Pittsburgh Business Times
August 7, 2020
Patty Tascarella
For almost two decades, Rob Deaner has been one of Pittsburgh’s best known names in creative music and sound design for corporations, advertising agencies and film productions.
Now his company, originally known as Market Street Sound and rebranded as Contagious Music three years ago, has a new name — v6 MUSIC + POST.
And it is moving from downtown Pittsburgh to Neville Island later this month where v6 will occupy its own studio at The Vault, a venture led by Robert McCutcheon, the former Pittsburgh managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, that began operating commercially two years ago.
Deaner’s plan to rebrand and relocate began a year ago.
“The way that our industry works has changed so significantly that the expense and limitations of being downtown did not make sense to me any longer,” Deaner said. “Gone are the days when clients lived with us for days or weeks, requiring catered lunches, support staff, proximity and everything else that goes with the way we used to work.”
Now clients are more likely to stop by for an hour or two to get things started, leaving Deaner to finish and send files for final approval. Much of the time clients and talent just connect remotely.But he was also attracted to what McCutcheon is building at The Vault.
“There are multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning engineers there who also happen to be my friends,” Deaner said. “There is some extremely rare and sought-after vintage equipment and a modern recording environment. There is a great community, talent pool and a tremendous positive energy. It’s something I have not seen before in Pittsburgh and I wanted to be a part of it.”
So McCutcheon and Deaner decided to build a new, additional studio for Deaner to bring audio post-production and to augment what was already in place.
Deaner vacated his downtown facility in June. Although he has employed several staffers in the past, v6 is a solo enterprise for now.
“I’m just getting started,” Deaner said. “The new studio on Neville Island is nearly complete. We anticipate opening this month.”
The new company’s areas of specialization include original music and short songs for commercials, film and art, creative sound design, audio post-production and voice recording.
McCutcheon created The Vault as a family business, purchasing and renovating the old bank building on Neville Island as its home base. Even during his 28-year career in accounting, he continued to play, write and record music. The Vault has a world class recording studio and equipment, record label, recording school and community outreach programs through charitable work.
Jimmy Hoyson, six-time Grammy Award winning producer/engineer, is chief engineer. McCutcheon, who retired from PwC in late 2018 capped by the last eight at its helm, is founder, CEO, producer, mixer and engineer at The Vault.
