Dave Smith, Evolver

On the passing of an electronic music visionary

The biggest US trade show devoted to musical instruments – NAMM – wrapped up this past weekend. It was the first live event since just before the pandemic, so anticipation was high among musicians on the lookout for new digital sound-wizarding tools (and the merchants who sell them.)

In the show’s aftermath, gearheads on the message boards reacted with a yawning “meh.” This was despite several mind-boggling new-frontier introductions: Eventide brought out an “interval-based sequencer” called the Misha that generates intricate 12-tone rows akin to those used by Arnold Schoenberg and other composers. A company called Antiphon showed off a freakishly small handheld device, the Orba 2, that combines a synthesizer, looper and sequencer into a mini studio that’s paired with a smartphone app. Martin Guitars marked a sales milestone – 2.5 million sold – with a one-off acoustic model featuring over 400 diamonds arrayed in the configuration of the night sky the company founders saw when they landed in New York 188 years ago.

On the night before NAMM opened, the website of the resurgent American music technology company Sequential posted that its founder Dave Smith, the inventor of the beloved and long ubiquitous Prophet synthesizers used by David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Quincy Jones and thousands of others, had passed away.

For those who’ve been following the troubles of microchip-dependent music tech companies, the timing felt portentous — in part because Smith was a prime mover during the heady days, now decades past, when technology was bringing musicians almost magical powers at a dizzying clip.

Smith lacked the consumer-tier name recognition of the pioneering synthesist Robert Moog, but within the community of musicians, producers, recording engineers and technologists – the NAMM demographic, basically -- he is regarded with similar reverence, if not awe. Anyone even distantly involved in making electronic music –anyone who ever tapped out a beat on a drum machine, or created a seamless DJ-style transition between two pieces of music – owes Dave Smith a long moment of gratitude. At the least.

Smith was the dreamer who got started because he wanted more out of his Minimoog. That synth could only emit one note at a time when a key was pressed; Smith’s first design, the Model 600 analog sequencer, drove the Minimoog to play short phrases of up to 16 steps at various speeds. This seems like a small thing, possibly a gimmick, but in the pre-digital world of 1974 it had the effect of tearing the roof off the building.

Engineers at other music tech companies began to think differently about the structures and capabilities of their synthesizers. Smith did too: In 1978, his company, then called Sequential Circuits, released the world’s first fully programmable polyphonic analog synth, the Prophet 5. Where Moog’s synths were monophonic, the Prophet allowed keyboardists to play five notes at once – creating thick chords and swirls of sound that moved as if propelled by distant asteroids. The Prophet became a studio mainstay, integral to the sound of countless hit records and ambient soundscapes.

Smith’s groundbreaking instruments indirectly nudged the entire musical instrument industry. He took that up a level –or three – in 1982 when he helped invent and evangelized for what became known as the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI.

This small port on the back of keyboards and drum machines facilitates synchronization between different pieces of equipment made by different manufacturers. At the time, there was no industry standard – a situation similar to today’s divergent electric-vehicle charging methods. Smith showed the leaders of rival music tech companies the lifechanging magic of cooperation. His argument to convince competitors to agree on a single universal protocol was simple: The sales and reputational benefits of making tools that could talk with other tools would far outweigh the costs of developing and maintaining a closed ecosystem. Smith spoke to the music tech leaders as an inventor and manufacturer; he argued that there was long-term growth potential in a standard like MIDI, even if some of the future applications of the technology – like, oh, communicating between a synth and a computer the size of a card deck that makes phone calls – were unknowable and uncertain. Every major instrument company signed on.

Smith probably made different arguments about MIDI when speaking to musicians – about the multitudes of unforeseen possibilities that could result when connecting a Roland drum machine to a Yamaha synthesizer.

He envisioned a creative modus that transcended brand. He was a champion of network-style linkage at a time when networks were not yet common. This understanding is a vital aspect of Smith’s legacy, a contribution that towers over the crucial specific hardware contributions he made to music technology.

As news of his death spread, tributes poured in from the artist community. Many considered Smith a friend, and remarked that he was endlessly curious about how musicians were using his creations. Noting that the Prophet 5 was integral to his recording career and the overall sound of the ‘80s, Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes summed up the feelings of many: “I am really sad to hear Dave Smith, synth guru and designer of the Prophet V has left our analogue world. He was a pioneer and never stopped looking for new ways forward in the synth universe.”

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