Eventide Inc. (also known earlier as Eventide Clock Works Inc.) is an American pro audio, broadcast and communications company whose audio division manufactures digital effects processors,

digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit chips. ...

(DSP) software, and

guitar effects An effects unit, effects processor, or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion (music), distortion/overdrive, ...

pedals. Eventide was one of the first companies to manufacture digital audio processors, and its products are mainstays in

sound recording and reproduction Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

, post production, and

broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

studios.

Beginnings

Eventide was founded by recording engineer Stephen Katz, inventor Richard Factor, and businessman/patent attorney Orville Greene. The business was founded in the basement of the Sound Exchange, a recording studio located at 265 West 54th Street in New York City and owned by Greene. When Katz needed to rewind the analog tape back to a specific point on their Ampex MM1000 multitrack recorder, but limited space in the studio did not allow for a tape op (a person who would operate the tape recorder on behalf of the sound engineer), Katz asked Factor to build a gadget that would do the job, and the resulting device turned into an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) success for

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

. Other early products included a two-second delay for telephone research and an electrostatic deflector for dispensing nanoliter quantities of chemical reagents. Eventide's original product line consisted of two products: the Instant Phaser (the result of an

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or product ...

Show appearance and Eventide's first answer to tape-based

flanging Flanging is an audio signal processing, audio effect produced by mixing two identical audio signal, signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a ...

), and what would become the 1745 Digital Delay Line (the result of a significant order from Maryland Public Broadcasting and the world's first digital pro audio device). InstantFlanger-Rack

Beginning with the 1745M, Eventide began widely using

random-access memory Random-access memory (RAM; ) is a form of Computer memory, electronic computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working Data (computing), data and machine code. A random-access memory device allows ...

(RAM) chips in many of their products. After purchasing a

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

computer for researching

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

algorithms and needing to upgrade the memory in order for the computer to handle the necessary complex computations, Eventide designers realized that they could manufacture computer memory expansion far more affordably than the current market price. Therefore, Eventide began to manufacture and sell HP-compatible RAM expansion boards and did so from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. In 2017, Richard Factor was interviewed about Eventide's history on the Gear Club podcast in episodes 6 and 7.

Aviation

Shortly after Eventide moved its offices from

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

to New Jersey, its president earned a private airplane pilot's license. Surprised that moving map displays were not available for small airplanes, he had Eventide develop Argus, the first moving map system, and one of the first multi-function displays designed for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

use.

Digital voice logging and recording

In the early 1990s, Eventide developed digital voice logging recorders that enabled broadcasters, police, 911 centers and utilities to begin archiving digitally with improved audio quality and far greater storage capabilities than they previously had been working with. Eventide's early recorder models (VR240, VR320, DiR-911T, VR615, VR725 and VR778) were installed worldwide. In 2012, Eventide introduced its “NexLog” Communications Recorders for P25, NG911, public safety, utilities, and air traffic control facilities. These mission-critical recording systems capture, store, protect, reproduce, and manage important multimedia interactions and critical data. In 2020, Eventide introduced its “NexLog DX-Series” Communications Recording Solutions, which added support for virtualization, increased the maximum channel capacity to 540 per unit, and added full HTML5-based monitoring and replay of voice, PC screens, imagery, video and data.

H910 Harmonizer

The Eventide H910 Harmonizer was first demonstrated to universally positive reactions at the AES show in late 1974. It was designed by Eventide's first engineer, Tony Agnello (who went on to become the president of Eventide's audio division). The pre-production prototype was a hand-wired box topped with a music keyboard controller (which was developed into the HK 941).

Jon Anderson Jon Anderson (born John Roy Anderson, 25 October 1944) is a British, and latterly American, singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the former lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassis ...

of the band

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

was among those impressed and became a tester for the first prototype. The production H910 was released in 1975, offering

pitch shift Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are known as pitch shifters. Pitch and ...

ing (±1 octave), delay (up to 112.5 ms),

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

regeneration and other features in an easy-to-use box that sold for $1,600. The H910 model number refers to the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

song "

One After 909 "One After 909" (sometimes entitled "The One After 909" in early recordings) is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album '' Let It Be''. It was written by John Lennon, with input from Paul McCartney, and credited to their ...

". The first H910 customer was New York City's Channel 5, utilizing it to downward pitch shift ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian ...

'' reruns that were sped up to create room to run more advertisements. Speeding up the reruns had increased the pitch of the audio, and the H910 was able to shift that pitch back to where it originally had been.

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

and

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

added it to their guitar processing rigs. Producer

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

used the H910 to create the snare sound on

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's album '' Low'' (1977), as did Tony Platt on

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

's song " Back in Black" (1980). Chuck Hammer in 1979 used it as an integral part of his Guitar Synth rig on tour with

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

and in 1980 with David Bowie. Another popular application was to use two H910s slightly detuned with a small delay. Notable users of this twin Harmonizer effect included

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

, who used it for his trademark guitar sound, and

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1962) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at Unique Recording in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground ...

, who used it for the vocals on the hit

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

song " Back in the High Life Again" (1986). Recognizing the popularity of this application, Eventide later recreated it as the "Dual 910" program in the H3000 UltraHarmonizer released in the late 1980s. The H910 was also one of Eventide's first devices to enter the world of film, and was used on the voice of

R2-D2 R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date, including every film in the " Skywalker Saga", which inclu ...

in ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

''. The H910 Harmonizer was recognized by the AES with a TECnology Hall of Fame award in 2007. On November 10, 1976, Eventide filed a trademark registration for "Harmonizer" and continues to maintain its rights to the Harmonizer trademark today.

Timeline of noteworthy products

* PS 101 Instant Phaser (1971) - The first studio phaser, and pro audio's first rack mount effects unit. Used on classic songs such as

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

's "

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

." Used analog all-pass filters to phase shift. * 1745 Digital Delay Line (1971) - First digital pro audio device. Two channels of independent delay from a single input, with the delays ranging from 0 to 200 milliseconds. First used at the 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. Inducted into the TECnology Hall of Fame in 2018. * DDL 1745A (1973) - Modification of 1745 DDL with easier with more user-friendly shift registers * Omnipressor (1974) - First dynamics effects processor with a wide range of functions beyond compression and limiting as they were known. Innovated dynamic reversal and infinite compression, and was the first device to implement side-chain compression. * DDL 1745M (1975) - Another variant of the original 1745, replacing shift registers with Random Access Memory (RAM) which allowed for finer resolution delay. This version was one of the first uses of RAM in an audio product, and also had an optional pitch change module, one of the first products of this kind with a frequency response suitable for music. * Instant Flanger (1975) - One of the first pro audio flanger devices to authentically simulate tape flanging. Used bucket brigade chips to achieve the short delays necessary for flanging. * H910 Harmonizer(1975) - First commercially available pitch changer and first digital multi-effects processor. * BD955 (1977) - "Obscenity Delay" allowed broadcasters sufficient delay to delete any objectionable content (like from a live telephone caller on a radio show) with no apparent interruption to the program. It was the successor to a custom 1 1/4 second delay built for WPLJ NY 95.5 which was the first electronic delay for broadcast. Later ABC also commissioned a five-minute custom delay used to delay the radio network news. * H949 Harmonizer (1979) - Harmonizer with finely controllable pitch change capability. Used for "doubling" vocals and had "de-glitch" option for greatly reducing objectionable artifacts in harmonized audio. * SP2016 (1982) - Early Digital Reverb processor utilizing DSP and first effects device to publish its SDK so that 3rd party developers could develop "plug-in" algorithms. * H3000 (1986) - First intelligent/diatonic pitch shifting. Used the 16-bit TMS320 DSP chip. * DSP4000 (1994) - User-programmable algorithms with a large toolkit of DSP functions * DSP4000B, DSP4000B+ - Series of processors with algorithms written for broadcast and film production, by sound designer Jay Rose. * DSP4500 (1998) - Similar to DSP4000 with the addition of sampling * DSP7000 (2001) - Pitch shifter / effects processor with four times more processing power than the DSP4000 series * DSP7500 (2001) - Similar to DSP7000 with the addition of sampling * Orville (2001) - Pitch shifter / effects processor with twice the processing power of the DSP7000 / DSP7500 processors and up to 8 channels * Eclipse (2002) - First Eventide effects processor to come in single rackspace unit * Clockworks Legacy (2003) - Software plug-in versions of classic Eventide effects and DSP * BD500 (2004) - 40-second version of Eventide's fourth-generation broadcast profanity delay H9Max

* Anthology TDM Bundle (2005) * H8000FW (2005) - Successor to Orville with increased processing power * H7600 (2006) - Successor to the DSP7000 series with increased processing power * Stompbox Line (2007) - TimeFactor, ModFactor, Pitchfactor, Space, H9, Powerfactor * H9000 Network Effects Platform - Modular ARM based DSP design.

Beginnings

Aviation

Digital voice logging and recording

H910 Harmonizer

Timeline of noteworthy products

See also

References

External links