'Father of MIDI' Dave Smith Dies At 72 (billboard.com) 30
Sad news from long-time Slashdot reader NormalVisual:
Synthtopia reports that Dave Smith, founder of the legendary synthesizer manufacturer Sequential Circuits and creator of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard, died this past Wednesday.
Some of Smith's notable creations include the Prophet 5, one of the first commercially available digitally-controlled polyphonic analog synthesizers, and the Prophet-600, the first available device to offer MIDI...
Smith, who held degrees in both computer science and electronic engineering from UC Berkeley, was scheduled to appear at this year's National Association of Music Merchant (NAMM), but died suddenly. No cause of death has yet been released.
Smith's Wikipedia entry calls his 1977 Prophet 5 "the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument" and a crucial step forward as a programmable synthesizer.
And this week Billboad magazine hailed Smith as "a key figure in the development of synth technology in the 1970s and 1980s." With Sequential (originally known as Sequential Circuits), Smith released various sequencers and programmers to be used with the Moog and ARP synthesizers prevalent at the time, before designing his own release: the Prophet-5, first polyphonic synth with programmable memory, to allow sounds to be stored and re-accessed at any time. The Prophet-5 quickly became the gold standard in its field, used in the recording both of epochal '80s blockbuster LPs like Michael Jackson's Thriller and Madonna's Like a Virgin and envelope-pushing scores for era composers like John Carpenter and Vangelis....
Smith's greatest legacy might be the introduction of MIDI to synth technology... Smith's invention (along with Roland pioneer Ikutaro Kakehashi and Sequential engineer Chet Wood) of MIDI allowed unprecedented levels of synchronization and communication between different instruments, computers and other recording equipment, which was previously incredibly difficult to achieve — particularly between equipment designed by separate manufacturers. The innovation of MIDI helped facilitate the explosion of forward-thinking programming and creativity throughout the industry of the '80s, essentially making the future of pop music accessible to all.
Smith would also develop the world's first computer synthesizer as president of Seer Systems in the '90s, and launched the company Dave Smith Instruments, an instruments manufacturer, in 2002. He has won many lifetime awards for his work in the field of musical technology, including a Technical Grammy for MIDI's creation in 2013 (an honor he shared with Kakehashi).
Some of Smith's notable creations include the Prophet 5, one of the first commercially available digitally-controlled polyphonic analog synthesizers, and the Prophet-600, the first available device to offer MIDI...
Smith, who held degrees in both computer science and electronic engineering from UC Berkeley, was scheduled to appear at this year's National Association of Music Merchant (NAMM), but died suddenly. No cause of death has yet been released.
Smith's Wikipedia entry calls his 1977 Prophet 5 "the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument" and a crucial step forward as a programmable synthesizer.
And this week Billboad magazine hailed Smith as "a key figure in the development of synth technology in the 1970s and 1980s." With Sequential (originally known as Sequential Circuits), Smith released various sequencers and programmers to be used with the Moog and ARP synthesizers prevalent at the time, before designing his own release: the Prophet-5, first polyphonic synth with programmable memory, to allow sounds to be stored and re-accessed at any time. The Prophet-5 quickly became the gold standard in its field, used in the recording both of epochal '80s blockbuster LPs like Michael Jackson's Thriller and Madonna's Like a Virgin and envelope-pushing scores for era composers like John Carpenter and Vangelis....
Smith's greatest legacy might be the introduction of MIDI to synth technology... Smith's invention (along with Roland pioneer Ikutaro Kakehashi and Sequential engineer Chet Wood) of MIDI allowed unprecedented levels of synchronization and communication between different instruments, computers and other recording equipment, which was previously incredibly difficult to achieve — particularly between equipment designed by separate manufacturers. The innovation of MIDI helped facilitate the explosion of forward-thinking programming and creativity throughout the industry of the '80s, essentially making the future of pop music accessible to all.
Smith would also develop the world's first computer synthesizer as president of Seer Systems in the '90s, and launched the company Dave Smith Instruments, an instruments manufacturer, in 2002. He has won many lifetime awards for his work in the field of musical technology, including a Technical Grammy for MIDI's creation in 2013 (an honor he shared with Kakehashi).
My hat is off (Score:5, Insightful)
Interview (Score:2)
To get a feel for the greatness and history of the man, an interview with Dave Smith, Tom Oberheim and Roger Linn about the early days of the business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
He passed away on May, 31st (Score:2)
As if losing Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode wasn't bad enough.
Also, given how impactful he was, I'm a little dismayed that it took 4 days for Slashdot to report this.
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*insert slow Internet Explorer joke here*
Re:He passed away on May, 31st (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a little dismayed that it took 4 days for Slashdot to report this.
Take comfort in knowing that it will be reported again in a few days.
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I wouldn't say that the MIDI synth in your PC is necessarily a different thing - it's "effectively" the same as a hardware synthesizer in that, if you've got an appropriate adapter hooked up to your computer (whether via USB, RS232, or the old DA15 "gameport" on old soundcards), it can receive MIDI data from other devices and convert into audio to play through your speakers.
I say "effectively" because real MIDI synthesizers probably do way more than the simplistic "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" on all Windo
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That synth is a cut-down version of a Roland SoundCanvas, using both code and reduced ROMs provided by Roland. Microsoft licensed it because sound cards weren't coming with any form of synth anymore.
And let's not confuse synths here - there are multiple kinds, from the
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Note there are two completely different things that are both called MIDI.
I wouldn't go so far as to say they're completely different. You need one (MIDI instruments, such as the crappy sounding ones included in early PCs but also the virtual instruments of today's audio work stations that would take an expert to distinguish from the real thing) to produce perceptible output from the other (MIDI protocol). I'd say it's better to say that both are subsets of the MIDI standard.
Re:Two different things called MIDI (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Two different things called MIDI (Score:4, Insightful)
General MIDI is also commonly supported by consumer MIDI keyboards, though. It's a quite relevant standard. If you want the same MID files to sound a whole lot better than the usual soundfont bullshit, you can play them through a keyboard. Back in the DOS ages when PCs were still expensive and sound cards didn't even have sound fonts or the same chips as keyboards, it was common for games to support General MIDI music, presumably because it was assumed that if you had the dough for a computer there was a good chance you had one. I presume there's some way to get that data out of DOSemu... yep, MIDI passthrough, I figured it would have that. So you can have the full experience by visiting an abandonware site and downloading some of the moldy oldies.
Anyway, you will use MIDI output run through a MIDI passthrough into a MIDI interface into a MIDI device if you do that, I fail to see how it's not MIDI
Re: Two different things called MIDI (Score:2)
Many DOS games in the late 1980s supported pre-General MIDI synthesizers. For example the Roland MT-32, CM32L, CM64, LAPC-1. GM came a little bit later, in the early 1990s. DOS games often supported both MT-32 and GM at that point.
Dave ... (Score:5, Informative)
... was an awesome guy. So many of my friends were able to take pictures with him, he never said no. He also defended himself from a toxic and poaching manufacturer called Behringer and won. This is why many in our industry have cancelled Behringer, and you should too! Not supporting that company is a great way to honor Dave's legacy, and of course buying a Sequential synth would be good too!
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This is why many in our industry have cancelled Behringer
Can you please not perpetuate right wing propaganda language. "Boycott" Behringer. Don't sound like Ted Cruize is about to whine about your business with Behringer on the senate floor.
If we're going to evolve / destroy our language then at least we should do it on our terms, and not those of politicians with an axe to grind. The Axe of Moron that is which gives a -100 intelligence stat to those holding it.
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Please read History and not watch on the "History" Channel.
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To be fair, Behringer copies stuff and makes much cheaper versions of it. And there are mnaufacturers who are OK with it - Moog's most iconic synth has been copied rather blatantly, but it's carried because it's the only way to get that sound.
A Moog Model D, the original or the reissue (the original from the 70s and early 80s, the reissue from 2017 or so) cost over $5000 these days. A Behringer Model D costs under $500. You can buy the latter at any music store, while the former is no longer sold and only a
MTV is on it. (Score:2)
'Father of MIDI' Dave Smith Dies At 72
That explains his upcoming episode of MTV Unplugged [wikipedia.org] ... :-)
Cause of death (Score:2)
died suddenly. No cause of death
God released his sustain pedal. Surely...
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Leaving only the decay
A giant (Score:2)
Dave Smith's contribution to music-making is inestimable. I got to meet him a few times and he was a real gentleman.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
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At least as of right now, you haven't been. It appears your bad karma has you starting posts at -1 with 4 points to the positive (it appears 2 mod points as "Insightful" and 2 as "Underrated").