Dave Smith 1950–2022

Dave Smith, synth pioneer and driving force behind ‘Sequential’ has passed away.

David J. Smith was an American engineer and musician and founder of the synthesizer company Sequential. Smith was responsible for the first commercial polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled synthesizer, the Prophet-5, and later the multitimbral synthesizer.

“We’re heartbroken, but take some small solace in knowing he was on the road doing what he loved best in the company of family, friends, and artists,” read a statement from the Sequential website.

Dave was a true pioneer and developed or had a hand in developing a lot of the things that today we take for granted.

Started Sequential Circuits when he was just 24.
In 1977, designed and released the Prophet-5, the world’s first programmable polyphonic synth, and the first musical instrument to run on a microprocessor.
In 1981, began collaborating with Tom Oberheim and Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi on a language which would allow instruments from all makes to communicate with one another. Unveiled at the 1983 Winter NAMM the technology was unveiled as Musical Instrument Digital Interface – or MIDI for short.
In 1989 Dave joined Korg’s research and development division, which later went on to release the Wavestation synth.
1996, became President of Seer Systems, developing the world’s first soft synth that runs on a PC.
2002 founded Dave Smith Instruments. The company, which launched the Prophet-6, was rebranded Sequential in 2018 after Smith regained the rights to the Sequential name from Yamaha.