Unlike pianos and organs, early synthesizers like Moog and ARP could only produce one note at a time. To shape a particular tone, you need to set multiple knobs, switches, or dials, and if you try to reproduce that tone later, write down all the settings and expect to get similar results next time. was.
Prophet-5 designed by Smith John Bowwen Introduced in 1978, it overcomes both shortcomings. By controlling the functions of the synthesizer with a microprocessor, you can play five sounds at once and play harmony. (The company also created the 10-note Prophet-10.) Prophet also uses a microprocessor to store settings in memory, providing reliable, personalized sound that can be used on stage. It was portable.
Mr Smith’s small company was flooded with orders. From time to time, Prophet-5 had a two-year backlog.
But Smith’s innovation went a step further. “Incorporating a microprocessor into a device shows how easy it is to use a microprocessor to digitally communicate with another device,” Smith explained in 2014. Other keyboard makers started embedding microprocessors, but they used incompatible ones that varied from company to company. Interface, the situation that Mr. Smith thought was “a kind of ridiculous”.
In 1981, Sequential Circuit Engineers Smith and Chetwood presented and proposed a paper at the Audio Engineering Society Convention. “USI”, or universal synthesizer interface. “ The point he remembered at 2014 Interview with Wave Shaper Media“This is the interface. It doesn’t have to be this, but we all really need to get together and do something.” Otherwise, he said, “This market doesn’t go anywhere.”
Four Japanese companies, Roland, Korg, Yamaha and Kawai, were willing to work with sequential circuits on a common basis, and Roland’s Smith and Kakehashi looked at the details of what would be MIDI. “If we were doing MIDI in the usual way, it would take years and years to create a standard,” Smith told the Red Bull Music Academy. “You have a committee, a document, and a dadada. You basically did it and then threw it there, avoiding everything.”