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Forum: VirtualDJ Technical Support

Topic: Problem linking Soundswitch with .flac files
Hello Community—and perhaps the VDJ Support Team as well—

I believe I may have found a bug.

When using VirtualDJ in conjunction with SoundSwitch, the SOUNDSWITCH_ID is read from the music file's ID3 tag so that SoundSwitch can assign the correct light show to the track.

When both programs are running on the same computer, this works perfectly with all media files.
However, if you wish to use the programs on separate computers (one computer for VDJ and another for SoundSwitch), an entry in the `database.xml` file—specifically `Link SoundSwitch= xxx`—is required.
In my case, VDJ generates this entry only for `.mp3` audio files; for `.flac` files, the entry is not created within the XML file. Consequently, I am unable to utilize a remote light show with `.flac` files.

I have tested this functionality using VDJ 2026 builds b9005, b90246, b90295, and b9336.

P.S.: I am running SoundSwitch v2.10.3 (with fluid Beatgrid Support)

Has anyone else encountered a similar issue?

Thanks for any assistance!
Best regards, Oliver
 
geposted 5 hours ago
are you sure it is not SoundSwitch that adds this to the VDJ database ?

I don't use it but to me i would think they add it somehow and not the VDJ app itself

so i found this: SoundSwitch does not directly write to the VirtualDJ database file (database.xml), but it does interact with it to read music library information and, when autoscripting, adds a unique ID number to the audio file's metadata to link it with a light show.

this implies Soundswitch is adding information to the music file itself to link things up maybe that isn't happening for flac files
 
I'll double-down on the previous analysis - and if there is any problem, the report should go to SoundSwitch devs, not Atomix.
 
Thanks for your replies.
However, SoundSwitch does not write anything to the database.xml — that is clear. SoundSwitch only writes to the audio files themselves, creating a tag called SOUNDSWITCH_ID.
This tag is then read by VirtualDJ when a song is added or rescanned. For MP3 files, VDJ correctly picks up this tag and adds the corresponding <Link SoundSwitch="..."/> entry to the database.xml. For FLAC files however, this information appears to be ignored — no <Link> entry is written to the XML.
I have verified this by checking the raw tag data in both file types. The SOUNDSWITCH_ID tag is present and correctly written by SoundSwitch in both MP3 and FLAC files. The difference in behavior is entirely on VirtualDJ's side when reading and processing these tags.

with regards Oliver
 
Thanks for looking into this further.

maybe i have to clarify the workflow more:

1. SoundSwitch writes the SOUNDSWITCH_ID tag into the audio file (both MP3 and FLAC) — this part works correctly for both formats.
2. VirtualDJ reads this tag from the audio file and writes the <Link SoundSwitch="..."/> entry into database.xml — this is VDJ's responsibility, not SoundSwitch's.
3. SoundSwitch then receives the ID via the OS2L network stream from VDJ and loads the matching light show.

I have confirmed Step 1 is working for both MP3 and FLAC by checking the raw tag data directly in the audio files. The SOUNDSWITCH_ID tag is present and correct in both cases.
Step 2 however only works for MP3. For FLAC files, VDJ does not write the <Link> entry to database.xml, even though the tag is present in the file.
This is why I believe the issue lies with VDJ — it reads the FLAC tag but does not process it the same way as MP3.

best regards Oliver