Sequential Prophet-5

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology

Sequential Prophet-5 · The Minimoog could play only one note at a time. Dave Smith and John Bowen of Sequential Circuits in San Jose built a synthesizer that plays five notes at once, and therefore chords as well. That is called polyphonic. What was new above all was the memory: a small computer remembered all the settings of a sound, so that you could change sounds at the press of a button, on stage too. Smith showed the Prophet-5 in January 1978 at the NAMM show in California. It became a sound of new wave and synth-pop, from The Cars and Japan to Talking Heads, and later of Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Listening

• 
  Let's Go · The Cars, 1979
• 
  Ghosts · Japan, 1981
• 
  This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) · Talking Heads, 1983

In School of Rock

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• Genre Map · Technology^NL Map

See also

• Synthpop
• New Romantic