The first electronic musical instruments As electricity became more widely available, the early 20th century saw the invention of electronic musical instruments including the Telharmonium, Trautonium, Ondes Martenot, the Theremin and the Hammond organ. What is interesting in looking at these early devices is how much they foreshadow the future...
From mechanical to digital to virtual....and back! The relationship between mechanical musical machines and MIDI gets even more intriguing with orchestrions and "fairground organs". Orchestrions have multiple mechanical instruments in them and are designed to sound like a complete orchestra (hence the name). Orchestrions a...
To really understand the origins of MIDI, you need to go all the way back to before there were digitally controlled synthesizers and computers, In fact you need to go back before there was even electricity to the very first mechanical music machines. The very first mechanical musical instruments were documented in the Book of Ingenious Devices...
The golden age of mechanical music machines really came in the late 19th century and early 20th century with player pianos and orchestrions. A player piano is defined as any actual acoustic piano that is played by a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music. Between 1910 and 1...
If you were forced to pick one single person who is responsible for the creation of the modern music production environment, Bob Moog would be a good choice. He spans the era from the early days of synths to the post MIDI world and is arguably the most influential figure in synth history. In researching...
This 30 minute TV show from 1986 is a window into the state of the art in MIDI music technology back then. Guests: Chris French, Music Software; Bob Moore, Hybrid Arts; David Schwartz, Compusonics; Chris Potter, Mimetics; Curtis Sasaki, Apple; Gary Kildall, Digital Research; Gary Leuenberger, Midi RevolutionProducts/Demos: Casi...
There's a lot of excitement in the air - MIDI 2.0, VR/AR, spatial audio, flying taxis and Facebook's own flight of fancy, Metaspace (it took me three goes to stop this being called Meatspace; perhaps aptly?). Back in 1985 there was a similar air of expectation. MIDI had just been ratified by a quorum of MI ...
It's with great sadness that we announce that Dave Smith has passed away The MIDI Association wouldn't exist without Dave's contributions to MIDI, but having known Dave for over 30 years and worked closely with him at Korg (and also in getting the Sequential name back when I was a Yamaha), he was also not actually a big fan of being called the "Fat...
How MIDI changed music In 2013, MIDI turned 30 and the whole world turned out to celebrate. In 2023, MIDI will turn 40 and MIDI 2.0 will be three years old. It's a fascinating time for MIDI and the people who create music and art with MIDI. Note on, note off: How MIDI changed music - ABC Melbourne - Australian Broadcas...
MIDI 30th Anniversary Exhibit Display highlights historical significance of the communication interface in music making Carlsbad, CA (December 3, 2013) -- Commemorating 30 years of facilitating the creation of music, MIDI technology debuts a display at the Museum of Making Music that will be on exhibit now through 2014 at NAMM headquarters in Carls...
