Audio
Status: draft. Concrete reference content + structural placeholders; flesh out the prose + screenshots when ready.
Purpose
The Audio page is your unified hi-fi deck — backing-track playback, WAV recording, USB-stream routing to the VL3X, and live VU metering, all in one place. Backing tracks loaded here are what plays during Performer Mode when a cue with an attached track fires. Recordings land in your configured recordings folder ready for post.
Walk-through
Page layout
- Top row — Device card (connection state, current preset slot and name, key/scale) alongside stereo VU meters showing live input and output levels.
- Deck (full width below) — amber LCD counter, transport buttons (Play / Pause / Stop / Restart), format badge for the loaded file, position scrub bar, file picker, gain knobs.
The whole page fits on one screen without scrolling at typical sizes.
Loading a backing track
Click Browse in the deck to open the file picker. Supported formats: WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, OPUS. After decoding, the file's format, bit depth, and sample rate show in the badge next to the file name.
Very large files (high sample rates, long uncompressed WAVs) can hit a size limit on load — if you do, transcode the file to FLAC or 44.1 kHz first.
VL Studio difference — backing tracks
The VL3X has its own onboard backing-track system. To use it standalone, you copy MP3 or WAV files to the root of a FAT32-formatted USB flash drive, plug the drive into the device's USB Host port, press Store, navigate to TRACK IMPORT, and trigger an import — the device converts each track to 16-bit / 48 kHz WAV and stores it internally. Each imported track is then associated with one preset at a time via the Looper button's Backing Track tab. The onboard system also blocks USB audio while in use — you can't have both at once.
VL Studio sidesteps all of that. Backing tracks are just files on your computer. Any audio format (WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, OPUS), any folder, no conversion, no USB stick. Assign a track to any cue in any song, regardless of which preset that cue uses or whether the track is on the device. VL Studio streams the audio to the VL3X over USB as its Aux Input while the track plays from your computer's deck.
The trade-off: VL Studio-attached backing tracks only play when VL Studio is driving the performance. If you unplug from the computer and perform standalone, those cues will load their presets but no audio will play. For standalone performance, you still need to import the tracks to the device via USB stick the original way.
Playing — gain controls
The deck has two volume controls:
- Track gain — per-track level for the loaded backing track. Set this once when you load a track to match its inherent loudness to your other tracks.
- Master volume — overall output level for the deck. Set this for the venue.
The transport buttons have a short anti-click ramp on Play / Pause / Stop so hits don't pop the speakers.
Recording
The deck doubles as a recorder. The full output of the VL3X (mic + harmonies + guitar effects + any backing track that's playing) is captured to a WAV file in your recordings folder. WAV is the only recording format — pick it up in your DAW for transcoding or post.
Click Record to start. Click Stop Recording to finalize. Files are auto-named with a timestamp.
VL Studio difference — recording
The VL3X's "Direct to USB Recording" requires a FAT32-formatted USB flash drive in the host port and is started/stopped by holding GENRE + SETUP simultaneously for two seconds, with a hard 120-minute per-file limit.
VL Studio records to your configured folder on disk, started and stopped with on-screen buttons, no USB stick required, no hard length cap.
Recordings folder
The default is ~/Music/VL Studio/ (or your platform's equivalent). Change it from Settings → Recordings Folder with a folder picker. The path is remembered between sessions.
Streaming to the VL3X over USB
When the VL3X is connected, the backing-track player sends audio to it via USB. The VL3X receives that audio as its Aux Input, so it can be:
- Heard in your headphones through the device's Headphone Mix
- Routed to the Main Out for FOH
- Used as the NaturalPlay Aux source for harmony key detection
The relevant levels live on the Mixer page (Track levels for Main and Headphone).
Reference
Format support
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| WAV | Uncompressed; the recording output format; common DAW interchange |
| FLAC | Lossless and smaller than WAV — recommended for backing tracks |
| MP3 | Lossy; plays everywhere; quality depends on encoder bitrate |
| OGG | Lossy (Vorbis); open codec |
| M4A | Lossy (AAC); iTunes / Apple Music exports |
| AAC | Lossy; raw AAC stream |
| OPUS | Lossy; modern open codec, very good at low bitrates |
The decoded-size limit means a 96 kHz / 24-bit / stereo WAV maxes out around 16 minutes. If you need longer or run into a load failure, re-encode to FLAC or to 44.1 kHz / 16-bit.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Transport buttons pop / click on hit | Should never happen — the deck applies an anti-click ramp on every transport action. If it does, file a bug. |
| Backing-track load fails on a large file | You've hit the decoded-size limit. Re-encode to a smaller format (FLAC) or a lower sample rate (44.1 kHz). |
| Track plays in VL Studio but the VL3X doesn't hear it | The device's Track level (Main or Headphone, depending on where you're listening) is muted. Open the Mixer page and raise it. |
| Recording produces a 0-byte WAV file | The recordings folder is on a removed drive or a disconnected network share. Check Settings → Recordings Folder and make sure the folder exists and is writable. |
| Position counter freezes during playback | Refresh the page or restart the app. |
See also
- Performer Mode — backing tracks attached to song cues are played by this same deck.
- Songs — per-cue backing-track field; the file is loaded into the deck when the cue fires.
- Mixer — Track levels for the USB-streamed signal to the device.
- Settings — recordings-folder configuration.