VirtualDeck

VirtualDeck frequenty asked questions

1. How can I upload my music?
Please read the manual. It includes a step-by-step guide to upload your files. You'll need a WiFi connection to upload your files though!

2. I point my browser to the address suggested by VirtualDeck but the upload page doesn't load
Most likely, your Mac/PC isn't connected to the same network as your iPhone/iPod touch. Windows will happily connect to any WiFi network it sees by default and the iPhone initially asks which network you want to join. Changing the network settings on both your Mac/PC and iPhone/iPod touch to use the same WiFi network should solve this problem.
In some cases, turning Auto-Lock off (in Settings -> General) helps.

3. I have been able to upload songs, but now I can't get to the upload page anymore
See question 2; most probably either your Mac/PC or your iPhone/iPod touch has changed the WiFi network it uses. This is easily overlooked; in a lot of neighborhoods there're plenty of WiFi networks to choose from and just one is correct.

4. Some of my uploaded MP3s sound all wrong!
MP3 support went out of beta in version 1.9.2, the current version on sale in iTunes. If you still experience problems playing MP3 audio, please contact us!

5. The iPhone/iPod touch can play all kinds of formats, so why can't VirtualDeck?
iTunes can play a lot of audio formats (i.e. AAC) just fine, but only through a hardware decoder in the iPhone, or so it seems. In VirtualDeck's case, this decoder can't be used since VirtualDeck needs to be able to speed up and down the audio, and even play it backwards. Also, a lot of good open source decoders can't be used on the iPhone due to their license agreements.

6. Can you recommend software to convert audio to Ogg/Vorbis?
Audacity is a program with which you can very easily convert audio from a lot of formats to a lot of formats, including Ogg/Vorbis.

7. Why can't VirtualDeck use the iTunes library already on my iPhone?
As it stands, no 3rd party app can access the iTunes library. This is actually very understandable. Just think how easy it would be for a 3rd party app to illegaly copy music from the library to the internet, another iPhone et cetera if the apps had access to the iTunes library.

8. Why is AAC, or any other format not supported?
We haven't found an AAC decoder vendor that actually wants to sell their software, since they don't reply when asked for licensing options.
As for other formats, you might suggest there are open source decoders, some of which are very good. Most of these libraries can't be used on the iPhone: their license agreement, (L)GPL, forbids the use of those libraries in this particular case. Ogg/Vorbis is a notable exception as it uses the more free BSD license.

9. Why is there just one turntable?
We specifically created this app to be a DJ's aid, not a replacement for all equipment. Of course, when we started this project, there were wild ideas about including a mixer, two decks, effects and more. Actually, why not four decks while we're at it? When a mixer and one turntable are implemented, creating two, four, or any other amount of decks is actually very easy.
So why just one? Beatmixing is usually done with one volume slider down, previewing through a headphone. The iPhone has just one audio output. One could suggest outputting the mixed sound to stereo-left and preview through stereo-right. We don't think this is a good idea as it requires a special cable (most probably soldered and let's not suggest such a thing for something that should work out of the box), the audio volume will go down and battery life will suffer (twice as many connected devices on the audio output, two audio streams to decode). Also, there's really not that much screen real-estate to intuitively implement this.
We might create an app with more than one deck, but as it stands now, it will not be on the iPhone.

If you have any questions, contact us at support@quickdecay.com