Clavia DMI was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1983 by Hans Nordelius and Mikael Carlsson. In a basement in a southern suburb of Stockholm they created the world's first dedicated digital drum for the commercial market, the 'Digital Percussion Plate 1'.

Between 1983 and 1994, Clavia developed several groundbreaking digital percussion systems, and in 1995 they entered the synthesizer market with the world's first, and according to many still the best, 'virtual analog' synthesizer, the Nord Lead.