The MIDI Association is pleased to welcome PopuMusic as a new member of our global community of companies building the future of music and music technology. PopuMusic is best known […]

CES 2026 ran January 6–9, 2026 in Las Vegas, and once again the show floor was full of ideas that matter to music creators: new ways to control software, new […]

We caught up with Oscar Xie CEO & Founder of Robkoo at Music China 2025 to discuss the latest releases from Robkoo and Pedro Eustache, wind synthesist and performer with […]

A fusion of technology, art and nature I was all set to get on a plane to Music China when I got an email from my sister in England with […]

The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. For over three decades the Royal Society […]

We had a record number of 121 entrants to the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and between July 14 and August 4, you get to vote on who the 3 finalists […]

This post is an English translation of the article that originally appeared on the website DTM Station in Japanese. Our sincere thanks to DTM Station for allowing us to repost […]

CCRMA and the Culture of Invention This paper attributes contemporary Wave Sequencing to CCRMA composer Bill Schottstaedt’s 1987 work Leviathan, which radically extended musique concrète techniques by computing over 15,000 […]

The MIDI Association has made significant progress this year in developing two Profiles focused on electronic drums and drum machines.  The Default Drum Map Profile  defines a MIDI-CI Profile for […]

MIDI Association NAMM Booth Events Thursday, January 23 MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement Awards 2025 Thursday, January 23 11:00 AM-11:45 AM 45 minutes (America/Los_Angeles) MIDI Association Booth 10302 (Hall A) In-Person […]

I’m Alana Balagot, maker of The MIDICard. I’ve always been excited about music and technology. My piano teacher set up a simple MIDI studio in the 90’s, with a Dell […]

At the MIDI Forum, there were a number of technology presentations and one of the most fascinating was from Robin Zhang about the open source software he developed called Digishow. […]

Reflections on the Arp 2600 and Alvin Lucier Before we get into Anthony’s presentation at NAMM 2024, I wanted to give a bit of insight about why what he did […]

Join MIDI Association President Athan Billias, artiphon’s Emma Supica and Oddball’s Pasquale Totaro for a discussion of playful (and round) products that use MIDI from the June 2022 NAMM show  Follow the bouncing […]

Join MIDI Association President Athan Billias, Big Ear Games Aviv Ben-Yahuda , Playtronics’ Sacha Pas and Playtime Engineering’s Troy Sheets for a discussion of playful products that use MIDI from […]

The Santasizer – MIDI Controlled Santa madness Sam Battle (LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER) released a new MIDI creation just in time for Christmas- “The Santasizer.” It’s a choir of toy Santas that […]

MIDI Controllers (Products, Physical Controls, and Messages) Unfortunately the word controller is overburdened in the MIDI lexicon and probably the most overused word in the world of MIDI.  It can refer to […]

Playtronica makes playing with MIDI easy We have always been a big fan of Berlin-based Playtronica. They have done MIDI installations for Hermes and Issey Miyake. A real laboratory became alive in the […]

You can make Johan Von Konow’s new modular synth for about $6! “I have designed a keyboard, drum pad, chord keyboard, arpeggiator and a step sequencer. One special feature is that […]

Respiro is a new generation software synthesizer able to reproduce the sound and behavior similar to wind-instruments.

Sometimes you just need to relax and do something cool. So on Labor day weekend 2020 we shared this video from MEZERG enjoying some cool watermelon, some bright sun and a dip […]

Hi everyone! In this article I will teach you how to build your own Arduino powered MIDI controller. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and it is a protocol that allows […]

On its mission of creating the right MIDI device for those who feel more comfortable with 6 strings than with 25 keys, Jammy Instruments is launching a compact stringed MIDI […]

Elk releases open source version of award winning Audio Operating System and Development Kit for Raspberry Pi.   We’ve covered ELK innovations on the site before. Check out these articles on Steinberg […]

The KMI K-Board Pro 4  The KMI K-Board Pro 4 started off as Kickstarter campaign in 2016 and quickly got to its funding goal of $50.000. What sets the Pro 4 apart from […]

Skwitch: It’s an iPhone accessory David Skulina from Edinburgh, United Kingdom founded Skoogmusic  and in 2015 ran a successful funding campaign on Indiegogo and released it’s first original tactile music interface, Skoog. Skwitch is Skoogmusic’s newest […]

Creative Console is a MIDI controller and much, much more  Creative Console integrates with all your typical DAW software Logic Pro X Cubase Ableton Live FL Studio Reaper But it also features […]

Tristan is an acoustic musician and a coder so he combined his skills in this musical performance.   What worked and what didn’t  Tristan tried a number of different types of motors […]

 re.corder gives you three different ways to play.  Play acoustically, with or without the application running. It’s a regular recorder.  Play digitally (you can mute it with the supplied mute-plug) silently […]

There are lots of websites that offer information on DAWs and music production.  Audio Assemble takes a unique approach by offering articles, videos, reviews, interviews and information on schools that […]

Genki Instruments announced that they were shipping Wave, the ring that lets you control sound with motion. With three easy-to-use buttons, Wave allows musicians to easily change sounds, parameters and effects using gestures. Since being funded on […]

Hello everyone, my name is Diego Leroux. I´m from Buenos Aires, Argentina and I would like to share with the community a new product I’ve been developing for the past […]

MMA Member Blokas releases a USB to MIDI router with built-in MIDI processing  Midihub has 4 MIDI DIN inputs, 4 MIDI DIN output ports and a USB port for power supply and/or communicating with the PC and […]

Ólafur Arnalds didn’t start out playing keyboards. He started out as a drummer in hard rock bands. He is not alone. Yoshiki from the legendary Japanese hard rock band X Japan comes to mind. Many people […]

The newest Jamstik, the Studio, is a full-size, MIDI-capable electric guitar allowing producer-guitarists to create seamlessly in DAWs and music apps. Guitarists and piano players have an equal appetite for […]

British mega band MUSE is currently on tour promoting their latest album Simulation Theory performing in sold out stadiums all over the world. Each night frontman and guitarist Matt Bellamy […]

BLOCKS is a modular music making system made up of 5 components Seaboard Block Super Powered Keyboard Multi-award-winning Seaboard interface 5D Touch technology 24 keywave, two-octave playing surface Hundreds of free sounds […]

MIDI Controller/Audio Interface for mobile musician The iRIg Keys I/O comes in two version a a 25-key MIDI controller version and a 49-key MIDI controller version.  Both feature built-in audio interfaces with 24-bit/96kHz sound quality, […]

With K-Board Pro 4 we’ve taken the format of a traditional keyboard and updated it for the 21st Century. With our SmartFabric™ Sensors underneath each key you can tweak any […]

Bluetooth LE MIDI Pedalboard for controlling iOS and Mac apps The IK Multimedia Blue Board uses the new BTLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) MIDI specification so you can control your music apps […]

As one of the inventors the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, Roland has continued to push the boundaries of the now 36-year old protocol(!) by continuously developing MIDI-based applications which bring […]

 At SXSW 2019, Moritz Simon Geist performed and presented several workshops on using robots and MIDI.  His new EP is created completely with MIDI controllers controlling robots he created himself.  A […]

DrumSpider Indiegogo Campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/drumspider-play-the-drums-in-5-minutes/x/19050349?fbclid=IwAR2aP4hc6K_kHtt-R9dYbChTI0SKM3YoBFBtJFFZyoxi2yRE8L09XPktSow#/           Group of passion electronics and musicians created DrumSpider – the device to learn how to play the drums in 5 minutes. They […]

Geert Bevins’ watch app lets you wear your MIDI controller on your wrist Geert Bevin (who was one of the main people who developed MIDI Polyphonic Expression)  recently released MIDIWrist.  MIDIWrist […]

World’s First Alexa Controlled Digital Piano Translates Alexa Skills to MIDI Commands At CES 2019, Roland announced the first MIDI digital musical instrument able to be controlled by the Amazon Alexa.  Like […]

If you want to use MIDI with either pre-MIDI analog synths or with modular Eurorack analog synth systems, you need to convert digital MIDI signals into analog voltages.  Fortunately, there are lots of options.  […]

Main Features VST 32/64BIT & STANDALONE WINDOWS ONLY CONTROLLER    Officially supports Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and Aimpad controllers Standalone and VSTi in 32 and 64 bitsRun it Standalone or […]

pandaMidi Solutions announces midiBeam v2   This two-box system connects any controller having a standard 5-pin MIDI Out socket to any of the following devices: any synthesizer, sound generator, effect […]

After seeing the energetic guitar playing of Muse’s Matt Bellamy, I wanted to give electronic musicians a tool to achieve similar playing style with high visual impact. Easily, without years of training. And make […]

It always amazes us that you can find a MIDI version of almost any instrument. So we decided to look at what’s available for MIDI bagpipes. There are actually a good […]

 New MIDI Manufacturer Association member RnD64 funded their development of the Jammy MIDI controller via Indiegogo and raised $218,872.  Jammy is a super portable steel string digital guitar that fits in your […]

Kickstarter has been a place where some of our favorite MIDI controllers started whether it’s Mogees or the Artiphon (one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time).  Our […]

I created the Plastic Pitch Plus (PPP) to experiment with microtonality.  My primary design goal was to create a physical interface that gives immediate and independent control of pitches in […]

GRIDI is a large scale physical midi sequencer    Gridi is a large scale physical midi sequencer (2.80 X 1.65 Meters) with embedded LEDs. Itwas created by music producer Yuval Gerstein […]

SoulPedal® (SP) is a wearable controller that slips inside your shoe (as an insole) and wirelessly controls effects for musicians. In this YouTube demo, local Beta Tester and Musician, Kody […]

The Tirare is a custom performance interface. In Italian, Tirare means: (to) throw, (to) to pull. The name refers to the primary performative action employed in order to generate sound. Initially, […]

Introduction We have started our project to find a way how to build full-featured organ console out of available MIDI instruments. One of our project goals was to extend the coverage […]

XT Synth-The expression of a violin, the playability of a guitar, with the power of a MIDI controller that shines.  “The XT Synth is a mix of guitar, violin and […]

This custom-built instrument is called Curve, and is named after the shape and contour of the interface itself. I wanted to create something that had a myriad of different sensors […]

We recently sent out a MIDI Message newsletter and asked people to describe their favorite MIDI project.  Harry Williamson from the Federation Bells in Melbourne, Australia sent us this message.  Favorite […]

On May 26, we held the very first  MIDI Live! chat with a panel of MPE specialists.  We recorded the session and it is presented here as a podcast.  Listeners were not […]

MIDI Stylophone Business Card Last Sunday we were looking at bookmarks we had made while searching the Internet for blog topics.  We had booked marked Mixtela.com a few months ago because of […]

The Original Dubreq Stylophone The Dubreq Stylophone was invented in 1968 by Brian Jarvis.  It was originally designed as a toy, but the fact that it was portable and easy […]

If you think of a keyboard as playing only notes, four or five octaves may be sufficient. However, many virtual instruments (e.g., FXpansion Geist, Native Instruments Kontakt, EastWest’s Play engine, […]

Jamstik+ from Zivix is an interesting solution for guitarists who want to play MIDI instruments. While it’s not a guitar, it feels mostly like a guitar because it has real […]

Nick Demopoulos started out as a jazz musician and played with legends like Chico Hamilton.  But then he began exploring the possibilities of using MIDI and that led him to […]

When we saw this YouTube video of Daði Freyr using the Genki wave MIDI controller, we knew we had to post it right away.  The Wave MIDI controller from Genki has been …. […]

At SXSW, we got a chance to check out the Cabor MIDI cahon.  Cabot is a project of UTSUWA, Inc., a Kyoto, Japan based tech start-up.  The Cabot percussion robot was conceived […]

Air DJ displays new MIDI Controller at SXSW There were some interesting new MIDI products introduced at SXSW.  One of them was the wireless BTLE MIDI controller for DMET Product Corporation.  […]

MIDI Bling with wireless rings There are a number of MIDI rings on the market. IK Multimedia makes one and so does Enhancia. Here are links to articles on those.  […]

For the past several years a MIDI product has always been in the Best of CES product list including the Roli Seaboard and the Zivix JamStick.  It seems that MIDI […]

​We got several entrees for suggested content from the December 2017 MIDI Association newsletter.  One was for an article on CTRLCap from Edwin Joassart. We did a little more research and decided to do […]

Tech company OWOW just launched a new wireless motion controlled instrument for singers. Named the Wiggle Kit, it consists of a mobile App and a small white remote controller which turns gestures into vocal effects. By twisting and […]

MICROTUNING VIRTUAL AND ELECTRONIC HARDWARE INSTRUMENTS: AN OVERVIEW OF FORMATS AND METHODS FOR USING ALTERNATIVE INTONATION SYSTEMS For those electronic hardware synthesis enthusiasts, as well as computer based musicians and […]

We collected up links to the top MIDI DIY resources from around the web. Links are embedded in the logos, the pictures and the text in blue. Clicking on a link […]

What if you could control MIDI with your brain? Does that sound like science fiction? Actually there are lots of people who have been exploring how to connect brain waves Electroencephalography […]

One of the biggest recent developments in MIDI is MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE). MPE is a method of using MIDI which enables multidimensional controllers to control multiple parameters of every note within MPE-compatible software.  […]

Pens and stylus’ have been employed as computer interaction devices for quite some time now. Most commonly they were used along with peripheral graphics tablets to give a more natural […]

This is an article that was originally posted on the Cakewalk blog and they kindly gave us permission to excerpt it here on MIDI.org.  Greetings! My name is Mike Green, Music […]

There has recently been a surge in robotic MIDI devices as Arduinos and low cost CPUs make it easier and easier to develop MIDI-controlled robotic components.  At Super Booth 2017, […]

Two months ago, I was tasked with presenting a talk on the Web MIDI API to an amazing crowd of music-loving web developers. Obviously, I wanted the presentation to be exciting, […]

Introduction The Arduino UNO is a popular open-source microcontroller that, in many respects, is a perfect complement to the extensible nature of the Music Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol. Microcontroller […]

The loudest MIDI instrument ever ?   Dana Dolfi has created what is probably the loudest MIDI controlled instrument ever made out of recycled ship, truck and train air horns and steam […]

​ Instructables is a site which hosts DIY projects and is a platform for people to share what they make through words, photos, video and files. We have gone through the many MIDI DIY projects  and […]

Dave Battino wrote an article which was a  roundup of ultra-compact keyboard and pad MIDI controllers in the December 2013 issue of keyboard.  He shared the video he created to show these […]

For the past few days we have been at the SXSW Music Expo.  It turns out that Austin now only has a vibrant synth scene, but there are a lot […]

Hand-Held Controllers Electronic MIDI controllers that you hold in your hands and shake or move about to make music date back to 1986. That was the year Palmtree Instruments introduced […]

Companies and products listed here do not imply any recommendation or endorsement by the MIDI Manufacturers Association. MIDI Processing, Programming, and Do It Yourself (DIY) Components These are just examples of […]

Hand-Held Controllers Electronic controllers that you hold in your hands and shake or move about to make music date back to 1986. That was the year Palmtree Instruments introduced Airdrums, […]

Alternative Controllers A keyboard isn’t the only means of playing a synthesizer. Synthesist/multi-instrumentalist/composer Kevin Fortune (http://www.kevinbrahenyfortune.com) is one of many who enjoy using alternative controllers. He believes the kind of […]

Touch Controllers (continued) Another beautiful and powerful touch controller, this one featuring 150 rectangular walnut keys arranged in a five-row by 30-column matrix laid within a 29″ by 8″ by […]