Eventide

Eventide started in New York in 1971 and soon sold one of the first digital delays, built from shift registers at a time when memory was expensive. The H910 Harmonizer of the mid-1970s shifted pitch in real time, with glitchy artefacts that producers quickly learned to love. The H3000 of the 1980s became a studio staple for everything from widened guitars to harmonies nobody ever sang.

The company has also made navigation equipment for aircraft, an odd sideline for an effects maker. Today the same algorithms ship as pedals and plugins, so a sound that once needed a full rack now sits on the floor in front of the guitarist.