MIDI

It may look like a strange version of Reversi, but the Striso MIDI controller from Piers Titus van der Torren out of the Netherlands is designed to offer players the same kind of musical expression that you might find with acoustic instruments.

Joué Music Instruments has launched the next generation of its modular music-making interface on Kickstarter. Where the original was designed with pro musicians in mind, the Joué Play has been developed so anyone can make music.

Instrument maker Frank Piesik has built a three-string robotic music machine called Greg's Harp where three different actuators excite the strings in different ways to produce sound controlled by a MIDI keyboard.

Created as a visual element for stage performances, the latest project from Love Hultén is an audiovisual sculpture called Slagwerk-101 – a set of percussion instruments driven by MIDI-controlled solenoids.

After a brief online teaser campaign, Poland's Polyend – the same firm responsible for the mesmerizing Perc percussion system from 2016 – has revealed a new music production machine called the Tracker.

There's a new expressive keyboard synth in town, the result of a collaboration between France's Expressive E and Haken Audio out of Illinois. The stylish Osmose offers expression over three dimensions for every note on the raised keyboard.

A collaboration between the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has resulted in a mid-air gestural tone and beat controller called the GripBeats.

Back in 2016, Tim Jacobs of mixtela managed to cram a MIDI synthesizer into a MIDI plug. He's now revisited that project, teamed up with H-Pi Instruments and created the much more capable Flash "mini-poly-MIDI-micro-synth."

Skoog Music is all about making music easy and fun. Five years ago the company launched a touchy-feely cube on Indiegogo that could be picked up and played in minutes. Now a new big-buttoned melody maker has been announced called the Skwitch.

​Cardboard is generally used as packaging, to house new instruments during transit for example. But we've seen a number of gear innovations actually built using cardboard over the years, and the latest to join the cardboard band is the Beatbox, a MIDI drum machine built into cardboard housing.​

​Five years ago, Fishman's TriplePlay controller gave us the opportunity to wirelessly tap into an almost infinite world of digital sounds on our laptop. Now the firm has unveiled a new version called the Connect that offers a similar experience for iPad users, though it's not wireless this time.​

Roli is in the business of making weird, creatively-designed and hyper-expressive MINI instrument controllers. Its Beatmaker Kit features the Lightblock, a beautiful, wireless digital controller that's so flexible to play that, with the right instrument, it almost feels organic and analog.