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 had an Eventide H910 Harmonizer amongst his equipment as early as around 1977. It is seen in this photo of Peter recording at home, as well as this late 1970s concert photo. At that time, it was probably more for processing keyboard sounds.

It would eventually be used a lot on Peter Gabriel's voice, especially on his second and third solo albums (called "Scratch" and "Melt", respectively). It probably began with Robert Fripp (then promoted as a producer on "Scratch") who liked feeding Peter's voice through the Harmonizer to make a double-tracking effect. However, the vocals on the record have a stereo spectrum, while the Harmonizer is normally mono; so the Harmonizer signal was probably recorded to a separate track on the multitrack (or the harmonizer was patched into a separate channel in the console) and blended in with the original voice in the mix but shafted at a slightly higher level. It was a very dry-sounding two-dimensional effect, which suited the rather cold feel of the album. This probably inspired him to use the Harmonizer again on the third album; engineer Hugh Padgham remembered at that point Peter felt naked without it - this time it was a straight mono sound with a slight detuning and delay.

The Eventide H910 was a part of his rack units on the Melt tour. And also one of his home studio units during the making of the So record (and possibly Security). But by then he seemed to prefer the AMS DMX 15-80S delay/harmonizer. The Eventide nonetheless remained, later being moved to the Work Room at Real World Studios.

Larry Fast also used the Harmonizer (one that belonged to the studio) 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.