MIDI 40th Anniversary Celebration Coming To 2023 NAMM Show

At the 2023 NAMM Show – being held April 13-15 in Anaheim, CA – The MIDI Association will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) with MIDI@40.

MIDI made its public debut at the 1983 NAMM Show, where Dave Smith demonstrated it by connecting a Sequential Circuits 600 and a Roland Jupiter 6.

MIDI debuted at the 1983 Winter NAMM Show, held Jan 21-23, where synth pioneer Dave Smith demonstrated it by connecting a Sequential Circuits 600 and a Roland Jupiter 6. The MIDI Specification was published in Aug 1983.

As part of the MIDI@40 celebration, the MIDI Zone in the front of Hall A of the Anaheim Convention Center will features a wide range of products and innovations using MIDI. In total, 30 companies will be displaying the latest in MIDI technology. The MIDI Association will also be demonstrating MIDI 2.0, the most important upgrade to MIDI since its debut at The NAMM Show in 1983.

“MIDI@40 not only showcases all of the amazing MIDI products that have impacted music over the past 40 years but also looks forward to the future with MIDI 2.0 products that will continue to shape the way music is made for decades to come,” notes Athan Billias, President of the MIDI Association.

On Friday, April 14, from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., A3E: Advanced Audio Applications Exchange will present MIDI 2.0: What Developers Need to Know About Free Tools for Developing MIDI 2.0 Products and Apps. The panel discussion will feature members of the MIDI 2.0 working group, including Pete Brown, Florian Bomers, Mike Kent, and Torrey Walker, as they discuss recent changes to the core MIDI 2.0 specifications and the MIDI 2.0 API on Apple, Google, Linux, and Microsoft operating systems. They’ll also explain the tools that The MIDI Association is providing to all developers to help make MIDI 2.0 devices easier.

Immediately following the session, attendees can delve into MIDI 2.0: What Musicians Need to Know About MIDI 2.0. The panel session, featuring Athan Billias, Craig Anderton, Brett Porter of Art and Logic, Michael Cain of Ekwe and artist Moldover, will introduce the new MIDI 2.0 products at The NAMM Show and provide an overview of what new MIDI specifications will mean to musicians, including MPE.

The MIDI 40th Anniversary Celebration, being held 3:15-5pm on Sat, April 15th, will feature performance by Resonant Alien, Mike Garson, Ellis Hall, Mark Isham, Myron McKinley, Jordan Rudess and others.

At Saturday’s anniversary celebration, lifetime achievement awards will also be presented to (or posthumously honor) music industry innovators who created the modern music production environment of synths, drum machines, and sequencers, including Bob Moog, Don Buchla, Ikutaro Kakehashi, Tsutomu Katoh, Roger Linn, Tom Oberheim, Alan Pearlman, Dave Rossum, and Dave Smith.

See the MIDI site for more information.

6 thoughts on “MIDI 40th Anniversary Celebration Coming To 2023 NAMM Show

  1. I can hardly wait for the MMA announcement of MIDI 3.0; a group of middle-aged men in an overheated room breathlessly talking about how 3.0 will “set MIDI free” and allow machines to communicate in ways they never have before.

    Well, unless that communication involves cv/gate.

  2. Actually we are looking forward to the first company to develop a CV/Gate to MIDI 2.0 convertor. Moving from 128 steps to over 4 billion steps in MIDI 2.0 will provide a much greater level of compatibility between CV and MIDI.

    Don’t you think it’s somewhat ironic that CV never established a unified standard? How many volts per octave are there?

    Finally , we are not just middle aged men. Some of us are older than that .

  3. I was there at that NAMM, Michael Bodiker was the celeb artist for them at the Roland booth playing the Jupiter 6 midied up. Everyone at the show was playing Joe Jackson’s Stepping Out with sequencers and synths lol. I can’t believe this much time has gone by! All my old classic Analog Synths are now long gone .. replaced by soft synths which to me sound better than what we were dealing with back then .. yes even my Jupiter 8 .. which I now see on eBay with 30k asking prices lol! The 80’s were truly a magical time for us keyboard players as technology radically changed. I can only imagine where music technology will be another 50 years from now after I’m dead and gone. Kids got it made today compared to what we had back when midi made its debut!

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