Dave Smith Instruments And Roger Linn Design LinnDrum II: Dave Smith Created MIDI, And He'll Destroy It If You Don't Behave
Dave Smith has seen his share of NAMM shows and has made history at a good number of them. We were hoping to see more working on the LinnDrum II, but it was just there for looks. Fortunately, we caught something even more exciting -- Dave Smith.
We talk to Dave himself about the Prophet '08 and the LinnDrum II. Dave is confident that the LinnDrum II will cast a heavy shadow on the Akai MPC series. It's about time a heavy hitter stepped up against the MPC monopoly.
BILL HOLLAND: Welcome back to Gearwire.Com. We're live in Anaheim for the Winter 2008 NAMM session. I'm here with Dave Smith, and we're looking at the Prophet '08 and the LinnDrum II. Dave, tell me a little bit about both of these.
DAVE SMITH: Okay. Well, we'll start with the Prophet '08 with what's left of my voice at the show. The keyboard's been out now about three or four months. It's an eight-voice, all-analog signal path synthesizer. Classic. Using the same basic Curtis filters that we used in the Prophet 5 and the Prophet T8, etc. 30 years ago. In fact, it was at this show in 1978 that we introduced the Prophet 5, just as a reference point, back when it was in the basement of the Disneyland Hotel. The show's a little smaller back then. Anyhow, as you can see, compact, the price is right, 2000 bucks street price, and goes well beyond what the Prophet 5 could do but it's got the same basic soul, same basic sounds, goes well beyond it. New at the show, we're announcing the tabletop version which is also rack-mountable. This will be out March. The street price in this is $1,500 which when you think about it, eight voices, all analog, 1,500 bucks, you know, why bother that virtual stuff?
BILL HOLLAND: It's a great price.
DAVE SMITH: Exactly. The LinnDrum is a work in progress. We decided to go ahead and bring the box here even though we're not playing sounds out of it yet, but we just wanted people to get a physical feel for the unit and see what it looks like and so forth. The concept is basically be able to program it both MPC-use-wise and TR style so hit both the hip hop group and the techno guys and everybody in between. Coming out in two versions, one will be all digital, the other will be mostly digital but also have four analog channels so it'll be able to get to add analog drum sound through there.
BILL HOLLAND: Awesome.
DAVE SMITH: So, we're hoping to get it out by the end of the year, and judging from what everybody's telling us, it's going to be pretty crazily successful.
BILL HOLLAND: Fantastic. I was actually raving about this earlier last week because just the simplicity of it but the fact that the way it's setup, I'm really hoping -- I just can't wait to hear it. I think it's going to be awesome, so.
DAVE SMITH: It's going to sound great, and of course Roger is the king of drum machines so it's going to be the kind of product that when you take it out of the box and 15 minutes later you're going to have some grooves going just because it's going to be easier to use, people will be familiar with the basic feel of it, and the sounds will be there and...
BILL HOLLAND: It goes without saying yeah you solved it, the high-fidelity sound with it at the same time.
DAVE SMITH: Exactly, so it's combination of ease of use, features, and sound. And you know the world needs a new drum machine. You know, MPCs have been spinning there for quite a few years, and let's just start for something new.
BILL HOLLAND: If you noticed my review of both of these initially was that, and it seems like my hopes were completely well founded, but I said, you know, every once in a while, you need a new synthesizer or a new drum machine to come along that becomes a new sort of benchmark if you will, and I think that -- personally, I think that the LinnDrum II is going to be that.
DAVE SMITH: I think so too, and the Prophet '08 is that too. I mean there are...
BILL HOLLAND: Oh. Oh yeah.
DAVE SMITH: There's nothing like it out there. There are no old-style polyphonic analog synths and certainly not for the price, and it's just good for people. A lot of people have never heard the real thing. They're used to all the simulations and now when they hear the real thing they go, "Oh, okay. I get it now," and it's --
BILL HOLLAND: Well, and you're bringing it along because you can control it with MIDI and all of the new technology that obviously you helped developed is integrated into the analog sounds, so you get the best of both worlds.
DAVE SMITH: Yeah. Another landmark was 25 years ago at this show, it was the first time two MIDI keyboards were connected together: a Roland keyboard and a Sequential Circuits keyboard so there's been a lot of historical things going on.
BILL HOLLAND: Awesome. Well Dave, thank you again.
DAVE SMITH: Thank you.
BILL HOLLAND: And we'll be back with more from Winter NAMM 2008 in Anaheim on Gearwire.Com.
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