Skip to content

Rediscovering MIDI

Share this Post:

With the rise in popularity of electronic dance music (EDM), DJs are touring now with elaborate visual productions. The majority of these DJ acts feature visuals that are programmed using a media server but not operated using a lighting console. Instead, many visual jockeys (VJs) are looking to other types of communication protocols for the ultimate in control. One such protocol, not as often used in lighting today like it once was, is MIDI. Combine this interface protocol with a touchscreen GUI, and you’ve got a powerful control interface with virtually unlimited configurations. Two of the more recent MIDI/Touchscreen interfaces that are making appearances at your local EDM venue nightly are TouchOSC, developed for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and SmithsonMartin’s Emulator KS-1974. While MIDI isn’t new, software developers are continually inventing new and innovative ways to use it for lighting and video.

—For more details, check out Vickie Claiborne’s “Video Digerati” column, PLSN, July, 2013