Eventide H910 Harmonizer

The Eventide H910 Harmonizer was an early digital effects unit released in 1975 by Eventide Clock works. It featured a pitch shifter, feedback and delay functions. The possibilities this device brought were exploited in the work of many famous artists by the likes of AC/DC, David Bowie, Queen and Frank Zappa (to name a few).

Peter Gabriel and the Eventide H910
Peter Gabriel appears to have used the Eventide H910 Harmonizer since as early as around 1977. It is seen in this photo of Peter recording at home, as well as another from Peter's first solo tour, showing the external keyboard controller. The photos indicate it was presumably for processing keyboard sounds or pitch correction.

Besides, the Harmonizer would be used a lot on Peter Gabriel's voice for a double-tracking effect during the late 70s/early 80s era. Robert Fripp introduced that sound to him when producing Scratch, where he had a preference for feeding Peter's voice through the harmonizer instead of using the his natural voice. The Harmonizer was often dialled slightly louder than the original vocal in the mix, resulting in a relatively dry and shallow vocal sound.

Peter himself latched onto this new vocal sound, and went on to use it for his third and fourth albums (known as Melt and Security, respectively). Hugh Padgham (who engineered Melt) remembered that Peter felt "naked" without the Harmonizer. On Security as well, David Lord always had the Harmonizer on Peter's voice - at least for monitoring purposes only while tracking vocals. In the end most of the Harmonizer was ditched in the final mixes as Peter was becoming more comfortable with his natural voice. The Eventide remained in his studio racks at Ashcombe (and later Real World), although Peter later preferred other gear like the AMS for more subtle effects.

Larry Fast also used the Harmonizer (one that belonged to the studio, and later his own) to treat his synthesizers on the Melt and Security album and tours for both albums - for instance, the detuning of synths on "Biko".

Phil Collins and Eventide H910
Engineer Hugh Padgham employed the Harmonizer for a subtle chorusing/delay effect on Phil Collins' voice during the early 1980s; mainly on his early solo efforts Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going albums, coupled with an Allen & Heath Mini Limiter for attack. He later preferred using the AMS for Phil's voice, perhaps as it had less crude of a sound.