Three hundred synths, 3 hardware projects, and one app

300 synths, 3 hardware projects, and one app

MIDI Guide, the open, "comprehensive" MIDI CC & NRPN dataset, has far outgrown its original purpose.

April 6, 2026

Recently, I merged in the work of a first-time contributor, putting MIDI Guide's dataset over 300 instruments. The pull request was a complete reference for the (somewhat idiosyncratic, in my opinion) MIDI CC implementation of a synth I'd never heard of, the RozzBox One V2 by L.L. Electronics - yet another cool synth introduced to me by MIDI Guide's community.

Three hundred instruments! And from 52 contributors, too, almost all of them perfect strangers. And there are at least 3 real-life hardware devices using the dataset (it's CC-BY-SA 4.0, so feel free to use it in your project, too).

Just before adding the three hundredth definition, we released the app that was the genesis of MIDI Guide: Condukt, our performance MIDI controller and sequencer for iOS, iPad, and macOS. But how did an app released in 2026 produce a community project in 2019? Here's how a passion project that was backburnered for seven years spawned something useful, and then finally launched.

How it started

In early 2019, my cofounder and I awoke from a half-decade folie à deux in which we regrettably made Windows software. It was time to dust off our iPads and try to compete with the big dogs in the real App Store. And while considering what to build, we rediscovered the joy of purchasing, and even using, synthesizers.

One of our first synth purchases for our 'market research' was the Elektron Analog Four MKII. It's probably still my favourite synth, because it's so much more than a synth: with its sequencer and four tracks, I can make a decent jam without any other device. But what especially fascinated us was its performance mode. When you're done composing, the A4 maps knobs to multiple, customizable parameters. One touch, many changes. Wouldn't it be nice, we thought, if an iPad app could do that, for multiple synths at once?

We envisioned Condukt as a single app that would act like the A4's performance knobs for your entire studio. And we built it! A beta of it, anyway. Creating the app revealed that even using our app was a hurdle. The system requirements were steep: a modern iPad, adapters, cables, and a database of MIDI CCs so the app could talk to the synths.

Because of all the caveats, this thing was simply not a marketable app at the time. So we resolved to set Condukt aside. We spent the summer working on Penbook instead, but I decided to publish the MIDI CC implementations I had already documented. I chose CSV files because they were machine-parsable yet "normie-readable". MIDI Guide's first iteration was born.

How it went

2019-06: First post!

I launched a simple web app with 50 synthesizers from 17 manufacturers. It covered all of my synths.

2020-01: First external pull request

Early contributions were motivating. A few contributors had forked the repo and were building their own clients: MIDI librarians, controllers, sequencers. This dataset had real customers.

2021-05: A real website

Moving the project to midi.guide gave the dataset a brand and made it easier to talk about.

2024-09: Almost 100 instruments added in a single month

A turning point: contributions from the team behind the Bacara generative MIDI plugin resulted in a huge increase in coverage.

2025-05: Neuzeit launches the Drop MIDI controller

This is the first physical device to include MIDI Guide's dataset. Having a hardware project use your stuff feels like getting drafted to the big leagues.

2025-10: Added the 200th instrument

The tempo of the repo increased; we were hearing of more hardware and software projects using the dataset. Responding to requests became a piece of cake: with one bit of work, two projects get better.