Unlike a piano or organ, early synthesizers such as the Moog and ARP could only produce one note at a time. Shaping a particular tone involved adjusting multiple knobs, switches, or dials, and trying to reproduce that tone later meant typing in all the settings and hoping for similar results next time.
Prophet-5 co-designed by Mr. Smith John Bowen and introduced in 1978, it conquered both shortcomings. By controlling the synthesizer functions with microprocessors, it can play five notes simultaneously and allow harmonies. (The company also made a 10-note Prophet-10.) Prophet also used microprocessors to store settings in memory, providing reliable yet personalized sound, and portable enough to be used on stage.
Mr. Smith’s small company was full of orders; Occasionally, Prophet-5 had a two-year background.
But Mr. Smith’s innovations went much further. “Once you have a microprocessor in an instrument, you realize how easy it is to digitally communicate with a microprocessor to another instrument,” said Mr. Smith in 2014. Other keyboard manufacturers began to include microprocessors, but each company used a different, incompatible keyboard. The interface is one that Mr. Smith says he sees as “kind of an idiot”.
In 1981, Sequential Circuits engineer Mr. Smith and Chet Wood presented a paper at the Audio Engineering Society meeting. “‘USI’ or Universal Synthesizer Interface.” point, he remembered 2014 interview with Waveshaper Media“Here is an interface. It doesn’t have to be like this, but we really need to get together and do something.” Otherwise, “This market is not going anywhere,” he said.
Four Japanese companies – Roland, Korg, Yamaha and Kawai – were keen to collaborate with Sequential Circuits on a common standard, and Roland’s Mr. Smith and Mr. Kakehashi worked out the details of what would become MIDI. “If we did MIDI as usual, it would take years and years and years to establish a standard,” Mr. Smith told Waveshaper. “You have committees and documents and da-da-das. We bypassed all of this by simply doing it and then throwing it out. ”
In 2013, Mr. Smith said: St. Helena Star: “We made it low-cost to make it easier for companies to integrate it into their products. It was given unlicensed because we wanted everyone to use it.”
