Last week's news hit hard. Dave has played a significant and inspiring role during my musical journey, right from the point at which I, as a teenager, spent my summer job earnings on my first proper synth, a Korg Wavestation. And thanks to an even greater invention he initiated, I was finally able to hook up my Wavestation to a Kawai Q-80 MIDI sequencer, so I could record tracks early 'bedroom studio style.' Through countless records and keyboard magazine articles I also learned that Dave designed quite a few classic synths whose sound I was really fond of, such as the Prophet-5/10 and the Pro One.
Fast forward to 2013, the Prophet '08 marked my return to hardware synths after having spent years 'in the box'—somewhat echoing Dave's sentiment that operating synths with a mouse in front of a computer screen is not so much fun after all. Two years and several of his creations later I ended up translating manuals for Dave Smith Instruments and was eventually asked whether I would fancy designing sounds for new and upcoming synths, something my teenage self could never have imagined. I first met Dave (and his cat) in person when I was doing a Q&A session with him via Skype at the SAE Institute in front of the then newly founded Nashville Electronic Music & Synthesizer Group. After we chatted for about 90 minutes, everyone in the room agreed on him being a truly approachable character and downright fun to talk to. Even better yet, he enjoyed it too, as he would let me know three years later at Superbooth19.
On that occasion, he pointed to the empty spot right next to him on the sofa in the Sequential booth, looked at me and said: "Hey Mike, I've got a question for you," which in my mere mortal ears rather sounded like "Son, thou shall pass the doors to the synth pantheon," immediately followed by the thought that I should better not mess this up. It turned out that he wanted to ask me about my thoughts on revisiting the Prophet-5. Instead of jumping about in sheer enthusiasm, I just replied with a sober "Why? I thought you had no interest in revisiting the past," only to realize that I probably blew it after those words slipped out. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and he even examined a synth mockup I came up with.
Later on, we would hang out with Ken MacBeth after we witnessed the latter's rousing and hilarious performance with FucKETy BuCkEty (featuring T.Raumschmiere and St.John Mantle). The three-piece band performed on the lake stage and towards the end of the set, Ken would jump into the water on his way to the audience and yet again on his way back to the stage. After the gig, Dave walked up to a fully drenched Ken MacBeth, telling him how cool he thought the performance had been. It became not only obvious to me that Dave couldn't say no to a great party, but that he was also very humble. On the next day, for example, he would tell me how much respect he had for "true engineers" (as he put it) like Dave Rossum while underlining the brilliance of the designs of the former-competitor-turned-friend.
I last met Dave at Superbooth22. When I spotted him, he looked rather frail to me, but a very warm welcome pushed away my initial concerns. After asking me what I had been up to since the last time we met, he told me that working on the Prophet-5 Rev4 kept him sane during the pandemic and how much he enjoyed not having to act as Sequential's CEO any longer because this would allow him to focus on what he liked best, namely designing new instruments. Relaxed and gentleman-like as ever, he shared some intricacies of the collaborative design process that led up to the OB-X8 and highlighted how much he was looking forward to continuing working on new and innovative synths again soon. His still ongoing drive was reflected in the last three words he directed at me before I had to leave the booth: "See you later."—Indeed, Dave, see you later.
My condolences go out to Dave's family and friends as well as everyone at Sequential.
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