Dave Smith (engineer)

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Dave M. Smith is an American engineer and musician and founder of the synthesizer company Sequential . In addition to sound designer John Bowen , Smith was responsible for the first commercial polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled synthesizer , Prophet-5, and later for one of the first multi-timbral synthesizers. He is also known as the "father of MIDI" because he was involved in the development of MIDI , a standard interface protocol for electronic instruments and recording / pro audio equipment.

history

Smith holds a degree in computer science and electrical engineering from UC Berkeley . He bought a Minimoog in 1972 and later built his own analog sequencer , founded Sequential Circuits in 1974 and advertised his product for sale in Rolling Stone. In 1977 he worked full-time at Sequential and later that year designed the Prophet 5, the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument and also the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer, an innovation that represents a decisive advance in terms of the design and functionality of the synthesizer. Sequential developed into one of the most successful manufacturers of music synthesizers of its time.

In 1981, Smith set out to create a standard protocol for communication between electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers worldwide. After meeting Tom Oberheim and Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi , he presented the Audio Engineering Society (AES) with a paper in 1981 that outlined the idea of ​​a Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI). After some improvements and revisions, the new standard was introduced as "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" (MIDI) at the 1983 Winter NAMM Show when a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was successfully connected to a Roland Jupiter-6 . In 1987 he was made a Fellow of the AES for his further work in the field of music synthesis.

After Sequential, Smith served as president of DSD, Inc, a research and development division for Yamaha , where he worked on concepts for physical modeling synthesis and software synthesizers . In May 1989, he founded the Korg R&D Group in California, which produced the innovative and commercially successful Wavestation synthesizer and other technologies.

Smith was also President of Seer Systems and developed the world's first software-based synthesizer that ran on a personal computer. This MIDI – SoundFont synthesizer on a PCI Express card, commissioned by Intel , was demonstrated by Andy Grove in 1994 at a keynote at the COMDEX computer fair . The second generation of this software synthesizer sold over 10 million copies after being licensed to Creative Labs in 1996 .

The third generation of Smith's software synthesizers, renamed Reality , was released in 1997. Smith was both the lead engineer for reality and responsible for all of the low-level floating point computation. Reality received the Editors' Choice Award in 1998 and received the highest possible rating from Electronic Musician Magazine .

In 2002, Smith founded Dave Smith Instruments , an electronic musical instrument manufacturer.

In 2005 Smith was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Mix Foundation TECnology (Technical Excellence and Creativity) for the MIDI specification, and in 2013 he and Ikutaro Kakehashi received a Technical Grammy for their contributions to the development of MIDI technology.

In 2015, Smith regained the rights to the Sequential name from Yamaha and released the Prophet-6 under that name.

In May 2018, Sequential announced the Prophet-X Keyboard (8 stereo voices / 16 mono voices), which offers both sample playback and digitally controlled oscillators for sound generation.

On August 31, 2018, the 40th anniversary of the Prophet-5, Dave Smith Instruments was renamed Sequential.

Awards

  • 2015: SEAMUS Award
  • January 2013: Technical Grammy (along with Ikutaro Kakehashi) for the creation of MIDI.
  • September 2012: Keyboard Magazine, Hall of Fame
  • September 2005: Induction into the TECnology (Technical Excellence and Creativity) Hall of Fame at the AES show by Mix Foundation.
  • October 1987: Received Audio Engineering Society (AES) Fellowship Award, for having made a valuable contribution to the advancement in or dissemination of knowledge of audio engineering or in the promotion of its application in practice.

Related Links

  • David Abernethy, The Prophet from Silicon Valley: The complete story of Sequential Circuits , A Morris AM Publishing New Zealand, 2015

Interviews

  • "Oral History: Dave Smith explains pieces of his life story and career," NAMM Oral History Library, Jan 2005
  • "Dave Smith In His Own Words," Francis Preve, Keyboard Magazine, Jul 2012
  • Dave Smith: Sequential Circuits, Korg, Yamaha, soft synths, and his new Evolver synths., Gearwire.com, 2006
  • Dave Smith: The father of MIDI Mac Music , Oct 2003
  • Interview With Dave Smith KVR

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julian Colbeck: Keyfax Omnibus Edition . MixBooks, 1996, p. 119.
  2. ^ Paul Nagle: Dave Smith Evolver - Hybrid Analogue / Digital Monophonic Synthesizer. SOS, January 7, 2020, accessed on July 26, 2020 .
  3. ^ Joel Chadabe: Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music . Prentice Hall, 1977.
  4. ^ "St. Helena's Dave Smith Wins Grammy," Michael Nissenson, St. Helena Star, Feb 2013
  5. ↑ Dominic Milan: Vintage Synthesizers . Miller Freeman Books,, p. 23.
  6. ↑ AES Awards. AES, accessed July 26, 2020 .
  7. ↑ David Battino, Kelli Richards: The art of digital music: 56 visionary artists and insiders reveal Their creative secrets. In: archive.org. 2005, accessed in 2020 .
  8. ^ "Reality PC" , Martin Walker, Sound On Sound, Nov 1997
  9. ^ One of Techs Most Successful Inventors Never Made a Cent . Fortune. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  10. ^ TECnology Hall of Fame 2005. Accessed July 26, 2020 .
  11. ^ Technical Grammy Award for Development of MIDI Technology. December 27, 2012, Retrieved July 26, 2020 (American English).
  12. ↑ Dave Smith Returns to Sequential Brand to Mark 40th Anniversary of Prophet-5 Poly Synth . MMR Musical Merchandise Review. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ SEAMUS Award | SEAMUS. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  14. ↑ AES Awards. AES, accessed July 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Dave
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Dave M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American engineer, musician, founder of the synthesizer company Sequential
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century