Steve Hales
Senior Software Engineer at Apple
Palo Alto, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolSteve Hales is a senior software engineer and founder with a multi-decade career shaping audio, mobile, and consumer products from the era of 8-bit game design to modern Apple platforms. He pioneered software MIDI synthesis on the first Macs—technology that seeded QuickTime Music Architecture, Beatnik, and JavaSound—and later defined mobile audio for the T-Mobile Sidekick at Danger. Steve has led engineering and product teams at startups and giants alike (Nest, Zuli, Voxer, Afero) and now contributes to “magical” projects at Apple, blending deep systems expertise with product sensibility. He’s equally comfortable writing low-level audio engines and shipping consumer-facing apps, and prefers building teams by example rather than directive. Based in Palo Alto, he runs his own engineering studio, Igor's Software Labs, keeping a hands-on role in design and architecture. An unusual throughline in his work is turning experimental hacks (from AM radio tricks to software synths) into widely deployed, commercial technology.
14 years of coding experience
21 years of employment as a software developer
Computer Science, Computer Science at Las Positas College
Github Skills (47)
eagle10
audio-effect10
jack10
audiounit10
use-case10
wav10
aiff10
midi10
audio10
footprint10
sampler10
computer-music10
coreanimation10
synth10
music10
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
heyigor/mindwheel
Jun 2015 - Jun 2018
Contributions:28 commits, 26 pushes, 2 branches in 3 years
heyigor/miniBAE
Jun 2011 - Oct 2021
The platform-neutral Beatnik Audio Engine, Mini Edition (miniBAE) is an exceptionally mature, well-rounded, and reliable computer music and sound system specially customized for small-footprint and embedded applications.
Contributions:1 review, 73 commits, 6 PRs in 10 years 5 months
midisynthcustomizedaudiounitsdl
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.