Buy WIDI Master Now
This Sunday April 5 we will open up our second preorder phase for WIDI Master. This is really exciting. Now you can benefit from your early bird discount and buy WIDI Master for only $39 USD (excl. shipping and import tax if applied by your local government). We did a one week presale at the beginning of March 2020 already. We invited our most dedicated members of the bluetooth MIDI community to buy their WIDI Master in advance. It was a presale based on trust and devotion from our community. During this presale we sold over 2,5000 units.
That was way beyond our expectation.
Now we are at the beginning of April 2020. We did several live broadcasts live on Facebook. That delivered two hours of video material where we discussed Bluetooth MIDI and enjoyed live music from our community artists. It is time to open up for our final presale. If you have registered you will receive a $20 discount coupon in your mailbox. We will introduce the presale during the 3rd live broadcast with Shook and Studiologic.
We've taken the time to cut some short video parts out of the broadcast. Also we've created a video based on our previous products Xkey Air and WIDI BUD to show you that our technology is already trusted for years by professional musicians both in the studio as well as on stage.
What is so special about WIDI Master?
WIDI Master is a virtual MIDI cable. It allows you to connect two MIDI devices. Without wires. Without computers.
It allows you to connect two pieces of hardware synths. Or your iPad with your stage piano. Or your Bluetooth MIDI controller with your hardware. You can move freely on stage with your Keytar and connect it to hardware at the other side of the stage. It also perfectly fits the AKAI EWI range.
WIDI Master implements Bluetooth 5 that reduces latency and increases the reach massively. We’ve shared some tests in our previous broadcast and on our facebook channel. Also we have made over 10 blog posts available to you that explain everything from concept to prototype. Furthermore you can join our dedicated Facebook Group to contribute to the future of Bluetooth MIDI.
Now we've taken the time to cut some parts out of our broadcasts and show you more about three main topics: latency, range and the central role of WIDI Master. This last one is the main difference compared to similar products such as the Yamaha MD-BT01 and Quicco M1.
The process behind WIDI Master
We always want to be as transparent as possible as a company. It is important to us to be aware of what you think and need. That is why we create advanced solutions. And that is why we hope you trust our technology and buy WIDI Master. It is that simple. Therewith we've been open to our community and implemented your feedback during the development process of WIDI Master. During our first live broadcast with Jerome Dumas (CTO) and Zhao Yitian (CEO), we tried to explain to you the technical side and also the crowd creation focus during the WIDI Master project.
That is why we would like to take the time to deliver you a written extract of the talk we had live on Facebook with Zhao Yitian.
Can you tell us more about the history of CME and its close relation to wireless MIDI and especially Bluetooth MIDI?
CME has a long history to develop wireless MIDI technology back to 2005. The WIDI-X8 was one of the first wireless MIDI interfaces in the world, and it was the best selling model on the market.
Along with the Bluetooth MIDI standard released, as the member of MIDI Manufacturers Association, we were one of the earliest supporters for this new standard. As Jerome mentioned, we implemented it in our Xkey Air and WIDI BUD five years before.
The WIDI Master was requested by many Xkey users from everywhere in the world, because they would like to use Xkey Air to play hardware synthesizers wirelessly.
It is also mentioned that WIDI Master is the first member of the WIDI family. Can you tell us more about future developments and the role of the WIDI community during this process?
CME owns the full know-how and technology to develop more WIDI products. But we have to make sure that all features are really needed by you? Therefore we need the support from the user community. That is why we've listed some ideas we got from our users about what WIDI can do for musicians.
- WIDI UHOST - It is a USB Host and Slave to Bluetooth MIDI adapter, you can add wireless connectivity on any MIDI hardware which has a USB connector.
- WIDI HUB4 - This idea is similar to USB MIDI interface, you can connect multiple Bluetooth MIDI devices simultaneously with best performance.
- WIDI PED3 - It is a Bluetooth pedal adapter, you can connect any pedal and add Bluetooth MIDI feature.
We really wanted to build a crowd creating process with you for future development. During this process we will collect ideas and do online surveys. When there are more than 1,000 potential users like it, we will move to the development phase.
Then we will make the prototype and show it to our community. If there are more than 1,000 potential buyers, we will move to the production phase. Finally we will collect all pre-orders and make the product for you. Just like what we are doing with WIDI Master now.
By doing so, we can offer you the best price and make the development process more effective. Also you can get the product that you really want.
Can you tell us more about the role of CME during this brief history of the development of Bluetooth MIDI?
CME was an active member of MIDI Manufacturers Association for a long time. We worked with Japanese AMEI (the Association of Musical Electronics Industry) to do MIDI tests in China for 16 years now (MIDI test is an examination for all musicians and technicians). We started to promote MIDI in China in 1993. We are the founding member of the MIDI committee in China Musical Instrument Association. As volunteer we worked with other members to contribute to all MIDI spec and standards including Bluetooth MIDI and MIDI 2.0.
The current state of WIDI Master
Thanks to all of you who drive us to current stage of WIDI Master, without your support we won’t achieve the goal of WIDI Master project.
We hope to work with our WIDI community closely (that means all of YOU). We want to link your requirements with industrial associations and partners for creating more advanced solutions.
We believe wireless technology such as Bluetooth and 5G is the trending for music industry. In our recent Reclouder project, we also developed Bluetooth Mesh network for MIDI. And we are opening these technologies to other brands too.
Please show us your enthusiasm and support us, we can make the music world better together.
Thank you very much for you ongoing support!
Team CME and Zhao Yitian