Quote:He bought a Minimoog in 1972 after becoming interested in electronic music and synthesisers due to Wendy Carlos’ late ‘60s album Switched on Bach. “[It was] just interesting to hear something electronic, sounds,” Smith said at a 2014 Red Bull Music Academy lecture. “It was just so lifelike the way she played was just, it sounded like an acoustic instrument. We all know what’s electronic and what’s not. It just had this life into it that was just amazing to hear and the way she played it.”
From there, Smith built his first analog sequencer and founded Sequential Circuits in 1974, and was working full-time with the company three years later.
The famed Prophet 5 was released in late 1977 which was the first commercial polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled synthesiser, changing the face of the synth in not just design, but functionality.
In the early ‘80s, different synth manufacturers had systems that meant their products could only speak to themselves, and not to a different manufacturer’s synth.
Oberheim had its ‘System’ to sync up its drum machines and sequencers, Roland had its ‘DCB’ and ‘DIN Sync’, but Smith envisioned that with a little collaboration and some elegant simplicity, they could create a standard that meant all these instruments could talk to each other.
He published a paper on Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in 1981, before pioneering the implementation with Roland’s Ikutaro Kakehashi.
In 1982, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was released; the first instrument with MIDI.
The new standard was introduced at the Winter NAMM Show in 1983, when the Prophet-600 was successfully connected to a Roland Jupiter-6, and from there, he earned the nickname the “Father of MIDI”.
In 2013, Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith were awarded a Technical Grammy for the invention of MIDI. It’s made modern electronic music production what it is today and continues to evolve.
In 1987 he was named a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) for his impact and continuing work in the area of music synthesis.
Since then, Smith’s work can be seen almost everywhere you look in synthesisers and electronic music instrument design, from R’n’D teams at Yamaha and Korg, to developing world’s first software based synthesiser running on a PC, to launching Dave Smith Instruments which later rebranded to Sequential.
His impact did not slow down until his sudden and unexpected passing, as he will remain one of the most influential figures in synthesis and electronic music instrument design.
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2022 12:35 PM by GoodOwl.)
His other roles include Xena:Warrior Princess, Coma, Murder She Wrote, Eight Men Out, The Love Boat, One Day At A Time, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, All In The Family, Maude and The Rockford Files. He did the actor and director of the documentary of The Green Girl of the actress Susan Oliver and her iconic role from the original Star Trek series.
He also appeared as himself on the different Pyramid game shows of the 80s like $10,000 Pyramid, the $25.000 Pyramid, the $100,000 Pyramid, Blackout, Match Game, Hollywood Squares, and Super Password.
Artist: Seals & Crofts
Album: Get Closer
Song: "Get Closer"
April 1976 Warner Bros. Records
Artist: Seals & Crofts
Album: Summer Breeze
Song: "Hummingbird"
January 1973 Warner Bros. Records
In the early 2000s up to 2008, Seals embarked on various tours with his brother Dan ("England" Dan Seals, of England Dan & John Ford Coley), billing themselves as Seals & Seals and performing their successful hits from Seals & Crofts and England Dan & John Ford Coley, Dan's hits from his solo career and a few original songs written between the two brothers. A few shows featured Jim's sons Joshua on bass guitar and backing vocals and Sutherland on electric guitar.
Seals and Crofts were instrumental in England Dan and John Ford Coley becoming adherents to the Baha'i Faith, some 28 years before Coley became a Christian. Dan Seals died of cancer in 2009. At the time of his death, Dan and Jim Seals had been working on songs together.
Artist: England Dan & John Ford Coley
Album: Dr. Heckle & Mr. Jive
Song: "Love is the Answer"
Songwriter: Todd Rundgren
October 14, 1977 Bearsville Records
(This post was last modified: 06-08-2022 01:49 AM by GoodOwl.)
Dan Seals was one of my favorites of all time. Could not only sing but his songs made people FEEL. He had so many great songs it is hard to pick just one favorite.
Although a sad song, this is one of my favorites.
I also loved this one. This version was a duet with Marie Osmond.
This was in my top three Dan Seals songs.
(This post was last modified: 06-10-2022 06:57 PM by MileHighBronco.)
I met him and some other writers online in 2007 when Myspace was around before Facebook took over. He was interested in my ideas of writing stories about cowboys of the future space traveling and all that keeping ranching and rodeos alive.
Former Washington Redskins Safety Brig Owens died at age 79. Brig also was a University of Cincinnati alum and played QB for the Bearcats. Owens's 36 INTs ranks second behind Darrell Green on the team's all-time list. After his playing days he obtained his law degree and served an active role with the NFL Players Association.
We need PAC-MAN music and the withering yellow face that happened when a hairy monster ended the game. PAC-MAN had a moral. "No matter how good you are, you aren't getting out alive, or with any quarters in your pocket!"
![[Image: smith-799x1024.jpeg]](https://mixdownmag.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/smith-799x1024.jpeg)
![[Image: midi-3.jpeg]](https://mixdownmag.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/midi-3.jpeg)
![[Image: STOLAR-BERNIE-96-294x300.jpg]](https://www.replaymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/STOLAR-BERNIE-96-294x300.jpg)
