M-Audio was founded in the late 1990s by Tim Ryan, an engineer and graduate of the California Institute of Technology who had co-designed the Con Brio Advanced Digital Synthesizer and helped develop MIDI software for Commodore and Apple computers, including two of the best-selling MIDI software titles at that time, Studio One and Studio Two. After founding the company as Music Soft and changing the name to Midiman due to Yamaha Corporation already owning the rights to the Music Soft name, Ryan began the company with hardware solutions designed to solve the challenges of connecting MIDI, audio, and computer equipment together for the purposes of music production.[1]
Midiman first established itself as a manufacturer of small, affordable MIDI problem solvers, sync devices, and interfaces. The first Midiman product was named the "Midiman," a MIDI-to-tape recorder synchronizer, but the first products that experienced mainstream success were the Syncman and Syncman Pro VITC-to-LTC/MTC converters. The next products of note were the Midisport and Bi-Port range of MIDI interfaces which were far more commercially successful than any other Midiman product to date, and which established a core product category for the company for many years to come.
Following the commercial success of the MIDI interface line, Midiman introduced the Flying Cow and Flying Calf A/D / D/A converters,[2] and entered the audio interface product category for the first time with the 4-input, 20-bit DMAN 2044.[3]
In the year 2000 and in conjunction with the announcement of the Delta Series PCI audio interfaces, Midiman introduced "M-Audio" as the new brand for their audio products.[4] In the years following, Midiman grew business further by entering into distribution deals with Propellerhead Software, Ableton, ArKaos,[5] and Groove Tubes microphones,[6] The success of the Midiman and M-Audio products, combined with the distribution revenues, resulted in 128% growth for the company in 2001 and 68% growth in 2002, making Midiman the fastest-growing music company in the US for both of those years.[1]
Having now established themselves in the MIDI interface and audio interface product categories, Midiman entered the MIDI keyboard controller market in 2002 with the introduction of the portable 25-key Oxygen8. While not the first 25-key MIDI controller nor the first cost-effective keyboard controller with plenty of hardware MIDI controls, the Oxygen8 helped establish the new category of portable keyboard controller, and a significant product category for M-Audio in the years to come. Similarly, the same year marked M-Audio's entry to the studio monitor speaker market with the Studiophile SP5B.[7] Later that same year, Midiman officially re-branded themselves entirely as M-Audio, the brand they'd been using for their audio division since 1999.[8]
In 2003, Midiman acquired Evolution Electronics LTD, manufacturer of MIDI controllers, as a wholly owned subsidiary, and continued to sell Evolution-branded MIDI controllers and keyboards.[9] The following year, Avid Technology acquired Midiman, Inc. (which was, at that time, doing business as M-Audio). Avid paid approximately $174 million, or nearly eight times the book value of the company.[10] The payment was in the form of $80 million in cash, approximately 2 million shares of Avid common stock issued, and all M-Audio stock options assumed. Tim Ryan continued on with the company as general manager.[11]
After Avid purchased M-Audio, Digidesign and M-Audio cooperated to release a limited version of Digidesign's flagship product, Pro Tools, that was compatible with M-Audio's affordable audio interface hardware. This version of Pro Tools was named Pro Tools M-Powered. M-Audio's products continued to be aimed at computer-based home recording enthusiasts, with more and more emphasis on portability and hardware controllers for music software, like Trigger Finger,[12] an early USB MIDI pad controller which utilized a 4x4 grid of 16 pads to trigger sounds via MIDI, the iControl controller for GarageBand,[13] and the ProjectMix I/O[14] integrated control surface/audio interface. The company's keyboard controller range expanded to 3 different sizes of Oxygen-series keyboard, the more affordable and more modestly featured Keystation series, and later the premium Axiom series USB MIDI keyboard controllers.
Audio interfaces remained a dominant category for M-Audio as well, with ongoing versions of the Delta series PCI interfaces, the FastTrack series USB audio interfaces, and the ProFire series firewire audio interfaces, among others. Similarly, studio reference monitors remained a strong category, and included the Studiophile BX series, Studiophile CX series, and premium Studiophile DSM series monitors, along with the consumer electronics-targeted AV series desktop speakers.
M-Audio also branched out into new product categories. In 2005, M-Audio released Black Box, a guitar processor and audio interface with guitar amp modeling, beat-synced effects, and drum tracks for computer based recording that they had co-developed with Roger Linn Design.[15] A digital stage piano, the ProKeys 88, introduced M-Audio to an instrument category. A partnership with Ultimate Ears brought about M-Audio IE-series earphones, and M-Audio joined the handheld digital audio recorder market with the MicroTrack series. With the introduction of Torq and its related hardware, M-Audio established itself in the growing digital DJ category.
In mid-2012, Avid sold M-Audio to inMusic as part of an attempt to streamline operations and reduce operating costs.[16] Along with its consumer music hardware products, inMusic also acquired the AIR software group's IP and engineering team, responsible for many of the virtual instruments and plug-ins for the Pro Tools audio production software platform. Avid retained the Mbox range of audio interfaces and some other formerly M-Audio-brand products.
Some M-Audio products in the PCI Audio Interface category contain chipsets which support free software, notably the ICE 1712 chipset. Version 2.6 of the Linux kernel supports M-Audio cards through ALSA without custom configuration or installation of proprietary applications or firmware.
