Steven Curtin has been programming in the Forth language since 1981. In the Summer of 1982 developed a sequencer program for controlling analog synthesizers running on the Apple II, called MUSEQ. He later extended this system to control a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer through its pre-MIDI digital interface, as well as a Mountain Music System digital oscillator card for the Apple II.

While at Mills he started using HMSL, an object-oriented Forth-based music language developed there, as his primary interactive composition environment. From 1990-1992 he wrote pseudo-object-oriented 68HC11 Forth code for Chris Van Raalte's "BodySynth" EMG Biofeedback MIDI Controller using the New Micros Forth board with Max-Forth.

His software development experience includes six years of Macintosh applications and system programming. While a grad student at Mills and during the Summer he developed Patch Editor Macintosh Applications for
Opcode Systems, supporting the Kawai K3, Ensoniq ESQ-1 and Oberheim Matrix 1000. After working in robotics PC applications and consulting for Apple Computer, he worked for Passport Designs [R.I.P.] as their Digital Audio Macintosh programmer, developing the AudioTrax MIDI and internal sound application and extending the Alchemy sound editor. He then worked for Studer-Editech on the Dyaxis II digital audio workstation, extending the MultiMix application using object-oriented C and the Think Class Library, and developing an embedded 80C552 based moving-fader mixing controller.

From 1993-1996 he was a Software Engineer in Advanced Product R&D at Ensoniq Corp, a synthesizer manufacturer in Malvern, Pennsylvania. While at Ensoniq he developed the Midi Tuning Standard Implementation for the MR-Rack and MR-61 and 76 synthesizers. He also used Phil Burk's pForth on Windows NT to control Ensoniq DSPs and for DSP software development. While at Ensoniq he attended a course on the mathematics of Digital Signal Processing taught by Jon Dattorro.