MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

Joe Abbati is a creative technologist/educator/electronic musician based in Miami. He has been a faculty member in the Music Engineering Technology Program at the highly acclaimed Frost School of Music for more than 20 years. As Director of the Contemporary Media Performance Studio he aspires to create new frontiers in the real-time performance of electronic music. Joe’s philosophy is that in the laptop, the convergence of tools for audio synthesis/signal processing along with creative multi-touch and gestural interfaces allows for a new definition of the term “instrument” – that

Keith Alexander played the important role of Director of Operations for the Los Angeles-based swing band, the Big Band Alumni. The band, whose leader is Bill A. Jones, was established in the late 1990s when former members of the Big Band Era came together to keep their skills sharp and swing dancers moving! Over the years it has comprised musicians who once played in bands led by Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller, and Woody Herman (to name just four). Their combined experiences and love of the music make for a traditional and authentic sound. Behind all was Keith, who madesur

Marco Alpert has had a fascinating career in the music industry and lucky for the NAMM Oral History collection he shared many of his stories with us. Marco was an electronic music composer in Los Angeles when he happened to meet the two founders of E-mu. Marco was hired to promote the innovative synthesizers that Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge were creating for E-mu. Marco was later involved with other amazing products and companies working on several of the most influential musical products during the last 30 years.  

Mark Altekruse, like so many passionate members of the music industry, specifically remembers the lessons he learned from one of his earliest and most influential music instructors. Trombonist Bugs Beddow was a local musician in Detroit who served as a musical mentor to young Mark, who went on to form his own band (Rhythm Kitchen) which ultimately led to a long career with Roland, BOSS and Apple. Along the way, he had some incredible musical experiences including playing in the Hex Orchestra on their recording of Human Experiments. Within the music products industry, Mark worked o

Dave Amels is a huge fan of the Hammond B-3 organ, which he’s played on records and with garage rock bands including Husky Team and The Reigning Sound. In the late ’80s he co-founded Voce Music Instruments and made MIDI modules that faithfully recreated B-3 sounds and Leslie speaker effects. He went on to use his mathematical models of complex physical systems to make Pro Tools plug-in versions of vintage analog processors like the Universal Audio LA-2A, Moogerfooger stompboxes, and SansAmp PSA-1 guitar preamp for Bomb Factory Digital (which he also co-founded).

Rick Anderson was in a MBA program that required he write a research paper about a local business. This was his introduction to the Rodgers Instrument Corporation located in Hillsboro, Oregon, for which Rick was associated with (one way or another) over a period of 37 years. Rick, who became the historian for the company and its many innovative products, began working there in 1973.

Craig Anderton was among a very small group of engineers at the dawn of the synthesizer revolution during the 1970s that was in the position to report, educate and compose music based on this new technology as it was being created. His monthly articles for Keyboard magazine have become a historic chronicle of the evolution of the new electronic music age. Craig’s compositions continue to establish new forms of musical expression and have long since been the source of inspiration for up and coming composers around the world.  

Richard Bates devoured each and every record album with Moog synthesizers in the 1960s and early 70s. He was fascinated by the famous Hooked On Bach album by Wendy Carlos and took a great interest in learning just how those magical sounds were being made. He furthered his education in electronics while serving in the US Air Force and became a service technician for Thomas Organs, while also performing on theater organs in the Denver area. It is there where Richard met Don Lewis who had dreams of creating an instrument for which he could control dozens of synthesizers at the same t

Bryan Bell was given the task of engineering a working synthesizer using all of Herbie Hancock’s favorite keyboards back in the early 1970s, well before MIDI. Herbie’s single instruction to Bryan was that he wanted all of the sounds of his 20 plus instruments powered and fully controlled by one unit, allowing Herbie to make all of the musical changes on his entire bank of synthesizers. Bryan succeeded and went on to play a vital role as one of the music industry’s most innovative sound engineers.

Athan Billias had a rather impressive vantage point to witness the growth and development of the synthesizer in the late 1970s and early 80s. After performing as a professional musician in New England for several years, Athan found himself working on the landmark M1 keyboard as an engineer for KORG USA. He was later asked to work in Japan, where he lived for six years before returning to the United States. He would later serve as Director of Marketing for Yamaha Corporation of America in the Pro-Audio Division and as the President of the MIDI Association.  

John Bowen was an engineer at Sequential Circuits during the early days of the synthesizer boom of the late 1970s. John worked with founder Dave Smith, who later went on to develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specifications. John helped write the MIDI code and went on to design electronic music products and to program music-related software. With longtime friend Brian Vincik on hand.

James Brady was front and center during the MIDI boom, working within the keyboard department at Rushworth’s Music House in Liverpool. The year was 1986 and the synthesizer was at its peak in popularity. As a musician, who was already using electric keyboards and analog synths to create his own music, James was the perfect person to help the famous music store’s clients. It was a very exciting time, but challenging. James recalls working hard to stay on top of the every advancing technology so he could be as helpful as possible to his customers. He also recalls the day the first s

Evan Brooks became interested in electronic musical instruments during the early days of synthesizer development. He worked on MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controllers for E-MU and other San Francisco Bay Area companies. Soon thereafter, Evan started designing his own technologies and products. Teaming with his friend Peter Gotcher, whom he met in jazz class during high school, the two established Digidrums later renamed Digidesign. Among their products was the revolutionary program Pro Tools, which, among other things, allowed musician to record high quality record

Pete Brown is a Principal Software Engineer in Windows at Microsoft and oversees the company’s MIDI 2.0 implementation. He grew up in Massachusetts and was introduced to synthesizers while in high school. The school had a few keyboards and the music teacher allowed Pete to take the gear home over the summer, which he connected together over MIDI. That locked in his passion and soon he was working at Gordon’s Music where he was exposed to even more electronic instruments, and picked up a Passport MIDI interface for his Commodore 128, starting a life-long love of MIDI and music tech

Don Buchla grew up with a passion for music and a passion for engineering. When he combined the two loves, he created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before. His early synthesizer work parallels the similar work Robert Moog was doing on the East Coast while Don was working in Berkeley, California. In 1965, the composers of the San Francisco Tape Music Center commissioned Don to build an electronic musical instrument for live performances and recording. As a result, Don introduced developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules and, soon aft

Christoph Bull is the organ professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His deep passion for music stems from his grandmother’s piano and his early days playing organ in his church. As he grew up he witnessed the incredible development of electronic musical instruments and synthesizers, his first being the Korg MS 2000. After coming to the United States from Germany and attending Berklee College of Music,

Avery Burdette, the product manager for Yamaha Corporation of America, began his long love of music pushing down the pedals of his mother's organ as a small child while his mother played. Avery played trombone in school bands before forming a Southern-Rock style group in high school. He also worked in music retail before joining Yamaha in 1987. During his years with Yamaha he took part in the launching of several innovative products and witnessed first hand the company’s growth and development into newer product fields. Avery was able to provide our collection with first hand insi

Phil Burk has had a passion for electronics since he was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He built radio circuits before he was a teen and combined that interest with his love of music. He later developed his skills at Mills College Center for Contemporary Music and worked in the video game industry in the early days of DSP (digital signal processors). In 2013 Phil joined the Android Audio Framework team at Google, a job fitting for his skills and background.

Ryan Clement was among the first employees at Grandma’s Music in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Established by Micky Patten in 1986, the store gained a strong reputation for selling pro audio and digital gear in great volume. Ryan became an expert on programming synthesizers, possessing a knowledge and understanding of MIDI in the very early days, which was greatly appreciated by the store’s customers. When Micky closed the store to retire in 2017, Ryan purchased the name and moved the business online, which continues to this day.

Christy Coobatis is a college music professor whose amazing musical journey includes playing professionally before he was a teenager, beta testing guitars for Leo Fender, and helping to create a guitar synthesizer for Allan Holdsworth! Christy’s latest and longest tenure as a teacher has been at MiraCosta College in Oceanside California, where he started in 2000. He grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, taking lessons at one music store in town and teaching at another. In elementary school, he played at the local fair and at 12 he was wearing a tuxedo and playing in a wedding band!

Ed Cornett was hired by Yamaha to head the team in charge of creating the DX7.  His story of the long hours, creative and innovative team members and the support of the company uncover the key elements that came together to create one of the most successful musical instruments of its time.  Ed grew to know the strengths of the engineers and the limits of the technology of the time, which helped determine what the DX7 would do and what it could not.  Among the most impressive additions to the instrument was it was the first manufactured keyboard with MIDI technology.

Peggy Dahl-Bartunek grew up with four siblings who all took piano lessons – they even had two pianos in their house! Since the fifth grade, Peggy knew that she wanted to be a teacher and more specifically, a music teacher. She ultimately became a high school and middle school music teacher, specializing in choir and general music. After a break from teaching to raise her own children, Peggy and her husband purchased Anderson’s Music in the early 1980s. The store became an authorized dealer for Rodger’s Organs and Peggy found her calling. While still teaching part-time, Peggy start

Arthur Dark grew up in a musical household thanks to his parents. Arthur dabbled with the violin when he was 4 years old, but was quickly drawn to the piano around age 5 or 6. After a time with formal lessons, he branched out on his own where he could explore his artistic freedom by composing his own music. A turning point in his journey was seeing the movie Beetlejuice, and realizing that the soundtrack was an original composition, in this case by Danny Elfman. Besides his classical background, which fostered his love of orchestral film music, Arthur cites his exposure to the pun

Paul de Benedictis recalls the day he was working along side software designer Dave Oppenheim when a series of commands were created to allow a drum machine to sync to Dave's MIDIMAC Sequencer through MIDI. In the early MIDI days of the synthesizer and computers this was an exciting moment and one of many that Paul experienced while working in the field of electronic musical instruments and sequencing in the early 1980s.

Guy Desjardins was composing and arranging music as technology in musical instruments was changing. His adaptation of these developments resulted in his nickname of Mr. MIDI. He was hired as a clinician for Akai-Digital and helped with product development for Steinberg as well. Along the way, he became a product specialist and assisted with the growth and development of Cubase and other music related software. Guy is currently teaching at Trebas Institute in Montreal and is the host of Club Cubase Montreal.

Herbert Deutsch was down in Robert Moog’s basement when the two men were redrafting the design of an electronic synthesizer in the early 1960s. Herb suggested that the modular unit with patch cords was hard to play as a musical instrument and wondered if it could be controlled by an organ-type keyboard. The idea was incorporated into the Mini-Moog, and the rest is history. Herb went on to teach and compose electronic music and has often written about the success and development of the synthesizer.  

Craig Doerge played keyboards in the famous group of Los Angeles based studio musicians known as The Section. The Section, which also included Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel and Danny Kortchmar, recorded a string of hit records with artists such as James Taylor, David Crosby, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, as well as for television shows and movie soundtracks. An additional little known fact is that Craig took a day job in LA for a while between studio work selling Baldwin Pianos - which he really enjoyed!

Pat Downes combined his engineering background with his passion for music to create the electronic air drums.  Forming the company Palm Tree Instruments, Pat became an inventor in the world of electronic mechanical devices that produce sounds.  The air drums are among his most noted products, which relied on computerized sensors that detect the motion of hands and arms to create music.  In the early innovative years of synthesizers and MIDI, Pat helped shape the thinking that little was impossible when it came to electronic music making.    

Barb Fairhurst was hired by Dave Smith to manage the business elements of his newly-formed company he called Sequential Circuits, back in 1977. The following year, the company released its first product, the Prophet-5 synthesizer, which helped revolutionize the electronic keyboard and synthesizer market. Barb worked her way to Vice President of the company in an era when few women in the music industry had such positions. She enjoyed her work and took pride in the products and programs the company provided its customers.

Gregory Farmer is an enthusiastic, talented, self-taught synthesist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and producer. He has collected and plays a wide range of electronic and acoustic instruments, and they’re all set up and ready to play in his excellent home studio. Greg’s wife Claudia is so supportive of his musical journey that she didn’t fuss when he took a book about synthesizers on their Hawaiian honeymoon. You can hear Greg’s music on YouTube and SoundCloud.

Larry Fast is best known as the innovative keyboardist and synthesizer composer who helped bring electronic musical instruments into pop music, beginning in the 1970s. His Synergy series of synthesizer music albums beginning in 1975 brought great popularity to the instruments, which were being invented and improved by the likes of Moog, ARP and Oberheim. In later years Larry played a key role in many of Peter Gabriel’s recordings as well as those with Foreigner. 

Bobby Fernandez grew up surrounded by music and developed an interest in film music at a young age. He always felt drawn to the film industry and more specifically the recording side of the business. In order to make his dreams a reality, Bobby applied for a mailroom job at Warner Brothers with the intentions of being around the industry and working his way up to the sound department. This eventually became reality, and Bobby worked as a scoring mixer and recording engineer at Warner Brothers until 1994. He has worked on hundreds of films including every Clint Eastwood movie since