In the '80s, the lack of standardization for synchronizing electronic
music instruments from different brands motivated Ikutaro Kakehashi, president of Roland, to propose the development of a standard. Together with Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith, they worked on a universal interface called Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), presented in October 1981. Since then, this protocol has enabled many great things, but let’s keep this description short. Back to 2025, where Ok Matthew applies to join the MIDI Association (please, that would be great).