZOA and USB MIDI 2.0 Device
The AmeNote ProtoZOA hardware platform is a flexible prototyping tool for MIDI 2.0 and is the standard testing device chosen by and funded in part by the MIDI Association. Open source firmware provides MIDI 2.0 interfaces and functions for developers to use in their own hardware and software products. ProtoZOA provides a USB MIDI 2.0 Class Compliant Device on a Raspberry Pico, designed specifically to jump-start prototyping and validation of Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) functions and fuel the MIDI 2.0 revolution. ProtoZOA integrates closely with the MIDI 2.0 Workbench.
Tiny USB MIDI 2.0 Device
This is a Tiny USB Device driver for USB MIDI 1.0 and USB MIDI 2.0 as a unified device. Allows implementor to create hardware MIDI devices which are fully compliant with USB Device Class specifications. Includes the fallback mechanism from 2.0 to 1.0 as defined in USB MIDI 2.0.
USB MIDI 2.0 Descriptor Builder
This is tool for easily creating valid descriptors for USB MIDI 2.0 Devices, which are so easy to get wrong. Fill in properties in a form to generate an output of the necessary descriptors. Supports the tusb_ump library, a USB Device used in the ProtoZOA, and the Linux MIDI2 Gadget Driver.
ni-midi2
The library provides the basic functionality of UMP 1.1 and MIDI-CI 1.2 by providing base classes for all UMP 1.1 packet types, (Universal) System Exclusive messages and MIDI-CI messages. There are concrete types for controllers, velocity and pitch, plus type aliases for common message field types. Mathematical operators allow to do integer / fixed point math on pitches and controllers, type constructors allow initialization with values of different resolution. Conrete instances of packets or messages are created using factory functions. Incoming packets and messages are inspected using data views. The library is completed by a number of helper functionalities dealing with conversion from / to MIDI 1 byte stream data format, collecting sysex messages and more.
AM_MIDI2.0Lib
This is a general purposes Library for building MIDI 2.0 Devices and Applications. This library is targeted to work on everything from Arduinos through to large scale applications. It provides foundational building blocks, processing, and translations needed for most MIDI 2.0 Devices and Applications.
*Note: This MIDI2 Developer Collaboration is not a project of the The MIDI Association, but was founded by key participants in the development of MIDI 2.0, working as members of the MIDI Association. The MIDI 2.0 Logo is a registered trademark of the MIDI Association, used under license. The M2 Logo is a trademark of the MIDI2 Developer Collaboration at MIDI2.dev.
Members of the Network Transport WG will explain and demo working prototypes of the new network Transport
This specification defines the mechanisms and the message format for exchanging Universal MIDI Packet messages via a local area network. This enables the transport of MIDI 1.0 Protocol and MIDI 2.0 Protocol. This also defines discovery of available Network MIDI devices and Hosts, and management of Network MIDI Sessions.
Some examples of use-cases in this specification may include:
The vast majority of people who use MIDI have some type of home studio with a computer and multiple MIDI devices connected together. They record audio and MIDI using Digital Audio Workstation software.
Most live performance venues and performances combine both networked multi-channel digital audio and a variety of MIDI instruments and controllers.
Commercial facilities that include broadcast studios, recording studios, and universities with networked electronic music/piano labs.
This specification defines a way to connect those home studios or those performance venues via Ethernet and WiFi on a local area MIDI network.
As of early 2024, the only available transport for MIDI 2.0 UMP is the USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices v2.0. An Ethernet network has some advantages over USB:
A USB cable length is generally limited to about 3 meters (about 9 feet and 10 inches). Ethernet cables can transmit data up to 100 meters without any signal loss or degradation.
USB can create problems with grounding noise. Ethernet connections are electrically isolated while USB is not.
The connection topology can be changed in software without having to move physical cables.
Many transports for audio use Ethernet. Some of those are open standards (i.e. AES67) and some are proprietary (i.e., Dante by Audinate and Q-LAN by QSC).
Being able to run MIDI 2.0 as a control protocol over the same cables that run audio can greatly expand the use of MIDI 2.0. MIDI 2.0 expands outside the limitations of MIDI 1.0, now using 32 bit words, no bandwidth limitations, and room for thousands of new messages. For example, the high resolution of MIDI 2.0 makes it possible to directly specify and control frequency parameters from 20Hz to 96KHz (and above).
A MIDI 2.0 UDP transport specification has many benefits for both end users and companies that make MIDI and audio products.
This project is the next-generation MIDI API for Windows, including MIDI 1.0, MIDI CI, and MIDI 2.0. It includes enhancements, a new USB class driver, new transports, and a suite of essential tools. The project adds many enhancements and bug fixes to our MIDI 1.0 support, and importantly adds support for the latest revisions to MIDI CI and MIDI 2.0 as approved by The MIDI Association.
The open source USB MIDI 2.0 driver has been generously donated by AMEI, the Association of Musical Electronics Industry, and developed by AmeNote ™️ in partnership with Microsoft. Please see the file headers for any additional copyright notices. A huge thank you to AMEI and its member companies for making this happen!
This is an official Microsoft project. Although Microsoft is an active member of the MIDI Association, and Pete Brown is the chair of the MIDI Association Executive Board, and other contributors are on standards boards, this project is not affiliated with the MIDI Association other than as a consumer of and contributor to the standards. Affiliation with AMEI is disclosed above.
