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DAW Control Profiles Update at NAMM 2026


Join members of the DAW Control Profile Working Group as they review the progress on creating a number of different MIDI 2.0 Profiles to replace proprietary protocols for controlling a DAW’s transport, markers, remote displays, and other aspects of DAW behavior.

The MIDI Association is working on a modular set of MIDI 2.0 DAW Control Profiles intended to eventually replace Mackie Control with a unified industry standard for all hardware and software.

The modular approach was taken because of the wide variety of capabilities of DAW controllers from simple start, stop and record buttons to elaborate devices with multiple displays.

The first Profile will be a Function Block Transport Control and Location Profile that defines Transport Control,  Record Arm, Cycle Markers, and Punch In and Out Points

The second planned Profile is a Single Channel Dynamic Control Profile.  Dynamic Controls are a set of controls that affect remote parameters of a Device. It is most often a plugin or tone generator. The set of parameters that are affected may change between sound engines or even between patches and are typically the parameters that represent the best/common ways to adjust the sound. This specification is intended to promote capability between products that either use a set of common physical controls to manage different destinations or change the set of destinations depending on focus.

The third planned Profile is a Function Block Mixing profile.