It’s with great sadness that we announce that Dave Smith has passed away
The MIDI Association wouldn’t exist without Dave’s contributions to MIDI, but having known Dave for over 30 years and worked closely with him at Korg (and also in getting the Sequential name back when I was a Yamaha), he was also not actually a big fan of being called the “Father of MIDI”. He knew how many different people had contributed to MIDI and felt almost embarrassed by the role that history had been cast him in.
He was also not a big fan of organizations, committees and meetings and even from the early days of MIDI was not an active participant in the MIDI Association or in further developing new MIDI specs. He had made his contribution and moved on to the next thing which was always building his next great synth. But in a recent interview in the fall of 2021, he had come around to appreciating many of the ideas in MIDI 2.0.
In fact, he almost begrudgingly accepted interviews about his contributions to MIDI and was much more comfortable talking about his newest synth design, then things he had done in the past.
Like so many brilliant and creative people, he always focused on the future.
One thing is clear.
Though no one lives forever, the contributions that some people make to the arts will last for a very, very long time.
The contributions Dave made not just to MIDI, but to making synthesizers popular as full-fledged members of the musical instrument family will resonant for centuries to come.
He will always be missed, but he also always be in our hearts and in our music.
For those wishing to send condolences to the Smith family and share thoughts and memories of Dave and his creations, Sequential invites the public to send comments to RememberingDave@sequential.com.