About Us
About The MIDI Maker
The MIDI Maker is a family-owned business dedicated to designing and manufacturing high-quality MIDI controllers in the United States. As a primarily women-owned and minority-owned company, we are proud to build tools that enable musicians and creators to expand their workflows with precision and ease.
Our Story
Founded in August 2021, The MIDI Maker grew out of nearly two years running an Etsy store focused on 3D print services and hand-soldered electronics. As our customer base grew, we began receiving requests to convert some of our HID devices into MIDI controllers.
Listening to those requests led to a pivot in our focus. Today, we specialize in the Sparrow series of MIDI fader controllers, built around 100mm long-throw faders to provide the maximum granularity and control that our customers need for their music.
The Team
We are led by three founders with diverse professional backgrounds:
- Jeff — IT Operations and Program Management
- Helen — Data Engineering and IT Operations
- Stella — Marketing and Product Management
While we may not be the most musically inclined ourselves, we have a profound love for music and are driven by enabling others to create their own.
Made in the USA
Every aspect of our manufacturing process takes place in the United States, operating out of Texas and Illinois. From the initial design and 3D printing to hand-assembly, hand-soldering, and programming, we oversee every step of production.
To date, we have shipped over 5,000 hand-built controllers across more than 30 models, demonstrating our commitment to quality, scale, and responsiveness to the specific needs of our community.
Our Philosophy
Our design philosophy centers on core functionality, ease of use, and expanding existing workflows. We chose 100mm fader travel across our Sparrow series to ensure users have the fine-tuned granularity required for professional audio production.
Every controller we produce is class-compliant USB-MIDI. This means there are no drivers to install and no background software required to use our devices.
We also stand firmly against planned obsolescence. The original 5,000+ V1 controllers we shipped are still completely supported. Configuration is handled through The Aviary, our free configurator available as a web application and desktop application for macOS and Windows. Cloud profiles seamlessly sync across all your studio machines, and all firmware updates are free, forever.
Fair Pricing, Year-Round
We do not run sales. Our prices are set at a level that keeps the business sustainable while remaining fair to every customer, regardless of when they choose to buy.
The price you see today is the same price everyone pays. We believe you should never have to wonder whether you overpaid or feel pressured to wait for a discount. Our focus is on building the best controllers we can at an honest price point, not on creating artificial urgency.