The Prophet from Silicon Valley: The Complete Story of Sequential Circuits
David Abernethy
Language: English
Pages: 274
ISBN: 1512198323
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The story of Sequential Circuits, the leading synthesizer manufacturer of the 1980s. One of the great American synthesizer companies, founded and led by San Francisco electronics and computer graduate, Dave Smith, Sequential Circuits Inc. paved the way for music of the future. Smith brought easy, affordable and powerful polyphonic synthesis to all levels of music production in the form of the ground-breaking Prophet-5 synthesizer. Released in 1978, the Prophet led the new wave movement into the next decade, creating a sonically exciting soundtrack to eighties culture. It expanded the palette of all music genres and was embraced by professionals and amateurs alike. Sequential Circuits went on to create further innovative concepts and products such as programmable effects, MIDI, multitimbrality, high-quality sampling, workstation and MPC systems and many more. Today the Prophet-5 is very much sought-after as one of those truly iconic classic musical instruments. The book features many exclusive and highly entertaining and informative stories from ex-Sequential staff, music industry moguls, and famous keyboard players. Includes over 240 photos and illustrations (paperback)
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not utilize a microprocessor or have any software; all the digital operations were achieved with standard digital logic chips. It also had its own onboard analog envelope generators and VCA circuits based around readily available CA3080 op-amp chips. The data had to be retained in memory on power-down if the unit was to be practical (that is, non-volatile memory). This meant the memory chips had to be powered up all the time, so Smith added a small lithium battery to the memory bank supply line.
sound, realistic prices.” Barb started taking care of day-to-day administration, initially on a part-time basis but very soon as a full-time employee. She went on to become vice president and have a stake in the company. Sequential attended its first trade show as an exhibitor in June 1977. It was at the NAMM show in Atlanta, where they presented the Model 700 Programmer and Model 800 Sequencer. Many dealers were intrigued with the quirky 800 Sequencer and unique Programmer, and Sequential
servicing and dispatch areas, as well as a comfy lunchroom complete with ping pong and pool tables. Sequential also built a sound studio at the back of the building to conduct sound tests and demos for instruments. “The studio sound room—yes, it was my office for the entire time I was at Sequential,” says John Bowen. “I started there as a full-time employee, Monday August 23, 1982, and it had been built prior to my employment. We had huge monitors that were suspended from the ceiling by chains. I
across the country and overseas. Keyboard salesman Kevin Kent soon joined the team. “I started out in the Guitar Center in Hollywood, when there was like a couple of Guitar Centers in the world, and I walked in and the guy had just left and I said, ‘You know, I think I can sell keyboards here.’ I had a background in electronic music in school, and synthesis. And so I could do the big Buchlas and the modulars and all that kind of stuff, when VCAs were men and filters were nervous [laughs]. I went
and I sold to the, you know, Sam Ash’s, Guitar Centers, and we sold to them direct and we managed that internally. There were very few people we’d sell direct to. It worked against the whole dealer philosophy. It wasn’t genius, and it wasn’t some magic that I could open up all these dealers all across the country: the product was hot.” Kevin Kent explains more about the intricacies of sales tactics. “If some big dealer called me up and said they wanted product, I used to get a big kick out of
