Zoom have just announced a handy-looking device, designed for processing vocals in real time. The top panel of the new V3 is dominated by a grid of 16 pads that lend it a deceptively MPC‑ish look, but which are in fact designed to offer speedy access to vocal treatments and effects for live performance.
The pad labels mostly speak for themselves, with all the traditional vocal processors covered — Harmony, Unison, Octave, Vocoder, Talkbox, Pitch Correct, and more — as well as a few unusual ones. The latter include Telephone and Robot effects, as well as a pad named Formant Correct, which allows you to change the character of your voice without affecting its pitch.
Over on the right-hand side are controls for the three master effects, which include compression, delay and reverb. The rear panel is where you'll find all the I/O, comprising a 48V phantom-powered mic input, stereo line outs, a headphone socket with dedicated volume control, an aux input for backing tracks and the like, plus a USB port that lets you use the V3 as a USB 2.0 audio interface capable of recording up to 16/24/32-bit, 44.1 kHz.
The Zoom V3 will sell for $199. Click the video below to see and hear it in action.
