Microsoft’s Pete Brown & Gary Daniels recently shared an in-depth look at updates to MIDI support in Windows 11.
Key among the updates are support for MIDI 2.0. Here’s what they have to say about it:
“We’re excited to announce that Windows 11 now supports both MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 through Windows MIDI Services!
We’ve been working on MIDI over the past several years, completely rewriting decades of MIDI 1.0 code on Windows to both support MIDI 2.0 and make MIDI 1.0 amazing. This new combined stack is called “Windows MIDI Services.”
The Windows MIDI Services core components are built into Windows 11, rolling out through a phased enablement process now to in-support retail releases of Windows 11. This includes all the infrastructure needed to bring more features to existing MIDI 1.0 apps, and also support apps using MIDI 2.0 through our new Windows MIDI Services App SDK.”
Their article covers new Windows MIDI Services core features and more. Developers can also view the code on Github.
But will it run on Linux….;-)
Seriously, great to see MS still investing time on Midi, Midi 2 has been slow to roll out, hopefully this will help as the vast majority of people are still on Windows. Aggregate audio and native AISO next please!
Agreed. PC hardware is already more than powerful enough to handle live audio but yet, until 2022 (v2.15), we were running a 2017 version of ASIO (v2.14). 5 years without updates. Its crazy v2.16 released in 2024, v2.17 released march 4 2026 and the latest v2.18 released march 28, 2026… It basically took almost a decade to go from 2.14 to 2.18.
Im not sure if Microsoft is involved in ASIO in any capacity but they should if they want Windows to appear competent vs MacOS. I think it would also be good optics. Too bad MS is too overtly focused in the AI slop thing which recently made them lose half a trillion dollars in a week.
Native ASIO for Windows is on the to do list, they say.
Unfortunately, it’ll be too little too late.
I’m already weighing up the pros and cons of going full Linux.
The DAW side now is absolutely doable on Linux.
However, as I also enjoy gaming as a hobby, this is where Windows wins.
At the moment at least. I’m keeping a very keen eye on Steam OS so hopefully that will also change soon.
Plus, Windows 11 has got to be the worst, most intrusive, un-optimised, RAM hogging, data farming version of Windows to date (and I’ve been here since Windows 3.0).
Try Linux Garuda, most Windows stuff that I’ve tried there worked right out of the box.
If you want to stick with Win11 try O&O ShutUp10 (if you don’t use that already) to stop some of the data farming. They also offer a “de-bloater” (both as freeware).
You couldn’t pay me enough to use Linux. Good luck to you.
I just went with separate, dedicated computers. I got Ubuntu on a maxed out Latitude 7490 to learn both Linux (bit resume boost) and Bitwig. No 3rd party plugins, just the included stuff for experimentation in the Grid and focus on BW workflow.
Still keeping the Windows desktop for Ableton and a separate desktop for gaming/video editing. The new Mx Macs are good too but I tend to keep computers for 10 years or so, I wont be wrestling macOS each time an updates breaks compatibility or renders something obsolete.
would be great with low latency audio: https://github.com/microsoft/low-latency-audio
It’s an old story, but MS either turns a technology to shit or it plain old drops it. Id just as soon they just licensed the os and left it open to others.