Stephen Pearse Senior Software Engineer

About Me

I’m Stephen Pearse — audio/AI engineer and former academic who builds tools for music creators. I’ve led cross-platform DAWs, AI arrangement systems, semantic search, and payments platforms, pairing real-time audio chops with production engineering.

13+ Years
Audio/AI
2,500 Daily Active
Users
10 Languages
Shipped
<1 Mo ML Pipeline
Delivery
7 yrs Solo
Product

Current Focus

At Density I lead and architect audio/AI systems: an LLM-driven arrangement assistant (Copilot), a semantic search pipeline (MERT→CLaMP3, FAISS), a cross-platform pro DJ DAW, and a rent-to-own/payments platform. My work blends real-time constraints, production observability, and fast release cycles.

Foundation

I spent nine years in academia (PhD in music computing; Senior Lecturer) leading a music computing research group and MSc program. During that time I built Compose with Sounds, an EU-funded pedagogical DAW: custom C++/Qt engine, 10 languages, Mac/Win/Linux, deployed in European schools, with talks at ADC and SMC 2019.

What I’m good at

Real-time audio/DSP (C++/JUCE/Qt, <10ms paths), LLM + semantic search integrations, and building production pipelines that ship fast without breaking.

How I lead

Hands-on architecture with clear patterns, mentoring/interviewing, and cross-functional alignment with ML/backend/product to deliver under tight timelines.