SoundHack is the work of Tom Erbe, a professor of computer music at UC San Diego who began developing the original SoundHack application for the Macintosh in 1991. The original program was one of the first widely circulated freeware computer music tools, offering spectral and time-domain processing — phase vocoder, convolution, binaural filtering, varispeed/sample-rate conversion, and ring modulation — at a time when those techniques were largely confined to academic studios. It won first prize at the inaugural Concours de Logiciels Musicaux in Bourges and was used by sound designer Dane Davis on The Matrix.

The SoundHack name now covers a catalog of audio plug-ins released in AU, VST, VST3, and AAX formats, along with externals for Max and Pure Data. Bundles include the Pvoc Kit (phase vocoder and granular tools), Spectral Shapers (spectral filtering and dynamics), and the Delay Bundle (++flipper, ++bubbler, ++pitchdelay, and others). Many of the plug-ins began as demonstrations for Erbe's classes at UCSD before being polished into commercial releases, and a number of older tools remain available as free downloads.

SoundHack also has a long-running collaboration with Asheville-based Make Noise on Eurorack modules built around Erbe's DSP work. The Echophon — a pitch-shifting echo inspired by the Springer Tempophon — and the Telharmonic are among the resulting designs, extending the SoundHack approach to spectral and time-based processing into modular hardware.

Soundhack has 9 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Delay Plugins, FX Bundle Plugins, and Spectral Analysis Plugins. Their gear is featured by 3 artists, with the strongest followings in Electronic, Rock, and Pop. Notable users include Fennesz, Eric Persing, and Paul Epworth.