Sequential

Behind the San Francisco synthesizer outfit Sequential Circuits is the small but fine company of legendary synthesizer pioneer and Grammy-winning Dave Smith. Dave Smith is also regarded as the driving force behind the MIDI specification, served as president in the development department at Yamaha working on physical modelling synthesis, and produced the Korg Wavestation among other technologies that are now legendary. After developing software synthesizers for Intel in 1994, he realised that his heart lay much more with hardware synthesis and shortly afterwards founded his own company Dave Smith Instruments. This was followed by present-day classics 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. In 2018 Dave Smith renamed his company DSI to Sequential, thereby cementing his legacy.

The success story of his present company began in 1974. That year he not only founded his company, but also developed his first musical instrument: the analogue 16-step sequencer. The wood-cased sequencer was called the Model-600 and was actually intended only for Dave's private Minimoog. But his invention was so well received that he even sold a few units. Driven by these first sales came the digital sequencer Model-800 and the Programmer Model-700 for the Minimoog and ARP-2600, before in 1978 he achieved perhaps his greatest triumph. With the Prophet-5 he developed the first fully programmable analogue polyphonic synthesizer with built-in microprocessors.

Just two years later he doubled the polyphony with the Prophet-10, causing a sensation on the fiercely competitive synthesizer market. In 2020 we received the welcome news that Dave intended to breathe new life into his two flagships, the Prophet-5 and Prophet-10, with revised features while keeping the same circuitry. We are very proud to inform you on our landing page "The Return of the Prophets" about the most important new features.

History has never sounded better!