<
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/1103569627/remembering-dave-smith-inventor-of-midi-and-the-prophet-5-synthesizer>
"The sound of pop music in the '80s was shaped by synthesizers – and one of the
most impactful people behind that sound was inventor Dave Smith, creator of the
Prophet-5 synthesizer and founder of Sequential Circuits, the instrument's
small-scale production company. Though his most well-known inventions were
decades in the past, Smith, who died last week at the age of 72, is still
remembered with reverence.
"He always knew more about what a musician wanted, or needed, than they did,"
says keyboardist Roger O'Donnell, who has played synths in some bands you might
have heard of –
The Cure and
The Psychedelic Furs among them. But the
legacy of the Prophet-5 is at least, if not eclipsed, by that of another Smith
invention: the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, which allowed
digital instruments to speak the same language for the first time. The
technology remains in wide use today – thanks in no small part to it being made
totally free."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
