NAMM 2018: ELK Music Operating System

MIND Music Labs has announced the ELK Music Operating System which they describe as "the Android of Musical Instruments." They say that it allows musicians to add unlimited sounds and features to their musical instruments and seamlessly share their performances online. It also allows manufacturers and developers to move away from system-specific chips and software.

Michele Benincaso, CEO of MIND Music Labs, told us, "ELK is the evolution musical instruments have been waiting for a long time, and is ready to disrupt the musical instruments world in the same way Android disrupted the mobile world ten years ago."

Here's the MIND Music Labs press release:

January 24 – Anaheim, California

MIND Music Labs is presenting its ultra-low latency Music Operating System at NAMM 2018. ELK - this is the name of the technology - is an operating system for musical instruments, designed for optimal audio performance and seamless connectivity.

Musical Instruments Powered by ELK allow musicians to:

• Add new sounds and features to their instruments via online upgrades
• Easily connect their instruments to mobiles, computers and to the broader Internet
• Instantly share their performances online

ELK allows manufacturers to move away from dedicated chips and use standard off-the-shelf CPUs, with significant improvements in terms of user experience, performance and scalability - combined with unprecedented time-to-market advantages and potential new post-sales revenues from software, content and services for their devices.

ELK also allows software developers to easily release software, sounds and effects originally developed for computer environments on Powered by ELK musical instruments.

Key technical features:

• Ultra-low latency (1ms round-trip)
• Linux-based, using single Intel & ARM CPUs
• Support for JUCE and VsT 2.x and 3.x plugins
• Natively connected (USB, WiFi, BT, 4G)
• Full MIDI support

ELK's capabilities will be demoed LIVE at NAMM in collaboration with industry leaders DVMark, MarkBass and Overloud (TH-U), the first brands that will support ELK in their new products.

More information:

• ELK

• Latest VST Version Supports ELK Integration 24-Oct-18