Dave Smith Instruments

Updated on Sep 28, 2024

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Key people Dave Smith (Founder) Founder Dave Smith Headquarters San Francisco		Products Musical instruments Founded 21 January 2002

Website www.davesmithinstruments.com Profiles Facebook YouTube Twitter Instagram

Prophet 12 features overview dave smith instruments

Dave Smith Instruments is an American company based in San Francisco, California which manufactures electronic musical instruments. The company was founded in 2002 by Dave Smith, best known as the founder of Sequential Circuits and lead designer of its Prophet 5 synthesizer, as well as for his work on MIDI.

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History

Many concepts and technologies previously used in Smith's Sequential Circuits designs have factored into Dave Smith Instruments new products, along with completely new designs. The Prophet '08 and Prophet 12 share the name of some of Sequential Circuits' most successful synthesizers, and the Evolver series shares vector synthesis technology first released by Sequential in Smith's own Prophet VS in 1986.

In 2009, Smith announced that he was collaborating with Roger Linn (the inventor of the first drum machine to use digital samples) to design a new drum machine called Tempest which would utilize analog synthesis. The production version of Tempest was unveiled at the Winter NAMM show in January 2012.

In 2015, the company released the Prophet-6, the first instrument in over 30 years to bear the Sequential name. The name had been returned to Smith the previous year by its previous owner, Yamaha. The following year, he collaborated with Tom Oberheim to produce the OB-6.

Products

2002 Evolver – tabletop analog/digital synthesizer

2004 Poly Evolver – analog/digital synthesizer module

2005 PolyEvolver Keyboard – analog/digital keyboard synthesizer

2006 Evolver Keyboard – analog/digital keyboard synthesizer

2007 Prophet '08 – 8-voice analog keyboard synthesizer

2008 Prophet '08 Desktop – 8-voice analog synthesizer module (same engine as the Prophet 08 keyboard

2009 Mopho – monophonic tabletop analog synthesizer

2009 Tetra – 4-voice tabletop analog synthesizer

2010 Mopho Keyboard – monophonic keyboard synthesizer

2011 Tempest – analog drum machine and synthesizer

2012 Mopho X4 – 4-voice analog keyboard synthesizer

2013 Prophet 12 – 12-voice hybrid keyboard synthesizer

2013 Mopho SE – monophonic keyboard synthesizer

2014 Prophet 12 Desktop – 12-voice hybrid synthesizer module (same engine as the Prophet 12 keyboard)

2014 Pro 2 – 4-oscillator Mono hybrid keyboard synthesizer

2014 Dave Smith Modular – Eurorack modules for a modular synthesizer

2015 Prophet 6 – 6-voice analog keyboard synthesizer. This instrument is noteworthy for being the first synthesizer since the early 80's to bear the Sequential name, which was returned to Smith by former owner Yamaha.

2015 Prophet 6 Desktop – 6-voice analog synthesizer module (same engine as the Prophet 6 keyboard)

2016 OB-6 – 6-voice analog keyboard synthesizer created in collaboration with Tom Oberheim

2016 OB-6 Desktop – 6-voice analog synthesizer module (same engine as the OB-6 keyboard)

Awards

Prophet '08'

Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, November 2007)

Musikmesse International Press (MIPA) Award, March 2008

Musiciplayers WIHO Award (2008)

Evolver and Evolver Keyboard

Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, March 2003)

Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, August 2006)

Musicplayers WIHO Award (2006)

Poly Evolver Keyboard

Future Music 2006 Ace Award

TEC Award nomination (Mix Magazine, 2006) Technical Excellence & Creativity in the category of Outstanding Technical Achievement, Musical Instrument Technology.

Synthesizer Of The Year Award (Electronic Musician Magazine, 2006)

"Most psychedelic electronic instrument 2005" (Psychedelickitchen.org, 2005)

References

Dave Smith Instruments Wikipedia

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