The MIDI Association Helps Connect DAWs and Plugin Developers
Plugin developers benefit from industry alliances.
Since the introduction of the MIDI 2.0 specification, the MIDI Association has been working on multiple fronts to help create more possibilities for developers and manufacturers to implement MIDI 2.0 into their products. As more and more MIDI 2.0 capable products have become available, the MIDI Association is teaming with industry leaders to make it even easier for plugin developers to take advantage of implementing MIDI 2.0 in their feature sets.
With MIDI 2.0 support already beginning to appear in Digital Audio Workstations, plugin developers are benefitting from the work being done by the MIDI Association member companies that develop those plugin formats – Apple (Audio Units), Avid (AAX), Bitwig (CLAP) and Steinberg (VST) – to develop open-source software that will enable plugin developers to quickly and easily interface with external MIDI gear.
Before Super Booth in May of 2024, The MIDI Association hosted all the plugin format companies at the Native Instruments office in Berlin, where the companies agreed to work together to develop open-source software available under a permissive MIT license to bridge the gap between external MIDI Devices, Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), and plugins. That cooperative project is ongoing in the MIDI Association's DAW Working Group.
The DAW Working Group is also working on a DAW Control Profile which would supersede proprietary control protocols like Mackie Control and Logic control with a true industry standard for controlling DAWs via external hardware and software.
The MIDI Association will report on the weekly meetings of the DAW Working Group at Music China 2024, ADC 2024, and NAMM Show 2025.
The MIDI Association has also developed a special page for MIDI 2.0 developer resources.
