Who was Dave Smith? Tributes pour in as ‘Father of MIDI’ dies aged 72

Dave Smith, the founder of the brand Sequential and synthesizer legend, has passed away at the age of 72, as confirmed by Sequential. The company, however, did not reveal the cause of Smith's death.

Smith was known as the father of MIDI for his role in the development of MIDI, which is now a standard interface protocol for electronic instruments and recording audio equipment.

In a statement, the company said:

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Dave Smith has died. 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.”

---

Tributes pour in for Dave Smith

Many artists and fans have put forward their tributes on social media after learning about Smith's death. They noted that music would not be the same if it weren't for Smith and the technological advancements he brought to the industry.

---

Dave Smith's career

As an engineer with degrees in both Computer Science and Electronic Engineering from UC Berkeley, Smith was always a genius. He purchased a Minimoog in 1972 and later built his own analog sequencer.

After establishing Sequential Circuits in 1974, Smith designed and released the Prophet-5 in 1977, which became one of the most influential synthesizers as it came with a microprocessor. It was the world’s first fully programmable polyphonic synth.

In 1981, he presented a paper outlining the idea of a Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI) to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) after meetings with Tom Oberheim and Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi. After some fine-tuning, the new standard was introduced as MIDI at the Winter NAMM Show in 1983, when a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was successfully connected to a Roland Jupiter-6. In 1987, Smith was named a Fellow of the AES for his continuing work in the area of music synthesis.

---

Why is Dave Smith known as the father of MIDI?

(Image via Gabe Ginsberg / Getty)

Smith is known as the father of MIDI as he was the driving force behind unveiling a protocol that let instruments communicate in the early 80s. Smith also coined the acronym MIDI , which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It allows devices that make and control sound, such as synthesizers, samplers, and computers, to communicate with each other using MIDI messages. Smith received a Technical Grammy for this technology in 1983.

In 1983, Sequential launched one of the first MIDI synths, the Prophet 600. Yamaha acquired Sequential in 1987 following which Smith became a consultant for various synth companies. He became the President of DSD, Yamaha's R&D division. In California, he founded the Korg R&D group.

He was President of Seer Systems at the time, and in 1994, he created the first software synth for Intel, followed by Reality, the first professional soft synth. In 2002, he started Dave Smith Instruments, a hardware company, which was later rebranded to Sequential in 2015.