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.
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.
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)
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)
