Dave Smith | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Smith at the 2015NAMM Show | |
| Born | David Joseph Smith[1] (1950-04-02)April 2, 1950 |
| Died | May 31, 2022(2022-05-31) (aged 72) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering |
| Occupation | Synthesizer designer |
David Joseph Smith (April 2, 1950 – May 31, 2022) was an American engineer and founder of thesynthesizer companySequential. Smith created the first polyphonic synthesizer with fully programmable memory, theProphet-5, which had a major impact on the music industry.[2] He also led the development ofMIDI, a standard interface protocol for synchronizing electronic instruments and audio equipment.
In 2005, Smith was inducted into the Mix Foundation TECnology (Technical Excellence and Creativity) Hall of Fame for the MIDI specification. In 2013, he and Japanese engineerIkutaro Kakehashi (founder of Roland and Boss Corporation) received aTechnical Grammy Award for their contributions to the development of MIDI as its primary co-inventors.
Smith was born on April 2, 1950, in San Francisco.[3] He had a music background from playing piano at home and in bands at college, and had degrees in both Computer Science and Electronic Engineering fromUC Berkeley.[4]
He purchased aMinimoog in 1972 and later built his own analog sequencer, foundingSequential Circuits in 1974 and advertising his product for sale inRolling Stone.[5][6] By 1977 he was working at Sequential full-time, and later that year he designed theProphet-5, the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument and also the first programmablepolyphonic synth,[7] an innovation that marked a crucial step forward in synthesizer design and functionality. Sequential went on to become one of the most successful music synthesizer manufacturers of the time.
In 1981 Smith set out to create a standard protocol for communication between electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers worldwide. Dave Smith and Chet Wood presented a paper outlining the idea of a Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI) to theAudio Engineering Society (AES) in 1981,[8][9][10][11] after meetings withTom Oberheim andRoland founderIkutaro Kakehashi. After some enhancements and revisions, the new standard was introduced as "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" (MIDI) at the WinterNAMM Show in 1983, when a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was successfully connected to aRoland Jupiter-6. In 1987 he was named aFellow of the AES for his continuing work in the area of music synthesis.[12]
In 2005, Smith was inducted into the Mix Foundation TECnology (Technical Excellence and Creativity) Hall of Fame for the MIDI specification.[13] In 2013, he and the Japanese businessman Ikutaro Kakehashi, the president ofRoland Corporation, received aTechnical Grammy Award for their contributions to the development of MIDI.[14] In 2022, theGuardian wrote that MIDI remained as important to music asUSB was to computing, and represented "a crucial value system of cooperation and mutual benefit, one all but thrown out by today’s major tech companies in favour of captive markets".[2] As of 2022, Smith's original MIDI design was still in use.[2]
After Sequential, Smith was President of DSD, Inc, a Research and Development Division ofYamaha, where he worked onphysical modeling synthesis andsoftware synthesizer concepts. In May 1989 he started theKorg R&D group in California, which went on to produce the innovative and commercially successfulWavestation synthesizer and other technology.[15]
Smith went on to serve as president atSeer Systems[16] and developed the world's first software based synthesizer running on aPC. This synth, commissioned byIntel, was demonstrated byAndy Grove in a Comdex keynote speech in 1994. The second generation of this software synthesizer sold over 10 million copies, as a result of being licensed toCreative Labs in 1996; it was responsible for 32 of the 64 voices in Creative Labs' AWE 64 line ofsoundcards.
The third generation of Smith's software synthesizer, renamed Reality, was released in 1997. Smith was both the lead engineer on Reality, and wrote all the low-level optimized floating point synthesis code. Reality was the recipient of a 1998 Editors' Choice Award, and earnedElectronic Musician Magazine's highest possible rating.
In 2002, Smith launched Dave Smith Instruments, a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments.[17] In 2015, Smith regained the rights to the Sequential name from Yamaha, and released the Prophet-6 under that name. Dave Smith Instruments rebranded as Sequential in 2018.[18]
Smith was born inSan Francisco, California, to Peter B. Smith and Lucretia Papagni Smith. His father was also a San Francisco native. His mother's family came from Italian grape growers and winemakers who had immigrated toFresno. He had five siblings. Smith's father died in 1972, and his mother died in 2021.[1]
After college studies inBerkeley, Smith lived and worked inSan Jose in the 1970s.[6] He was physically active, competing in theIronman World Championship in Hawaii, and hiking tall mountains with his friendRoger Linn—another synth pioneer.[19] Smith married Denise White, and in 1988 they moved toSt. Helena, California. They had two children, Haley and Campbell.[20]
Smith died of a heart attack on May 31, 2022, at the age of 72, inDetroit, Michigan, where he was attending the Movement electronic festival.[19][14]
