“When a device like the Harmonizer is introduced, there really is no equivalent to it,” says Agnello. Eventide figured that a primary application would be for a singer to self-generate harmonies by changing the pitch of their own voice, so they called it the Harmonizer. As the world’s first digital effects unit, the Harmonizer also planted the flag for electronic production and the digital revolution that would ultimately make the machine obsolete. And that was only the beginning.Ĭombined with the machine’s delay and feedback tools, the Harmonizer created a new universe of far-out effects with which musicians could bend, shape and expand sound in ways never before possible. By simply turning a knob, 30 seconds of electric guitar played in A minor could, for example, become 30 seconds of electric guitar played in C major. “It’s a no-brainer.”Īs the world’s first commercially available pitch-changing device, the H910 Harmonizer made it possible for artists to change the pitch of a sound without also changing its duration. “, ‘Wow, for equivalent of 10,000 dollars, I can run three more minutes of commercials every night and not have my audience go away because she’s screeching?’” says Eventide’s Tony Agnello, who invented the machine. A tidal wave of revenue hit Eventide headquarters, then located in Manhattan at 265 West 54th Street in the basement of the Sound Exchange recording studio. With this stroke of capitalist ingenuity, Eventide began shipping the enormously expensive pieces of equipment to television stations across the country. Lucile Ball was dashing around her apartment ten percent faster, but speaking in her same signature tone. The Harmonizer made it possible to lower these voices back to their normal human pitches while maintaining the higher speed at which the tape was being played. Affiliates were playing old episodes of I Love Lucy slightly faster to make time for the newly expanded advertising segments, but found that speeding up the tape made Lucy, Desi, Fred and Ethel’s voices obnoxiously cartoonish. Although the H910 Harmonizer – the newest machine from audio equipment manufacturer Eventide – was intended for use among musicians, in it local station managers saw a workaround to a vexing problem. In the early ’70s, the FCC had loosened restrictions on how many commercials could be aired during television shows.
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If you want a good, concise run-down of what it does then the H910 page on Eventide’s site is a good place to start.For a machine capable of manipulating time itself, the Eventide Harmonizer’s origins in late-night TV reruns seem rather banal. It’s the Bowie/Visconti snare sound – for us that’s enough right there… The game-changing quality of what Eventide did is evident from the fact that the sound still in demand enough for Universal Audio to develop a plug in. Zappa, Bowie, AC/DC and a slew of other artists made use of it. See all our current Eventide listings, and if you don’t see the model you need then check the stock sheet, or get in touch to reserve the next one available.Ĭombining pitch change with delay and feedback, when it was released in the mid-70s it was the first commercially available digital effect.
We’re totally hooked on these Eventide boxes – both this one and the H949. We have found that nearly all units sold as “working” are not operating correctly they may make interesting noises, but are a long way from fully-functional unpicking “damage” done by previous technicians is laborious and usually necessary to restore them to original spec.
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These machines require a serious amount of work to bring them back up to full operational order, not to mention the many, many hours of tech time that we’ve invested in understanding their design and construction. We know (and love!) these boxes and have great experience in delivering them in superb operational order buy with confidence. This unit is covered by our standard 3 month warranty access to our tech/service support available to the original purchaser thereafter.Ĭompletely overhauled by an early Eventide specialist and subjected to rigorous and extended testing in our studio before shipping. As one of our customers said, it is more akin to adding another instrument to your set-up than just another effect. Can be extremely difficult to work on but they are worth the considerable effort, time and tech’s brain cells. Swapping to 120v may be possible – please get in touch for more information. The other has more signs of age/use (and is cheaper) – see the site or get in touch for details. One of two we have available for sale right now. It will ship within 15 working days of purchase. NOTE: This unit has been overhauled and is now in the final stages of testing.