The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to announce that the family of Dave Smith (1950-2022), synthesizer and MIDI pioneer, honors his legacy through the Foundation’s Captains of Industry program.
Smith posthumously joins industry innovators Tom Oberheim, Spectrasonics, Hans Zimmer, Ray Kurzweil, Marcus Ryle, Ernst Nathorst-Böös, iZotope, Christopher Kemper, Chris Halaby, Universal Audio, Gerhard Behles, 8Dio, Larry Thomas, John Worthington, and Daniel Haver, who empower the Foundation’s work with donations of $5,000 annually over three years.
An engineer and the founder of Sequential Circuits, later Sequential, Smith created the first polyphonic synthesizer with a fully programmable memory, the Prophet-5. A long line of innovative instruments followed.
He also spearheaded the development of MIDI, which revolutionized how musicians create music. In 2013, he won a Technical Grammy Award, alongside Ikutaro Kakehashi of Roland, for their contributions to the development of MIDI.
Dave Smith often recalled getting his start with the purchase of his very first synth: a Minimoog.
“Throughout his 50-year career, Dave never lost his passion or enthusiasm for designing electronic musical instruments. He thoroughly enjoyed the creativity, collaboration, friendships, and fun the music industry brought to his life. We both support the Bob Moog Foundation and all they do to excite, ignite, and inspire young minds to continue the story of synthesis.” – Denise Smith, Dave’s wife
Smith’s participation in the Captains of Industry campaign is recognized with a customized virtual synthesizer module, part of a larger Captains of Industry virtual modular, where each participant is honored with their own module, rendered by synthesizer designer Axel Hartmann. Dave’s module gives a nod to his company, Sequential, his revolutionary Prophet-5 synth, his role in the invention of MIDI, and his Technical GRAMMY Award for that development.
The funding generated by the Captains of Industry campaign lends critical assistance to inspiring future innovators through the Foundation’s education and archival preservation projects including Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, the Bob Moog Foundation Archives, and the Moogseum.
Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool currently reaches 3,000 students annually, with 25,000 elementary school children inspired over the last nine years, stimulating critical thinking and inspiring future professional endeavors in science, music, technology, and engineering.
The Moogseum has welcomed over 27,000 visitors from around the world since its inception in 2019, while the Bob Moog Foundation Archives’ vast collection of over 10,000 items serves as a historical resource for other museums, researchers, and journalists
“Dave Smith has a large presence in our Moogseum, and was most recently featured in our Synthesizer Pioneers Calendar, to which he donated rare photographs and historical insights. The book that tells the story of Sequential Circuits, The Prophet from Silicon Valley, has been available in our Moogseum store since we opened. We consider Dave to not only have been a friend of the Foundation, but to be an ongoing part of the fabric of our work.” – Michelle Moog-Koussa, Bob Moog Foundation Executive Director
To learn more about how you or your business can participate in the Bob Moog Foundation’s Captains of Industry program, please contact captainsofindustry@moogfoundation.org.