David Earl Director of Production Services
Composer "David Earl is busy making things happen @ Pyramind." This is the status most often seen on Dave's social networking profiles during the week, and sometimes on weekends too. And people are watching. Dave has over 10,000 subscribers on YouTube alone, and those numbers are growing as he continues to put his creativity on worldwide display, and helps to open a window into the world of music composition and production. With classical training in both Piano and Brass, David uses his deep knowledge of music combined with his intuitive grasp of technology and composition to help create the Pyramind Production Sound. For the past 15 years, he's rocked clubs with dance remixes, worked with chamber groups, played in bands, run large format and project studios, and even performed his own pieces in wind ensembles. His creativity is battle-tested in the field. David has written music for advertising under the tutelage of Andy Newell of Ripesound, helped with audio branding for companies such as Citi, Microsoft, and AMD for Landor, and teamed up with Backbone Entertainment to work on many PC downloadable games as well as console titles. He has also produced albums for artists like Marrow and helped fellow composers like Ron Ramin with orchestration and arranging. All this, with the occasional award-winning independent film and TV placement!
"Pyramind Production, with Paul, Greg, Matt, and Michael - is the first place I felt at home amongst meticulous, fun-loving, hyper-professional, crazy, creative types like myself."
From complex modular synthesis and glitch-based electronica to deep orchestration, David will be sure to provide you with what you need when you need it with care that borders on obsessive. David, along with composer Paul Lipson, can always be found in the Loft and the Roost, creating hybrids of orchestral and electronic music in their labs/studios. |
Paul Lipson Chief Operating Officer
Composer For over seventeen years, Paul has refined his skills in management, strategy, music, and education. His career has taken him all over the world, and his passion for audio, technology, and the performing arts has helped him advocate for advancement in the interactive entertainment industry.
Paul is extremely passionate about music and interactive audio, and he currently serves as the President of the Game Audio Network Guild - the leading worldwide organization of game audio professionals. He has worked closely with the Officers of G.A.N.G. to originate the industry-first Program Partnership Initiative, and was the mastermind behind the Guild Scholarship Award for Game Audio. Paul was awarded the G.A.N.G. “Distinguished Service Award” at the 2006 Game Developer’s Conference for his work in education and advocacy for the interactive audio arts. Before joining the team at Pyramind, he served as the co-founder and CEO of Hit Point Music (HPM) - a development company specializing in music for games and screen . His team produced for an array of elite clients, including projects for America Online, Hasbro Interactive, Harmonix/Sonic Implants, Associated Production Music, Hyundai Automotive, Killer Tracks, The Environmental Protection Agency, Urbane-Dog Creative, and Legends-Tribal War, just to name a few. Paul holds a Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree highest distinction from the world-renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He is a member of the International Game Developers Association, The Music Educators National Conference, BMI, and the Game Audio Network Guild. |
Gregory J. Gordon Chief Executive Officer
Producer / Engineer
Mixing / Remixing / Mastering Gregory J. Gordon graduated with honors from SF State University with an inter-disciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree of his own creation in Music, Business, and Broadcasting. His passion for knowledge and independence led him to become a Mix, Mastering and re-mix engineer, a producer, an educator and an award winning sound designer and entrepreneur. Greg started Pyramind in 1988 and was one of the first to build and operate a fully integrated MIDI and digital audio production studio in the SF Bay Area. In his twenty years as a studio owner and producer he has worked with a wide variety of commercial and AAA video game clients. His passion for music has also led him to engineer and produce numerous recordings for notable artists including: Rocker T featuring Joan Baez, Merl Saunders featuring Jerry Garcia, JT The Bigga Figga, Native, and Goddess Gaia. His work with Goddess Gaia was included on the 2004 best selling double CD, Destination Lounge San Francisco and his work with Native (under the pseudonym G.2) received critical acclaim and sold over 75,000 copies on the Priority Records distributed album “Trance Ambient”.Greg is now in his fourth term as a governor for the SF chapter of The National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences and was recently elected Trustee by his peers on the board. |
Matt Donner Producer / Engineer
5.1 Mixing / Mastering Matt Donner has been playing music his whole life. He played throughout college while earning a Bachelor's degree in quantitative Business Analysis but left to cut his Producer and Engineering chops in NYC. He found himself working for high-profile studios like Sound on Sound (Diddy, Anita Baker) and Greene Street (Run DMC and Public Enemy) right after earning his Masters in Music and Music Technology at NYU. He went on to perform for various TV studios and John Cale (Velvet Underground) that included 3 feature film scores using Pro Tools version 1.0 and a two-day live event to open the Andy Warhol Museum. After signing his band to an indy record deal, his cross-country tour brought him to SF where the drummer exploded - how typical. Matt quickly found himself in high demand in the studio scene as a rare experienced Pro Tools user and became an award-winning Regional Technical Director for Guitar Center, and the Pro Tools Support Lead for the Cutting Edge Audio Group where he served as studio designer, installer and trainer for the likes of Joe Satriani, Metallica, Benny Reitveld (Santana and the SF Jazz Fest) as well as hundreds of private studios including Wally World (Walter A., N'Sync, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion). A crowning achievement during this period was to install, troubleshoot, deliver and support 50 Pro Tools workstations for the legendary Skywalker Sound during production of Star Wars Episode 1. In January 2000, he and Greg Gordon began working together exclusively at Pyramind where they began running the hybrid Production/ Training businesses successfully. Matt has served the company as Chief Engineer, Senior Producer/ Composer, Chief Technical Officer, Vice-President and now Chief Academic Officer. He has mixed/mastered a hundred or so records (including his own released in 2002) as well as publishing several magazine articles. Matt has also written two texts on Pro Tools (Pro Tools Overdrive V 6.9 and V7 for Thomson Press). |
Steve Heithecker Chief Engineer
Mixing / Editing Steve is an accomplished composer, producer and keyboardist who has worked on more records than he can count and loves adding to that number. Steve has also written and produced music for live theater as well as film and video productions. Before moving his studio to Pyramind he was the co-founder of Digital Art & Music, a recording studio specializing in hip-hop/rap and alternative rock music. Steve is a Pro Tools and Reason expert user and trainer. As a writer, Steve co-authored the highly respected "Pro Tools 7 Session Secrets: Professional Recipes for High-Octane Results" for Wiley publishing, a book that brought numerous insider techniques to light for anyone using Pro Tools. Steve is also a master artist and graphic designer. He has designed dozens and dozens of albums and CD's over the years, and in his current position as Art Director for Pyramind, he is responsible for the look of Pyramind and Epiphyte Records, Pyramind's in-house record label. |
Michael Roache
Studio and Dialog Pipeline Manager
Engineer
After graduating from Pyramind with the Digital Producer Certificate in 2007, Michael went from learning from the best in the biz to working with the best in the biz. Since then, his studio and live sound credits have included gigs with local acts like Marrow, The Blank Slates and Bhi Bhiman. You'll find Michael behind the scenes (and the wheel) of every event that Pyramind hosts. He is also an integral part of the Epiphyte Records staff and an honorary member of the Test Press Committee.
An East Coast native, Michael is at his best, and happiest, when he's in the studio hooking up microphones and running sessions. He knows his way around Pro Tools and a recording booth very well. However, being in the studio often takes a back seat to his managerial and organizational duties as Studio Manager. Luckily, he's really good at multitasking. Michael is also a guitarist and songwriter in his spare time. |
Hideki Yamashita Technical Director
IT Administrator Electronic music wiz/hip-hop producer for The Whereabouts and YBS, Deks came to Pyramind for the education and atmosphere, and to satisfy the curiosity he found in making music with computers. Fortunately, the melding of his passion for technology and music has brought him to an industry in which he thrives. An early Pyramind student, Hideki has since graduated to become Pyramind's IT Administrator and Assistant Technical Director. Deks works hard to maintain the technical infrastructure at both the 880 and 832 Folsom St. facilities, and the rigorous scheduling and technical requirements of a multi-room studio complex. |
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