Stability, Reliability, Compatibility: Reviewing 40 years of NIME design

In the NIME community, many new digital musical instruments experience limited use in performance, or never progress beyond initial prototypes. For active, professional musicians, a DMI may not be viable unless basic standards for stability, reliability and compatibility have been met in the design process, ensuring trouble-free use during performance. Though literature has offered different frameworks and guidelines to inform the design of new instruments , there has been little to specifically address design choices that will adequately meet these standards. This paper presents a meta-review of proceedings from the ICMC and NIME conferences to see where and how these issues have been addressed previously. Collectively, the proceedings provide a historical account of the state of the art in DMI design, providing an ideal corpus for analysis. Our review, complemented by user survey data, highlights key factors for the design of new instruments to meet the demands of real-world use by professional musicians. We hope to add this perspective to an ongoing conversation about performing with DMIs, and narrow the gap between innovative new instrument design and prospective performers who would use them