Sequential Circuits
Sequential Circuits was an American synthesizer and sampler manufacturer.
The company emerged in the mid -1970s as an ancillary activity of the computer engineer Dave Smith, who began the construction of a sequencer for his Minimoog, Moog sequencer because he could not afford. The company has produced some of the best instruments of synthesizer history in subsequent years.
History
1978 Sequential Circuits surprised the competition with the Prophet 5, the first fully microprocessor-controlled polyphonic synthesizer. He had five votes each Minimoog -like architecture, whose parameters were first digitally controlled and stored. Thus, it was now possible to save the set on the controllers and retrieve patches.
1980 the new prophet was 10 presented (the original Prophet 10 was a 10 -voice prototype of the Prophet 5, but because of the temperature problems and resulting instability vocal half of the votes have been removed); , these were almost two Prophet 5 in a housing with two keyboards, which could also play two different sounds. There were different modes, which cover the existing ten votes were distributed on the keyboards (including Duo, Layer, and unison mode). In addition, he was equipped with a polyphonic sequencer.
In 1981, the company out of the monophonic Pro-One. He was microprocessor controlled and possessed sequencer and arpeggiator.
Around this time, Dave Smith was instrumental in the development of the MIDI interface. The end of 1982 brought out Prophet 600 ( 6 -note sequencer and arpeggiator with ) was the first synthesizer with a MIDI interface.
In 1983, the Prophet T8 out ( 8-voice, with sequencer), the nor whether his wooden keyboard with hammer action, attack and release velocity and polyphonic aftertouch is estimated today.
1984 Drumtraks ( a rhythm machine with digital percussion samples similar to the Linndrum ) published and the Six -Trak, the first multi-timbral synthesizer. The latter making it possible to simultaneously generate six different sounds with a keyboard. Together with the integrated, also multitimbral sequencer and the Drumtraks you possessed then almost a complete workstation.
In 1985 the prophet 2000, an 8 -voice sampler with analog filters for each voice.
The published 1986 Prophet VS followed a newly developed concept, the vector synthesis. It said joystick the volume fractions of 4 oscillators could be dynamically mixed with a Vector stick. However, the real peculiarity stuck in the oscillators: they were digitally generated - similar to the PPG Wave and Korg DW -8000 - not just the usual basic oscillations ( rectangle, tipping, sine wave, etc.), but also more complex waveforms such T. had arisen from the recordings of acoustic instruments. The sound thus produced could then be processed by the usual filter section and a modulation matrix.
There was still the prophet 3000 ( a 16 -bit stereo sampler with direct- to-disk recording and stereo analog filters per voice, ahead of his time ), but in December 1987 the company filed for bankruptcy and ceased production.
Dave Smith and his team were then taken over by Yamaha, where they developed the vector synthesizer SY22 and TG33. Later, Dave Smith joined Korg, where the design of the Wave Station he had a major proportion, another vector synthesizer, which also contains some of the waveforms of the Prophet VS.
He then moved to Seer Systems, where he was involved in developing one of the first PC software synthesizer. This software was later licensed by Creative Labs and is responsible for the 32 software voices of the Sound Blaster AWE -64.
Today he developed in his own company (Dave Smith Instruments ) again hardware synthesizers, such as the Evolver and Poly Evolver -. In 2008 he presented the Prophet '08 before and in January 2013 the Prophet 12