![]() ![]() It’s funny because at the time I thought the idea was so obvious that Moog and Arp (the Big Two at the time) must be doing the same thing, so I waited a few months, not wanting to compete directly. I also found out about a new synthesizer chip set I thought the combination would be perfect for what I wanted to do, which was build a completely programmable polyphonic synthesizer. I had been using microprocessors for years in my day jobs, so I knew what they could do. It enabled me to finally quit my day job in 1977 and jump into musical instrument design full time, though I was largely living off credits cards. The second product was the Model 800 Digital Sequencer in 1975, followed by the Model 700 Programmer, which allowed sound programming of the Mini Moog and the Arp 2600. This was in 1974 and was was called the Model 600. I wanted one to use with the mini-moog, but the Moog stuff cost too much, so I learned how to build one. I started making my own accessories for it, and eventually designed an analog sequencer. I had bought a Mini Moog in 1972 that got me hooked. This all started as a hobby, a combination of my technical background and my interest in music. How did you get into the musical instrument business? What was the original inspiration for the Sequential Circuits? ![]() His first company Sequential Circuits was founded in 1974 and marketed some of the first commercial synthesizers and sequencers. During that time he also exercised his hobby, which took the form and playing guitar and bass in some jam bands in the late ’60s. It wasn’t called Silicon Valley at the time because things were just starting to happen. After college he first took the more traditional path of working within the aerospace and the semiconductor industry in what is now called Silicon Valley. He received a degree from the University of California at Berkeley in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. What a lot of people don’t know about Dave is that he was also the first, or at least one of the first to create a software synthesizer.ĭave Smith was born in San Francisco. Many consider him to be the father of MIDI because of his efforts to standardize the way that keyboards and other electronic devices are interconnected. There are very few people within the electronic keyboard and music technology markets that would not recognize the name Dave Smith. MIDI, which had been developed and given a substantial push by none other than Dave Smith, was just around the corner, and the final revision of the synth (Rev 3.3) came with MIDI installed, making it a formidable tool even in today’s modern computer-based studios.Interview with Dave Smith, founder of Sequential Circuits (original article published at KVR Audio) Shown to the enthusiastic attendees of the 1978 NAMM show, the Prophet-5 went immediately into backorder. The ‘-5’ was added to denote the number of voices it could play (chosen because it would stand out from the popular evenly-voiced Oberheim polyphonic synths on the market). The results of these endeavours eventually came in the form of a programmable polyphonic synth called - in suitably 70s style - the ‘Prophet’. ![]() Smith had already made inroads into programmability with his Model 700 Programmer, an add-on accessory that allowed partial parameter recall of an attached analogue synthesiser. The first was solved when Smith struck a deal with E-mu’s Dave Rossum, whose polyphonic keyboard design skills were acquired in exchange for future royalties. ![]()
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