Tom Erbe has played an important role in American experimental and electronic music for the last 20 years. In addition to his pioneering and widely used program SoundHack, he has become one of the most sought after and respected sound engineers for contemporary music.Tom studied computer science and music at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and got his initial audio engineering experiences at WEFT, WPGU, and Faithful Sound Studios.

In 1987, Tom became the Technical Director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. At Mills, he worked as computer music and recording engineer with composers Robert Ashley; David Rosenboom; Larry Polansky; James Tenney; and Alvin Curran. His research work at CCM included the program SoundHack, and the design of a 4-channel spatial audio processor for the NASA Ames Research Center.

In 1993, Tom joined the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts as Technical Director of the computer music studios. Here he continued his work with SoundHack and spectral techniques, teaching courses in computer music, programming, and audio engineering. Tom also directed the design and construction of CalArts' Dizzy Gillespie Recording Studios. While at CalArts, he archived the David Tudor collection for the Getty Research Institute.

In 2004, he joined the faculty of UCSD in the Department of Music. At UCSD, Tom developed the Spectral Shapers, Delay Trio and Freesound plugin bundles, which explore new and old techniques in computer sound processing. Tom was instrumental in the design and construction of the Conrad Prebys Music Center, which opened in April 2009.