Sequential

Behind the synthesizer manufacturer Sequential Circuits from San Francisco is the small but fine company of the legendary synthesizer pioneer and Grammy winner Dave Smith. Dave Smith is also considered the driving force behind the midi specification, worked for Yamaha as president in the development department on physical modeling synthesis and produced, among other things, the Korg Wavestation and other now legendary technologies. After developing software synthesizers for Intel in 1994, he realized that his heart beats much more for hardware synthesizers and shortly afterwards founded his own company Dave Smith Instruments . Today's classics followed, such as the Prophet-X, Prophet Rev2, Prophet-6, OB-6 and the Tempest Drum Machine in collaboration with Roger Linn, to name just a few cult instruments. Dave Smith renamed his company DSI to Sequential in 2018 to bring closure to his legacy.

The success story of his current company began in 1974. There he not only founded his current company, but also developed his first musical instrument, the analog 16-step sequencer, in the same year. The wood-clad sequencer was called the Model-600 and was actually only intended for Dave's very private Minimoog. But his invention was so well received that he even brought a few units to the public. Driven by his first sales, the Model-800 digital sequencer and the Model-700 programmer for Minimoog and ARP-2600 followed before he achieved what was probably his greatest success in 1978. With the Prophet-5 he developed the first fully programmable analog poly synthesizer with built-in microprocessors.

Just two years later, he doubled the polyphony with the Prophet-10 and caused a sensation in the highly competitive synthesizer market. In 2020 we received the happy news that Dave wanted to breathe new life into his two mainstays Prophet-5 and Prophet-10 with revised features using the same circuits. We are very proud to inform you about the most important news on our landing page “The Return of the Prophets” .

History has never sounded better!