Dave Smith founded Sequential Circuits, the premier manufacturer of professional music synthesizers, in the mid-70s. In 1977, he designed the Prophet-5, the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument. This revolutionary product was the world's first polyphonic and programmable synth, and set the standard for all synth designs that have followed. The Prophet instruments played a major part in the recordings of all popular music styles, and are still prized by musicians today.
Dave Smith is also generally known as the driving force behind the generation of the MIDI specification in 1981—in fact, he coined the acronym. In 1987 he was named a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) for his continuing work in the area of music synthesis. After Sequential, Dave was President of DSD, Inc, an R&D division of Yamaha, where he worked on physical modeling synthesis and software synthesizer concepts. He then started the Korg R&D group in California, which went on to produce the professional musician favorite Wavestation products and other technology.
Dave Smith then took over as President at Seer Systems and developed the world's first software based synthesizer running on a PC. This synth, commissioned by Intel, was demonstrated by Andy Grove in a Comdex keynote speech in 1994. Over 10 million of his second-generation software synth have been sold, which was licensed to Creative Labs in 1996, and is responsible for 32 of the 64 voices in the AWE 64 line of Sound Cards. The third generation is the world's first first fully professional software synthesizer, Reality, released in 1997. Reality was rated the highest of any synth by Electronic Musician magazine.
Today, Dave Smith is busy designing hardware instruments again with the Evolver, Poly Evolver, and Prophet '08 synths. Digital Village is the UK's largest Dave Smith Instruments (DSI) dealer.
Dave Smith on the Prophet 08
“The Prophet 08 design started as an alternative to the Evolver with two targets: a reasonably-priced eight-voice synth, and an all-analogue signal path. I had received many requests for both of these, but I hesitated because I love the Evolver signal chain, and I was worried that a traditional analogue, eight-voice synth would be too simple and not as interesting in comparison. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a go and, as the instrument came together and I started playing it, I was pleased to hear how good it sounded. It was only then, late into the project, that I thought of calling it a Prophet, since it really does have a sound worthy of the name. While it cannot match the Evolver's range of tonal variations, it delivers that magical analogue punch and depth.”
Source: Gordon Reid, Sound On Sound Feb 08. Gordon comments:
“The Prophet 08 deserves to bear the Prophet name, because it looks, feels and sounds as a Prophet should. Please be clear; I'm too old to be beguiled by an analogue signal path, nor (I hope) am I susceptible to the appeal of the word ‘Prophet’ silk-screened onto a control panel. When I say that the 08 appears to be the real deal it's because nearly 30 years of experience with Prophets tells me that this is so. That it's so pleasant to use and sounds as warm and involving as its predecessors means that I can see no reason not to buy one if that's the sound you're seeking. There's no immediate competition and, with ageing Prophet 5s and Roland Jupiter 8s now costing around £1500, Oberheim OBXs not far behind, and Yamaha CS80s heading into deep space at £5000 or more, the Prophet 08 is also excellent value”.
Dave Smith Instruments are available from Digital Village online, in-store an dvia telephone mail-order.