Touch Screen Monitors

[des]

Anyone using a touch screen monitor with their music software? I'm not talking about iPad, etc., but full size plug in type monitors. The prices on these have been steadily dropping now and I think it would be a neat way to control softsynth parameters. I believe most sw would not allow multi-touch, but still it could be cool. I'm thinking something around 24" tilted back...

[Beneath A Tree That Died]

I personally never saw that much use of touch-screen monitors unless there's software built specifically for it. Unfortunately I think most DAWS and VST's/software aren't so when it comes to workflow I'd imagine touch-screen's are virtually useless.

[seismic1]

Make sure you keep them clean. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've had to remove from monitors at work.:eek: In fact, I was not always able (or inclined) to perform a conclusive analysis

[GaryG]

I think the bottom line for me is they'll always be a compromise until we evolve nice slim fingers; there's no way I can get the accuracy with my finger that I can with a mouse cursor. Sliders aren't too bad but fine tuning knobs is very hard in my experience. Then there's the issue of aching arms after a while if you have the monitor mounted traditionally. Look for some of Chris Randalls videos where you can see him using a screen that's mounted almost flat.

[des]

It would be nice if the sw being used supported multitouch. The big problem I see is when you select a control, the value shows up in or near the control making it hard to see if your finger covers it. If the sw had a central value display window (which some do have) it would be much better. As for needing multitouch, it would be nice but not mandatory for me. WRT to display angle, it would have to be at 10 to say 30 degrees up from flat....it would be practically unusable for long if it was vertical. I'm still on the fence...looking to upgrade the secondary monitor on my laptop and tought a touchscreen could be handy...

[nadaRobot]

AFAIK, Renoise and Usine Hollyhock are the only DAWs that have given any thought to multi-touch in their designs. Everything I've read to date suggests the majority of the tools we use are still better suited for mouse/keyboard input.

[GaryG]

Just remembered, Audio Damages Basic synth has a GUI that is 'touchscreen friendly'.

[des]

Saw Studio is too...but it only works with one particular monitor...a 3m that is very expensive. Not sure if the developer is going to (or maybe he has already...) update the sw so it can use others. I'm not looking at using it become a virtual mixer...I usually automation to do that. This more to be able to reach over and 'grab a knob or control' or maybe enter in sequencer data, etc. As I'm sitting here posting on my iPad I realized, other then using keyboards, (or TC-11) I rarely use more then one finger on any of the iOS synths. I just checked iMini and it does allow it, but it's kind of clunky given the size of it .

[Ambient Alchemy]

Speaking of touch enabled music applications. Here's a shameless plug for an app I developed.

yMIDI beta is a public beta of the next release of yMIDI. This version includes a new control
surface that emulates the MCU Pro as well as many bug fixes and performance
improvements. yMIDI is a general purpose MIDI controller for controlling MIDI enabled software or hardware that
supports the RTP MIDI protocol. yMIDI communicates with compatible devices over
wireless or Ethernet. yMIDI works out of the box with computers running OSX and
PC computers running rtpMIDI.

Features
Standard Controls: Pitch, Mod, Volume, Pan
5 custom slider controls
X/Y control
3 octave keyboard control
4x4 grid of touch enabled pads
Custom sliders, X/Y control and pads are configurable to any CC and channel
*NEW* Control surface with MCU Pro emulation
*NEW* Toggle mode for touch pads - Visual indicator toggles between touch events.
yMIDI
beta is available from the Windows Store

More information at Level 6 Productions

yMIDI Control Surface

[Ahornberg]

I play around with touchOSC ... a large tablet would be useful :dunno:

[des]

I haven't messed with TouchOSC yet...it seems pretty cool. I have done some work with Lemur on the iPad...a larger screen would definitely be appreciated for that...I wonder if one could use the Windows Lemur Editor on a touch screen to emulate a larger Lemur...

[des]

Well I've continued giving this some thought. I think I'll grab my laptop and head to Best Buy and try one out. I want a bigger screen for the laptop (currently have a square 19" attached) and if the larger touch screen works ok then I'll get it. if not, I'll get something else. Of course I still have to figure out where I would put the touch screen...it would have to go almost flat...