Tag: Music China

Music China is back after three years

During the pandemic,  Music China and The MIDI Association worked closely together to keep information and news about MIDI and MIDI products available in China.  Music China hosted online events on their WeChat channels and together we figured out a clever way to iFrame our MIDIable meetings so that we could have people from all over the world share information on new products and new MIDI specifications with people in China.   We had several thousand people attend our online session.

This year Music China was able to take the entries from the 2023 MIDI Innovation awards and put the text entries, videos and images into a WeChat mini-program.

If you are not familiar with WeChat, it is the most popular social media application in China. It is literally impossible to survive in China without WeChat. Much of this article features photos that were shared with The MIDI Association via WeChat and portions of the article are screenshots taken from WeChat using the built-in English translation technology. If you plan to go to to China, we really recommend creating a WeChat account, getting a VPN that will work in China (some services like Google and Facebook are blocked in China unless you use a VPN) and finally perhaps getting a payment service like Alipay.

But it was great to be back in China in person.  With the help of Music China and all our Chinese MIDI Association members, we were able to have an incredible show and really boost MIDI’s visibility in China.

Music China Overall

With buyers from more than 70 countries and regions, Music China (Shanghai) International Musical Instrument Exhibition (Music China) opened on October 11, ushered in a four-day industry event. As one of the world’s largest musical instrument exhibitions, Music China brings together 1,822 well-known companies in the industry to showcase their products and exchange technologies at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center. This year’s exhibition area of 120,000 square meters, 20% larger than in 2020, including 10 exhibition halls (W5 to E5) and 3 outdoor exhibition hall (OW2 to OW4), for the majority of the industry and music lovers to present a comprehensive and professional feast of instruments.

by Music China

 It is hard to get an idea of how big Music China is, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are three to try to give everyone an idea of the size and scope of Music China.  The first is an overall map of Music China that calls out the OW4 Tech+ Music Lab that the MIDI Association was in.  The second is a picture looking back from E5 down to E1.

So that picture is only showing half of the Music China halls!  The last is a picture of the crowds lined up to get into the show.   130,000 people pre-registered for the event and a good percentage of those were in attendance.

Music China, The Chinese Musical Instrument Association and The MIDI Association

It’s important to understand the organizations involved in music in China.

Music China is put on by the cooperation of three organizers.

China Music Instrument Association (CMIA)-
Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd.
Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd.

The Future Music and Science Technology committee and The Music Technology Lab

The MIDI Association is a global trade association specifically to promote MIDI and create new MIDI standards based on customers needs. We have members from North and South America,  Europe and China.

In the last few years with the help of Yitian Zhao, CEO of CME and Vice Director of the Chinese Musical Instrument Association and President of Future Music and Science Technology committee and Joe Zhang, CTO of Medeli and MIDI Association Technical Standards Board Member, we have signifcantly grown the number of Chinese members.  Also with their leadership a number of important changes have happened in the structure of the Chinese Musical Instrument Association (CMIA) .  MIDI products used to included in the category of electrical instruments which included anything with electrical power including amps and electric guitars.  At the request of Mr Zhao, CMIA created the Future Music and Science Technology Committee and is focusing more on technology and of course MIDI.   We will  talk more about the ongoing relationship with CMIA later.

In order to link cutting-edge technology at home and abroad and bring innovative products to end users, Music Science and Technology Laboratory specially launched “Chinese Users’ Choice” The “Future Shock Award for Future Music Products” two major user selection activities, the event was jointly launched by the organizers of Music China, the MIDI Association and the China Musical Instrument Association Future Music Technology Special Committee, with the special support of the China Music Association University Alliance.

“China User Choice” Voting Campaign

“Chinese Users’ Choice of the Year” products from overseas innovative enterprises or individual developers, more “MIDI Innovation Awards International MIDI Innovation Awards” winning products shortlisted. Vote for the innovative products you are most looking forward to experiencing at the show, and the top 5 will be showcased at the show!

Voting period: September 1 – September 30

Voting rules: 3 votes per user, no repeat voting

“Future Music Products” Voting Event

Future Shock Awards “Music Technology Product of the Year” will be selected from all “Music Technology Lab” products and 5 “Chinese Users’ Choice” winning products. According to the comprehensive voting results of the expert jury and the live audience, the first winner will receive the 2024 Music Technology Lab booth. From October 11th to 14th, the brand that gets the first votes every day will prepare exquisite gifts for you!

Voting period: October 11 – October 14

(You can preview products on October 7)

Voting rules: 3 votes per user, non-repeatable vote, 10 votes per vote of the expert jury

The user selection activity specially invited domestic well-known experts to form an expert jury to vote on the candidate products, and comprehensive on-site voting results to select a “Future Shock Award Future Music Product.”

by Music China Tech + WeChat mini program

Music Technology Lab Expert Jury

The Chinese Users Choice Awards

The Chinese Users Choice Awards allowed innovative MIDI companies from overseas to gain exposure in the Chinese market.  Music China was able to take the entries from the MIDI Innovation awards and put the text entries, videos and images into a WeChat mini-program.

If you are not familiar with WeChat, it is the most popular social media application in China.  It is literally impossible to survive in China without WeChat.   Much of this article features photos that were shared with The MIDI Association via WeChat and portions of the article are screenshots taken from WeChat using the built-in English translation technology.  If you plan to go to to China,  we really recommend creating a WeChat account,  getting a VPN that will work in China (some services like Google and Facebook are blocked in China unless you use a VPN) and finally perhaps getting a payment service like Alipay.

In any case, here are the winners of the Chinese Users Choice Awards.

Future Shock Awards

 The Future Shock Awards were voted on during the show and included both entrants from overseas and from China.

All of the the winners of the Future Shock awards are MIDI Association members (though the contest is not limited to MIDI Association members).

The MIDI Association wins an International Cooperation Award

At the opening welcome dinner for Music China, The MIDI Association (along with NAMM) won an International Cooperation Award.

International Forum On MIDI Technology

More Music China articles to come

So much happened at Music China that we can’t fit it all into one article so in the next few days we will do a full wrap up the whole show as this was just some of what went on in OW4 t the Tech + Music Lab which is just a small part of the show.

But we can’t finish without saying thanks to some very special friends.

Thanks to everyone at Music China

We had three MIDI Brand Ambassadors from Xinghai Conservatory of Music who were a great help. Our members from China who put on the MIDI Forum and did a great job of explaining the benefits of MIDI 2.0 (and we will be putting up the videos we created for Music China in both English and Chinese soon.

Tami X (Buchla modular artists and founder of MIDIFan,  the best website in China for information on Music Technology has been great in promoting MIDI information and translating MIDI.org articles into Chinese.

But our trip to Music China would not have been possible without all the help we received from Aoshuang “Sylvia” Xue from Music China and Yitian Zhao from CME.

We are really looking forward to working closely together and for even bigger and better things at Music China 2024!

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, CEO of CME PRO, MIDI Association Executive Board members and Vice President of the Chinese Musical Instrument Association and Joe Zhang of Medeli and Technical Standards Board member, the number of MIDI Association Chinese members has grown significantly in the past three years.

Recently our Chinese MIDI Association companies worked to put together a video about MIDI in China for the 40th Anniversary of MIDI.

You can click on the Youtube above to watch the 1 minute shortened version or click on the link below to view the full 11 minute version.

The MIDI Association and Music China

For many years now we have partnered with Music China, the world’s largest musical instrument trade show which is usually held in October in Shanghai.

However for the past several years during the pandemic, our relationship has become even stronger as we helped to host virtual events and bring MIDI Innovation Award contestants to Chinese musicians.

We also worked together on some big initiatives like the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Future Music Technology Committee ( 中国乐器协会未来音乐科技专委会)

The goals of CMIA’s Future Music Technology Committee are to:

• Develop Chinese members of The MIDI Association
• Encourage Chinese members to participate in the development of MIDI standards
• Promote and popularize MIDI application in China
• Support global MIDI members to develop the Chinese market

The Committee is made up of the current MIDI Association members from China which has already grown significantly in the last two years.

This new structure in CMIA will bring an increased focus to MIDI as MIDI is the Musical Instrument Digital Interface standard.

Look for details on our plans for Music China 2023 in Shanghai coming soon.

The MIDI Association, Music China and the Chinese Musical Instrument Association cooperate together to promote MIDI in China

In the past year, with the help of MIDI Association Exec Board member Yitian Zhao, CEO of CME and Technical Standards Board member Joe Zhang of Medeli, the MIDI Association has greatly expanded our promotion of MIDI in China. 

In September of 2021,  the Chinese Musical Instrument Association (CMIA) announced the formation of the Future Music Technology Committee (未来音乐科技专委会) and elected Yitian Zhao as the President. 

MIDI Association President (2020-2021)Craig Anderton created a video thanking CMIA for the establishment of the Future Music Technology Committee

The Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Future Music Technology Committee ( 中国乐器协会未来音乐科技专委会) 

The goals of CMIA’s Future Music Technology Committee are to:

• Develop Chinese members of The MIDI Association 
• Encourage Chinese members to participate in the development of MIDI standards 
• Promote and popularize MIDI application in China 
• Support global MIDI members to develop the Chinese market 

The Committee is made up of the current MIDI Association members from China which has already grown significantly in the last two years. 

Previously the Chinese Musical Instrument Association had included digital musical instruments with MIDI in the same category as electric guitars and amplifiers. 

This new structure in CMIA will bring an increased focus to MIDI as MIDI is the Musical Instrument Digital Interface standard. 

The Chinese MIDI Association members meet regular to discuss MIDI 2.0 and share ideas on future MIDI specifications.  

Music China Future Festival 未来音乐节 

Another part of our efforts to promote MIDI in China is the Music China Future Festival developed for Music China that includes the following events. 

• MIDI Concert 
• MIDI International Forum 
• Tech+ Music lab 
  • Chinese Users’ Choice 
  • Future Shock Award 

Tech+Music Lab is a unique part of Music China focused on technology and this year Music China launched the Chinese Users’ Choice & Future Shock Award

Companies selected by the MIDI Association provide assets to Music China who developed a website to highlight these innovative products. 

Then partners which included 800 colleges from the China College Music League, Bilibili (a Chinese video sharing platform), and TikTok were invited to view the entries and vote for the Chinese User Choices based in the following guidelines/ 

• The product may inspire Chinese music creation/making
• The product may improve productivity of music teaching/making
• The product may have irreplaceable function over other products.

17 companies and products participated. 

• SongBook +
• Fluid Pitch ( MIDI Innovation Awards 2021 First Prize Winner)
• imitone
• Geoshred
• Caedence
• Audio Modeling
• Big Ear Games
• DoreMIDI
• LiveLoop
• MIDIable
• Whirled Notes
• Hyperion Strings Elements
• Palm Band
• WIDI 
• Orba
• Animoog Z
• MIDI Tape Recorder

Live Presentations using MIDIable a browser-based platform that combines Web MIDI and telepresence (audio, video and screen sharing) 

In fact, one of the entrants was used as the core platform for live web presentations and then Music China shared the stream on WeChat. MIDIable (developed by MIDI Association Exec Board member Lawrence Levine) is a browser-based platform that combines Web MIDI and telepresence (audio, video and screen sharing) to allow online music creation, education and collaboration. 

There are plenty of great platforms for audio/video conferencing, but only MIDIable integrates Web MIDI. Connect your MIDI device to your computer, open Chrome or Edge (the browsers that support Web MIDI) and now you can send and receive MIDI over the Internet using the W3C standard for MIDI communication. Your entire MIDI studios appears in MIDIable.

You can merge All Inputs to play any MIDI device connected to your computer and send it out Web MIDI. You can select which MIDI device is sent MIDI from MIDIable and choose what sounds are played by remote Web MIDI.

Want to connect to your DAW or other MIDI software? Select IAC Driver on your Mac or any loop back inter-application software on other operating systems and the remote MIDI from the Internet is sent to your local DAW which then can be used route it out to external MIDI devices. 

No MIDI device? No problem. Even if you don’t have a MIDI device, it’s easy to use MIDIable. MIDIable provides a virtual keyboard so you can see MIDI notes on screen. 

You can even hear those notes using MIDIable’s HTML5 browser-based piano.

There are platforms that allow video conferencing, services that claim low latency audio over the Internet and others that allow Web MIDI, but only MIDIable integrates everything all together into one seamless experience. 

Why is that important?

One of the tricky parts of collaboration over the Internet is latency (the delay created by sending signals over networks) because audio, video and MIDI all travel at different rates.

But MIDIable solves all these problems for you. Whether you are using a connected MIDI device or the MIDIable piano, you are listening to sounds created locally so there is no Internet delay.

In addition, MIDIable automatically syncs the video and MIDI coming over the Internet together.

All remote media you see and hear in MIDIable is seamlessly synced together in your local environment. 

Craig Knudsen and Jon Schmidt from the Piano Guys demo MIDIable for Music China 

MIDIable streamed to WeChat and watched by thousands of MIDI fans in China

 Music China staff and Yitian Zhao provided translation for the presenters who were able to share their screens and webcams on MIDIable. Each of the three nights of presentations saw over 1000 attendees on WeChat with comments and reactions from the audience feedback to the presenters.  To be honest, when we started we had no idea if any of this would work as it was the first in the world to try this, but as you can see from the section with Craig Knudsen of the Piano Guys presenting from their studio in St. George, Utah it was a great example of global cooperation. 

In the bottom right of this screen shot from the WeChat broadcast you can see there were 3454 people watching and reacting to the MIDIable presentation at Music China. 

Thanks to Music China and CMIA for their help in promoting MIDI In China

 We’d like to thank all the MIDI Association presenters,  Music China and the China Musical Instrument Association for their support and most of all Yitian Zhao, Lawrence Levine, Aoshuang (Sylvia) Xue, and Andy Renhao for their translation and technical support. 

Thanks to their hard work in making this a success. 

Together we proofed that not just music, but MIDI itself is truly a universal language. 

Entering a New Era for Music and Musical Instruments
The 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 serves on the MIDI Association Technical Standards Board. His presentation covered:

• The important new features of MIDI 2.0
• The history of MIDI, MMA and TMA
• He encouraged the audience to join MIDI Association as individual members and Chinese manufacturers to join the the MIDI Association as corporate members to help in the development of new MIDI 2.0 specifications. 

Joe (with the help of the Chinese Musical Instrument Association) translated the new videos on MIDI 2.0, MIDI 2.0 Profile Configuration,  MIDI 2.0 Property Exchange and the MIDI Association re-branding into Chinese which was really appreciated by the audience and helped them gain aclear understanding of what MIDI 2.0 is and how it can bring added ease of use and expressiveness to MIDI. 

 Zhao Yi Tian (Founder and CEO, CME) 

Mr Zhao introduced the audience to BLE wireless MIDI by demonstrating the CME WIDI master which allows BLE MIDI connections between instruments with standard MIDI 5 PIN DIN connectors.

Li Zi Jin (Associate Professor of China Conservatory of Music) 

Li Zi Jin is a Visiting Professor at Schulich School of Music of McGill University and an Associate Professor at China Conservatory of Music. She did a presentation on different approaches in designing new musical instruments. She has previously done an interesting study “On Digital Platforms and AI for Music in the UK and China” with Nick Bryan-Kinns, director of the Media and Arts Technology Center at Queen Mary University of London in the UK. 

In her presentation], she explained the AI-Wekinator. The Wekinator is free, open source software originally created in 2009 by Rebecca Fiebrink. It allows anyone to use machine learning to build new musical instruments, gestural game controllers, computer vision or computer listening systems, and more.

The Wekinator allows users to build new interactive systems by demonstrating human actions and computer responses, instead of writing programming code. 

Shen Lin (Executive Vice-president of Shanghai Computer Music Association) 

 Shen Lin Introduced a new profession certification: electronic music producer, and how MIDI is involved in the requirements of this profession. 

We are the Shanghai Computer Music Association, a social organization in Shanghai engaged in computer music and electronic music services.

We provide business guidance and services to industry-related companies.
We provide business guidance and assistance to members and provide a platform for communication.
We provide professional services to all sectors of society. Computer music production, concert planning and rehearsal services.

We also provide you with professional computer audio technology and equipment services, designing perfect music art solutions.

As an association, we also train and teach young people.

Hope we can work with you to create the future of computer music and electronic music. 

by The Shanghai Computer Music Association

Roundtable Forum-The Integration of Music and Musical Instruments – The Future of MIDI 2.0 Technology

Moderator: Ge Xing Hua (General Manager, MEDELI)

Speakers:

Zhao Pin (Chairman of Ringway)

Zhao Yi Tian (Founder and CEO of CME)

Han Bao Qiang (Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor of China Conservatory of Music)

Chen Qiang Bin (President of Shanghai Computer Music Association)

Shen Lin (Executive Vice-president of Shanghai Computer Music Association) 

International Electronic Music Competition Awards Ceremony

International Electronic Music Competition (IEMC2020) Winner List 

Electronic music work: Wen Bihe “Song song”

Prize: RMB 20k Yuan, MIDIPLUS X8 pro, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software, PSP Infinistrip software, NugenAudio Stereoizer software.

Song work：Zhang Miao “Whale”

Prize: RMB 20k Yuan, MIDIPLUS X6 pro, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software, PSP Infinistrip software, NugenAudio Stereoizer software.

New Instruments creative design：Weng ruolun 《Smart Motion System》

Prize: RMB 20k Yuan, MIDIPLUS FP 88 e-piano, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software, PSP Infinistrip software, NugenAudio Stereoizer software.

Best Work Award

Popular Electronic music (sE-Electronics Award)

Electronic Music First Prize-sE Eletronics Award: Li Jingyin “Fen·Lie”

Prize: sE Electronics Z5600A II condenser microphone, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electronic Music Second Prize-sE Eletronics Award: Dai Shanshan “San Cha Kou”

Prize: sE X1 A VPcondenser microphone, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electronic Music Excellence Award-sE Eletronics Award:

Yang Zhenhao “Time Expansion: Beethoven Black Hole”

Prize: sE V7 US hyper-cardioid dynamic mic, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Zhou Dapeng ” Mo”

Prize: sE DM microphone amplifier, Artesia monitoring headphone, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electro-acoustic music (Huaxing Award)

Electronic Music First Prize – Huaxing Award: Yu Jinqiao “the Abstract and Concrete of Sound-for String Samples, Music Concrete and Electronic Music”

Prize: Galileo V-80 digital electric piano, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electronic Music Second Prize – Huaxing Award：

Li Kelian”i:liL!||!:l:l:. .:!!I!:|. .:I..:! . .! . .. . .”

Niu Yansu “Zhong-For Bells, Water, Opera Sing and Electronic Music”

Emma Rinaldi Terno “Introspection”

Prize: Galileo V-30 digital e-piano, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electronic Music Excellence Award – Huaxing Award：

Li Haoyu “Wave”

Xu Xiaobo “JiHun祭魂”

Zhang Yixin “Whale Language”

Wu Xi “Huan Yue’s Unknown Journey”

Li Guanzhou “Xing Kong”

Prize: Huaxing S-8digital e-piano, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Electronic Dance Music (KongAudio Award)

Electronic Music First Prize – KongAudio Award: Luo Yuting & Fan Chuangchuang《Mirror》

Prize: KongAudio Chinese orchestra complete version with chime collector’s edition set, MIDIPLUS MIDI keyboard, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc.

Electronic Music Second Prize – KongAudio Award: Lin Kuan “Future Technology”

Prize: KongAudio Chinese orchestra complete version with chime collector’s edition set, MIDIPLUS MIDI keyboard, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc.

Songs (Medeli Award)

Song Work First Prize – Medeli Award: Hou Jiuheng “Submerge”

Prize: ASM Hydra synth；VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Song Work Second Prize – Medeli Award: Ye Dao “A Mei Nong E”

Prize: A2000 eletronic organ, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

Song Work Excellence Award – Medeli Award: Xiao xiaozhou “Yu”

Prize: Medeli SAP200 protable e-piano, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.

New Instruments Creative Design Award

New Instrument Design Secoud Prize：blablaTrains “Pythagorean Domino”

Prize: KongAudio Chinese orchestra complete version.

New Instrument Design Third Prize：Wang Yu “interactive Phototonus Electric Guzheng”

Prize: KongAudio Chinese orchestra complete version.

Youth Group Award

Youth Group First Prize: Wu Lingfeng “Yanomami”

Prize: KongAudio Chinese orchestra complete version, Lemon Instruments sound card, sE V7 US hyper-cardioid dynamic mic, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. 

Youth Group Best Song Award: Lu Zhiyang “Wuhu”

Youth Group Best Production Award: Zhang YankaiDemons Scuffle” & Li Yuhan “Coming down”

Youth Group Best Creation Award: Xu Shu “Border of Universe” & Shao Yifan “Atmospheres” & Li Zongchen “Project IX – Dive”

Youth Group Future Star Award: Lin Zixi “Fu Su” & Huang Tao duoer “10-year-old Waltz”& Wang dengping “Bright”& Weng Weilun “Disobey”

Prize: Lemon Instruments sound card, sE V7 US hyper-cardioid dynamic mic, VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc.

IEMC Performance award

Winning Work:

Zhou jinjie “T.R.I.P”

Han Xichao “Mo Shang Hua Gui”

Prize: VSTOMP AMP software by Hotone Audio Inc. KongAudio Chinese orchestra se software.