Early to Rise: 13-Year-Old Singer/Songwriter Sophia Dion Performs With HARMAN’s DigiTech Vocalist Live 3 Harmony/Effects Processor

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – She might be just 13, but Park City, Utah-based Sophia Dion is already well into her professional music career. Combining folk, pop and country influences, she started playing guitar at age 10 and while on a trip to Nashville was discovered by the owner of a guitar company who signed her to a performing artist deal. She’s played on stages with Reese Wynans, Tracy Nelson, John Oates, Ashley Cleveland and other artists – and recently discovered the benefits of HARMAN’s DigiTech Vocalist 3 harmony synthesizer and effects processor.

The Vocalist 3 provides three-part harmony and real-time pitch correction and automatically follows a singer’s vocals and the chord progressions they’re playing. There’s no need to pre-program a song’s key changes to create accurate harmonies, making it ideally suited for live performing. For performers like Dion, the Vocalist 3 facilitates greater musical expression, especially when doing gigs as a solo performer without a backup band.

“I like the high harmony setting of the Vocalist 3 best of all,” Dion said. “I can set it to be a third above my voice and it adds more ‘flavor’ to my singing. Also, I really like the way you can save two different harmonies in the pedal’s ‘A’ or ‘B’ setting, which lets you switch harmonies during a song to add different vocal parts. When I’m playing alone without a band, it gives me a fuller sound to work with.”

Dion had never used a Vocalist while performing live until recently but found it was easy to become a convert. She was drawn to it because of its sound but also its ease of use. “It’s really visually oriented – everything is right there in front of you to see. I am young and sometimes get overwhelmed by too much stuff going on while I’m playing guitar and singing at the same time. The Vocalist 3 makes it easy because I just step on a button and bam, easy as that I get a perfect harmony.”

Dion likes the Vocalist 3’s versatility, noting that some songs call for a fuller sound with multiple harmonies while some benefit from a simple approach. On any given song she might add a high harmony, a lower vocal part or both, often changing up the vocal accompaniment during different sections of a song. “The Vocalist 3 lets me easily add harmonies in any combination I’d like.”

“I feel like the Vocalist 3 is a product that was designed by people who are both techies and musicians,” Dion noted. “ I almost want to keep the Vocalist 3 a secret because it’s so awesome – but I’m having too much fun using it and you can’t keep a good thing a secret.”

The Vocalist Live 3 automatically follows a singer’s vocals and the chord progressions they’re playing using patented musIQ^®technology. MusIQ eliminates the need to pre-program the song’s key changes, making it easier to use than other vocal processors. The Live 3 also provides a number of different vocal effects, EQ and pitch correction to help give vocals a professional studio-quality sound.

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of audio, lighting and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson®, and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with Harman audio and infotainment systems. Harman has a workforce of about 14,300 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.