Various Interviews with Dave Smith

Sacred Synthesis

Various Interviews with Dave Smith
« on: January 11, 2016, 12:14:12 PM »
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 03:39:17 PM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2016, 12:19:05 PM »
Thanks for posting!

Sacred Synthesis

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2016, 12:21:29 PM »
You're welcome, Paul.  If you haven't heard it yet, you'll like it.  There's a lot of praise for the Prophet 6, which Dave says has sold fantastically well.  Quite a remarkable synthesizer!
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 12:44:45 PM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2016, 12:24:13 PM »
Yeah, I also saw that it features Jason Lindner, who played on Bowie's "Blackstar" that I listened to over the weekend, which made today's morning even more surreal and sad.

dslsynth

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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2016, 02:07:24 PM »
Great interview! Well worth watching. Thanks for sharing! And yeah sad event with Bowie heading for the stars.

I had a good laugh on the accelerometer sensor for the spring reverb. DSI surely got a good sense of humor at times.

Wonder who the third software person is? Did DSI finally hire a second OS software developer (one of them does DSP programming).
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 02:09:32 PM by dslsynth »
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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2016, 02:11:26 PM »
Someone needs to tell Dave that it wasn't Brian Eno, who switched the preset buttons on the Prophet-5 while holding keys. It was Tony Banks, who did it for the Genesis song "Who Dunnit?":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR6QFlNfzdE
https://youtu.be/3KhF52l83M8?t=4m54s

Brian Eno didn't even like the Prophet-5 as he once stated: "I don't like the Prophet Five... I like the Pro One though. I've also got a Casio 202... " http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/escm84.html#instruments

dslsynth

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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2016, 02:16:10 PM »
8) . o O ( music history lessons )
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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2016, 02:17:53 PM »
8) . o O ( music history lessons )

Well, he's been telling the wrong story since 2007…  ;) - Credit where credit is due.  8)
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 02:23:46 PM by Paul Dither »

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2016, 02:20:05 PM »
There's also an interview with Tony Banks for Sound on Sound's Sequential feature, in which he states: "At the time, my live setup was limited to just four keyboards. The Prophet 10 was used for synthesizer and organ voices, while the solos were played on an ARP Quadra which had replaced my earlier ARP 2600 monosynth. I also used a Yamaha CP70B electric grand piano and a Roland VP330 Vocoder Plus that had been introduced to recreate the choral and strings voices of my Mellotron. Actually, there was a fifth instrument -- a Prophet 5 -- on the other side of the stage, and I used this for playing 'Who Done It'. This was a tune written around torturing the Prophet by stepping through the programs while playing the riff to the song. This did some very strange things, producing some unpleasant sounds and even changing key, but I liked it. Furthermore, it was consistent, so I could reproduce the effect live. It sounded like I was playing many more instruments than just the single Prophet 5."

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar99/articles/retroprophet.htm

dslsynth

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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2016, 02:41:34 PM »
Well, he's been telling the wrong story since 2007…  ;) - Credit where credit is due.  8)

Absolutely! Just impressed you knew that. Music history lessons for free. ;)
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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2016, 02:52:53 PM »
There's a lot of praise for the Prophet 6, which Dave says has sold fantastically well.  Quite a remarkable synthesizer!

It sounded damn fine in the impromptu demonstration, which also captures what has been my experience with this synth in the store: It just wants to be tweaked and you're going from A to Z within seconds. And it already sounds impressive when the effects are disabled.

Sacred Synthesis

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2016, 09:24:34 PM »
Dave: "Some day we'll do effects" (Pt. II, 26:45).

That's very good news.  I've hoped for years that DSI would produce their own line of effects.  I only hope they won't have a big metal button trigger right in the middle.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 09:30:17 PM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2016, 09:28:35 PM »
Dave: "Some day we'll do effects" (Pt. II, 26:45).

That's very good news.  I've hoped for years that DSI would produce their own line of effects.  I only hope they won't have a big metal button trigger right in the middle.

That's definitely something that wouldn't be surprising to me. People tend to forget that Sequential already did so. I could imagine them working on some effect modules.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 09:30:08 PM by Paul Dither »

Sacred Synthesis

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2016, 09:36:25 PM »
Right - modules, rather than pedals.

dslsynth

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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2016, 12:13:42 PM »
I like the idea of a vocoder with digital control and analog filters. Only downside is that it may require a large number of analog filters to work well. Obvious application of Curtis chips but would be interesting to compare its sound to a discrete electronics filter implementation.
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Sacred Synthesis

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2022, 06:18:31 PM »
« Last Edit: May 21, 2022, 04:44:21 PM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #16 on: May 10, 2022, 11:35:36 AM »
Dave: "Some day we'll do effects" (Pt. II, 26:45).

That's very good news.  I've hoped for years that DSI would produce their own line of effects.  I only hope they won't have a big metal button trigger right in the middle.

With Oberheim coming back, I wonder if we'll see dedicated Oberheim Ring Modulator and Phase Shifter effects.

LPF83

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Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2022, 05:06:58 AM »
Dave and Marcus @ Superbooth

https://youtu.be/N2KG6P4vz_w
Prophet 10, OB-X8m, Prophet 6, OB-6, 3rd Wave, Prophet 12m, Prophet Rev2-16, Toraiz AS-1, Pro 2, Virus TI2, Moog SlimPhatty, Hydrasynth desktop, Korg Minilogue XDm, Roland JP-8080, Roland System-8, Roland SPD-SX SE / Octapad, Maschine, Cubase/Ableton/Akai MPC

Sacred Synthesis

Re: Interview with Dave Smith
« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2022, 03:38:34 PM »
I believe this was Dave's last interview.

"We'll probably have something [new] in three or four months...another keyboard...."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYGhzRrQHmY
« Last Edit: June 02, 2022, 04:21:04 AM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: Various Interviews with Dave Smith
« Reply #19 on: May 22, 2022, 01:41:56 PM »
This is the product I’m most interested in seeing. I think it will determine the mindset going forward for Sequential/Oberheim. Another reissue? Another strictly analog synth or something more forward thinking? We shall have to wait and see.