Vibrations of a principal machine are reduced at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies by driving the drive motor of an active balancer with balancing signals at the fundamental and selected harmonics. Vibrations are sensed to provide a signal representing the mechanical vibrations. A balancing signal generator for the fundamental and for each selected harmonic processes the sensed vibration signal with adaptive filter algorithms of adaptive filters for each frequency to generate a balancing signal for each frequency. Reference inputs for each frequency are applied to the adaptive filter algorithms of each balancing signal generator at the frequency assigned to the generator. The harmonic balancing signals for all of the frequencies are summed and applied to drive the drive motor. The harmonic balancing signals drive the drive motor with a drive voltage component in opposition to the vibration at each frequency.