Device
Status: draft. Concrete reference content + structural placeholders; flesh out the prose + screenshots when ready.
Purpose
The Device page is your direct hands-on surface for the VL3X. It mirrors the hardware (LCD + effect buttons + footswitches) on the left, and gives you direct on-screen controls (Key & Scale, Jump to Slot, TALK, Panic, Additional Effects) on the right. Use it when you want to drive the device from the desktop without diving into a per-effect editor — switching presets, toggling effects, setting key, panic-stopping a stuck note.
VL Studio difference — virtual hardware that mirrors the front panel
On the device, knowing what's on and what's off for the current preset means scanning the LED ring around each effect button (Harmony, Doubling, Delay, Reverb, etc.) one at a time, then pressing the button to read its current state on the LCD. The Home screen shows the current preset name and slot; the Key/Scale you reach via a Setup-menu walkthrough.
VL Studio's Device page renders a virtual VL3X — LCD readout, the same 3×2 effect grid the physical unit has, the preset nav row, the footswitch row including TALK / STEP / HIT / DOUBLE / HARMONY — all reactive and clickable. Alongside it sits a panel of direct controls the device doesn't have a face button for: a 12×7 Key & Scale grid, a typed Jump-to-Slot, a one-click Panic (All Notes Off), and an Additional Effects panel covering 6 more vocal blocks and 8 more guitar blocks that aren't on the physical front panel.
Walk-through
- Disconnected state — if the VL3X isn't connected over USB, the page replaces its control surface with a "VL3X not connected" message. Nothing renders until you plug in. (Click the Mixer's Reconnect button if it's plugged in but the page won't bind.)
- Connected layout — two panels:
- Left panel — virtual hardware mimic (LCD + effect grid + preset nav + footswitch row).
- Right panel — direct controls (Key & Scale, Jump to Slot, Additional Effects).
- Everything is live — knob turns and footswitch presses on the device reflect on the page (within a fraction of a second), and on-screen clicks fire MIDI to the device immediately.
The hardware mimic (left panel)
LCD display
Shows the active preset's:
- Slot number (zero-padded for readability).
- Preset name (pulled from your library).
- Backing-track indicator when a track is associated with the preset.
If the active slot is empty or unknown in your library, the LCD shows Slot N as a fallback. Run Library → Pull All to populate names.
Effect grid (3×2)
The six effect buttons that ring the physical VL3X's display: µMOD · DELAY · REVERB on the top row, HIT · DOUBLE · HARMONY on the bottom row.
- Click any cell to toggle that effect on the device.
- The grid mirrors the device's live state in real time.
Effect cell colors
The colours tell you what's actually happening with each block:
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bright cyan | Effect is ON |
| Darker blue | Effect is OFF |
| Dimmed cyan (lower opacity, no shadow) | Effect is uncertain — the block's Control is HIT-gated (mode 3), so whether you actually hear it depends on the device's HIT button. The hover tooltip reads "(estimated)" |
Click an effect that isn't part of the current preset and you'll get a status toast — "effect not in this preset" — and no CC is sent.
Preset navigation row
Below the effect grid, a horizontal row that mirrors the device's preset controls:
- − and + buttons flanking the slot display — step the preset down/up one slot.
- Slot display in the middle — current slot number.
- GTR spacer — visual layout placeholder for the device's physical layout.
- Three knob buttons (µMod / Delay / Reverb) for quick access to those effect blocks.
Footswitch row
The five physical footswitches as on the device:
| Footswitch | Behavior |
|---|---|
| TALK | Fires the configured TALK preset (Settings → TALK Preset). See TALK button below. |
| STEP | Sends a CC pulse to cycle to the next step in a multi-step preset. The current step isn't displayed numerically. |
| HIT | Fires the preset's HIT chain — multiple effect toggles at once, defined per-preset. The physical HIT button state is polled live from the device every 600 ms. |
| DOUBLE / COMP | Dual-mode. Renders blue when active on the Vocal Layer (Double), green when active on the Guitar Layer (Comp). |
| HARMONY / DRIVE | Dual-mode. Blue on Vocal Layer (Harmony), green on Guitar Layer (Drive). |
The dual-mode footswitches reflect the physical VL3X's behaviour — the same button does different jobs depending on which Layer (Vocal or Guitar) is active.
Direct controls (right panel)
Harmony Key & Scale
Two rows of buttons that set the device's global key and scale:
- Key row — 12 buttons: C, C♯, D, D♯, E, F, F♯, G, G♯, A, A♯, B.
- Scale row — 7 buttons: MAJ1, MAJ2, MAJ3, MIN1, MIN2, MIN3, CUST.
Click a key + a scale and the device updates. The current selection is highlighted.
These are the same key/scale values that NaturalPlay would otherwise pick automatically from your guitar / MIDI input — see Mixer → NaturalPlay for input-source configuration. Use the Device page's Key & Scale when you're singing without an instrument and want to set the key manually.
Jump to Slot
A numeric input (1–500) plus a Load button. Type a slot number, press Enter or click Load, and the device switches to that preset. Out-of-range entries show a status toast ("Enter 1-500") and no PC is sent.
TALK button
Adjacent to Jump to Slot, the on-screen TALK button fires whatever preset slot you've configured at Settings → TALK Preset.
Panic (All Notes Off)
Sends an All Notes Off message to silence anything that's stuck — useful if a held MIDI note or a hung effect won't release.
Additional Effects (collapsible)
Below the always-visible controls, a collapsible panel exposes 6 additional vocal effect toggles and 8 additional guitar effect toggles that aren't on the physical VL3X's front-panel button row. These cover blocks like Synth, Transducer, HardTune, Wah, Octaver, µMod variants — anything beyond the six headline effects on the LCD grid.
Click any toggle to enable or bypass that block on the live preset. Same color semantics as the main effect grid (cyan = on, dimmed cyan = uncertain / HIT-gated, dark blue = off).
Reference
Disconnected behavior
When the device disconnects, the entire control surface is replaced with a "VL3X not connected" message. No stale values are shown — controls don't reappear until the device is plugged in and bound. Background polling pauses while disconnected.
Live polling cadences
| Surface | Cadence | What's read |
|---|---|---|
| Device status | 500 ms | Active preset slot, key/scale, effect CC echo states |
| HIT state | 600 ms (200 ms after a HIT click) | The physical HIT button's current state on the device |
| Preset slot map | 8 s | Preset names + backing-track flags (reflects new Pull All results) |
The HIT button state is polled directly because HIT-mode-3 effects don't reliably echo their state — see "Effect cell colors" above for why some cells render as uncertain.
TALK button behavior
The on-screen TALK buttons (both in the footswitch row and the Direct Controls panel) follow the same rules:
- Active (amber + shadow) — the current device slot matches the configured TALK preset slot.
- Idle (darker) — TALK slot is set but you're on a different preset.
- Disabled / grayed — no global TALK slot is configured. Hover tooltip: "Configure TALK preset in Settings → TALK Preset."
Amber is reserved for the active TALK button. It's not used elsewhere on the Device page.
When TALK fires, the device switches to the TALK preset slot via a Program Change. Pressing TALK again advances to whatever's the next preset normally — the device handles "leaving TALK mode" itself.
Step button and multi-step presets
The on-screen STEP button sends MIDI CC 115 (value 0) to cycle the active preset's step. Multi-step presets (1 to 4 steps per slot) let you build variations within one preset — e.g., verse / chorus / bridge tone tweaks reachable with a single tap.
The current step number isn't displayed numerically on the Device page. To see step count for the active preset, check the LCD readout (the preset detail shows step count alongside the name).
Dual-mode footswitches
DOUBLE and HARMONY are dual-mode — they do different things depending on which Layer the device is currently on:
| Footswitch | Vocal Layer (blue) | Guitar Layer (green) |
|---|---|---|
| DOUBLE / COMP | Doubling | Compressor |
| HARMONY / DRIVE | Harmony | Drive (Boost) |
The on-screen buttons follow the device's current Layer. The colour distinguishes which mode is active.
HIT vs external footswitches
The Device page mirrors the physical HIT button state directly. It does not mirror external footswitch states (an external sustain pedal, an Aeros pedal, etc.) — those send their CCs through to the device but don't render as on-screen indicators here. For the full list of external mapping slots and their assigned functions, see the Mixer → Button & pedal mapping panels.
Settings that affect the Device page
| Setting | Effect on Device page |
|---|---|
| TALK preset slot (Settings → TALK Preset) | Enables/disables both on-screen TALK buttons; sets the target slot. Read once on mount; if you change the TALK slot, reload the Device page. |
No other prefs currently change Device page behavior.
Reconnect
The Device page doesn't have its own Reconnect button — that's a shared recovery action on the Mixer page. Click it any time the page won't bind to a plugged-in device.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Page shows "VL3X not connected" but the device is plugged in | Click the Mixer page's Reconnect button to manually re-bind. |
| Effect toggle doesn't take | The effect's Control parameter is HIT-gated. Either engage HIT on the device or change the Control to plain On/Off in the per-block editor (see VocalShaper / GuitarShaper). |
| Effect cell stays dim with the "(estimated)" tooltip | That's the HIT-gated state — the page can't tell the audible state from the bit alone. Engage / disengage the device's HIT button to see the effect's true state, or change the block's Control to plain On/Off if you don't need HIT gating. |
| TALK button is grayed and won't click | No global TALK slot is configured. Settings → TALK Preset → set a slot. |
| TALK button is darker amber but nothing happens audibly when pressed | The configured TALK slot may be empty on the device. Pull All from the device to confirm what's actually in that slot. |
| Clicking an effect shows a toast "effect not in this preset" | That effect block isn't part of the active preset. Either switch to a preset that includes the block, or edit the active preset to add the block via VocalShaper / GuitarShaper. |
| LCD shows "Slot N" with no preset name | Your library doesn't have an entry for that slot. Run Library → Pull All so the page can look up names. |
| Jump-to-Slot says "Enter 1-500" | Out of range. Slots are 1–500 on the VL3X. |
| Key/Scale buttons don't appear to take | The device may have NaturalPlay configured to override your manual key (e.g., it's listening to your guitar). Either turn off the relevant NaturalPlay input source on the Mixer page or use Manual Key/Custom on per-preset HardTune controls. |
| Panic doesn't seem to silence a stuck note | Panic sends All Notes Off. If a sound source is the device's own internal generation (e.g., a held synth carrier), All Notes Off may not affect it. Try toggling the relevant effect block off as a second attempt. |
| Page polls the device aggressively even when idle | Polling is 500 ms / 600 ms / 8 s and is intentional — the page reflects live device-side changes. If polling causes audible issues, file a bug. |
| HIT button on screen doesn't reflect a physical HIT press | The state is polled every 600 ms (faster after a click). Wait a moment; if it really doesn't sync, the Mixer's Reconnect is the fastest recovery. |
See also
- Mixer — system-level controls, Reconnect button, button-mapping panels for the external footswitches the Device page doesn't mirror.
- VocalShaper / GuitarShaper — deep tabbed editing of the vocal / guitar signal chains.
- Library — Pull All to populate preset names so the LCD shows them.
- Preset Editor — visual per-effect editors across the whole preset.
- Performer Mode — uses the TALK button, the live effect grid, and the same key/scale controls in a stage-facing layout.
- Settings → TALK Preset — configures the slot the TALK buttons fire.