The visual command center for your TC-Helicon VL3X.

01 Preset Management ​

The problem. The VL3X ships with 258 factory presets. Most are designed for demo purposes and don't match your voice, your guitar, or your setlist. Editing on the device means scrolling through tiny menus, twisting a single encoder, and hoping you remember what "HitControl.Harmony = 2" means.

What VL Studio does.

• Full Preset Library. Browse all 500 slots in a sortable, searchable table. See preset names, slot numbers, sources (factory, device, AI-generated), descriptions, and backing-track status at a glance.
• Visual Preset Inspector. Open any preset and see every active effect broken down in plain language — what's on, what style it's using, what the levels are. No more guessing what "TOTALLY ALIEN" actually does.
• Graphical Editors. Five SVG-based visual editors for the most complex effect blocks — EQ curve, mixer strip, harmony voice, reverb envelope, delay timeline.
• Push to Device. Edit a preset in the app, push it to any slot on the VL3X with one click. The library refreshes automatically.
• AI Preset Creation. Describe what you want in plain English: "I need a crunchy rock tone with a third-up harmony for classic rock covers." The AI builds a complete preset — vocal effects, guitar amp, harmony, HIT button, mixer — and saves it ready to push.
• AI-Generated Descriptions. Know what every preset sounds like before you hear it — written in musician language, not engineering jargon.
• Pull from Device. Pull the currently active preset or bulk-pull all 500 slots in one operation.
• Duplicate, Tag, Track. Copy any preset as a starting point. Tag presets as Vocal, Guitar, or Hybrid (color-coded badges in the library). A use counter shows which presets you actually play vs. which sit idle.
• Backing-Track Detection. Presets with backing tracks assigned on the device are automatically detected and flagged.
• Export + Import. Share individual presets as .preset.jsong files — one preset's complete parameter set, plain JSON, portable. Export your entire library as a ZIP. Import single files or batches.

02 Song Automation ​

The problem. During a live performance, you need different effects for different parts of a song. Verse: light reverb and doubling. Chorus: full harmony, delay, HIT engaged. Bridge: key change. Solo: guitar boost. Doing all of that manually with footswitches — while singing and playing — is the core challenge of using a VL3X live.

What VL Studio does.

• Cue Timeline Editor. Build a cue sheet for any song. Each cue represents a section (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro) and can trigger preset changes, effect toggles, key + scale changes, and tempo changes — all via Program Change, Control Change, and SysEx to the device.
• Quick-Add Sections. One-tap buttons for common song structures. Build a song in seconds.
• Searchable Preset Picker. Assign presets to cues by searching name, description, or slot — not scrolling through 500 entries.
• Fire to Test. Hit the Fire button on any cue to instantly send it to the VL3X. Hear the result in real time while you're building the song.
• Cue Duplication. Copy a cue with all its actions, lyrics, and notes. Tweak the copy for variations (Verse 2 vs. Verse 1).
• Inline Metadata. Click the song header to edit name, artist, and genre. Genre tags color-code your song list for quick visual scanning.
• AI Lyrics. One button generates representative lyrics for every section of a known song, pulled from name and artist. They appear during Performance Mode as memory cues.
• Drag Timeline + Precision Editor. Drag cue blocks along the timeline to set timestamps. Precision fields for minute/second/millisecond, with nudge buttons (±100ms, ±1s, ±5s).
• Export + Import as .jsong. Every song you build saves as a portable open file — preset references, key, scale, tempo, lyrics, and notes all in one JSON. Send a song to a bandmate or post it to a community site without leaving the workflow.

03 Setlist Management ​

The problem. A typical gig has 15-25 songs with talk breaks between them. Each song has its own key, tempo, and effect sequence. Managing this on the VL3X alone means memorizing preset numbers and frantically tapping footswitches between songs.

What VL Studio does.

• Three Entry Types. Build setlists from songs (full cue-by-cue automation), standalone presets (quick sound changes), and talk breaks (clean preset for tuning + audience banter).
• Visual Timeline. Color-coded entries — blue for songs, green for presets, amber for talk breaks. Drag to reorder.
• Push to Device. Push every unique preset your setlist references to consecutive device slots. The app collects every preset across all songs and entries (deduped), finds the first block of empty slots that fits, shows you what will be overwritten, and writes everything with progress feedback.
• Post-Gig Cleanup. One button blanks the slots your setlist used, restoring the device to its pre-gig state.
• Last Used Tracking. Setlists sort by most recently used — your Friday night setlist is always at the top on Friday.
• Export + Import as .setlist.jsong. Archive a setlist after a show or hand the entire show off to a tribute band — running order, song references, talk breaks, all in one open JSON file.

04 Performance Mode ​

The problem. During a live show you can't be clicking around a desktop UI. You need a stage-ready display with large text, simple navigation, and minimal distraction.

What VL Studio does.

• Full-Screen Stage View. Press F11 or click Performer Mode for a purpose-built display: large preset/cue name visible from across the stage, always-visible effect grid (11 vocal + 9 guitar effects, color-coded on/off, tappable in real time), cue progress bar with section labels, lyrics in yellow text, performance notes in an amber reminder card, and a preview of what's coming next.
• Two-Level Navigation. PREV / NEXT buttons walk between setlist entries and within songs cue-by-cue. When you reach the last cue, NEXT advances to the next setlist entry automatically.
• Live Key + Scale. One-tap key buttons (C through B) and scale dropdown — change the VL3X harmony engine in real time without leaving the page.
• HIT, Hold, Step, Panic. Quick-access buttons for the VL3X's most-used footswitch functions.
• Auto-Set Tempo. When you enter a song with a default tempo, VL Studio sends the correct delay tempo to the VL3X via SysEx automatically. Your delays are always in time.
• Double-Tap Protection. 300ms debounce on PREV/NEXT prevents accidental double-fires during the heat of a performance.
• Responsive Layout. Three breakpoints adapt to your screen — inline sidebars on large displays, slide-in drawers on mid-size, stacked controls for compact stage screens.

05 AI Assistant ​

The problem. The VL3X has hundreds of parameters. Knowing which reverb style sounds like a cathedral, how to configure a T-Pain auto-tune effect, or which presets would work for an acoustic coffeehouse set requires deep product knowledge that most musicians don't have — and shouldn't need.

What VL Studio does.

Ask the AI anything about your VL3X in plain English. Twenty tools let it read your device state, browse your library, create presets, build setlists, and control the hardware:

• Sound design. Create presets from descriptions. Analyze and describe what any preset sounds like. Suggest presets for a context. Inspect parameters. Search the library. Undo the last AI-generated thing.
• Device control. Check device connection, active preset, current key/scale. Navigate to any preset slot. Push library presets to the device. Toggle effects in real time. Change harmony key and scale. Read and adjust system mixer levels.
• Songs + setlists. View song details and timelines. Generate AI lyrics. Create songs with cue-by-cue preset assignments. Browse setlists. Build setlists from natural language — "Hotel California, talk break, Summer of '69".

Context awareness. The AI knows your device state (connected, current preset, key, scale) and library size automatically. Ask "what preset am I on?" and it already knows.

Six providers, your choice. Bring your own API key for Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT-4o, xAI Grok, Mistral AI, or run fully local with Ollama. Configure multiple providers simultaneously with per-task routing — the app sends each AI function to the best available provider.

Voice input. Click the microphone button and speak your request. The AI transcribes and responds.

Chat sessions. Save, name, load, and resume previous conversations. Pick up where you left off after closing the app.

06 Open formats. No lock-in. ​

The problem. You spend hours programming the VL3X for a specific gig — a setlist, a song with cue automation, a guitar tone dialed in for a specific room. And then? Your work is trapped inside the device or the app you used to build it. You can't email a setlist to a bandmate. You can't archive a preset before experimenting. You can't move your library between machines without proprietary tooling. Most performer-software does this on purpose. VL Studio doesn't.

What VL Studio does. Every workflow object exports to a plain, documented, open file:

• Songs export to .jsong. One song's complete cue timeline — preset references, key, scale, tempo, lyrics, notes — saved as a single JSON file. Open spec; anything that reads JSON can read it.
• Setlists export to .setlist.jsong. One setlist's running order, complete with song references and talk breaks, in one open file.
• Presets export to .preset.jsong. One preset's complete parameter set as a portable file. Send a guitar tone to a friend in thirty seconds.
• Full library backups to .vl3x-backup.json.gz. A gzipped JSON snapshot of presets, songs, setlists, chat sessions, and preferences. Migrate to a new machine, archive before experimenting, restore selectively.
• AI Skills are user-editable .md files. Drop a markdown file into the right folder and it becomes context the AI can use — domain knowledge for your specific repertoire, your band's conventions, or a venue's house style.
• Multi-file batch import. Drag in fifty songs at once. Compatible with both jSONG v2 and the legacy v1 format.
• Five curated reference songs ship with the app. Beatles, Pearl Jam, a worship template, a guitar-effects showcase, and a blank canvas to clone. Real examples to learn from on day one.
• The jSONG spec is open. A meta block carries author, license, and tags. An extensions namespace lets third-party apps add data without forking the format. Designed to outlive any single app — including ours.