Am I the only one who couldn't care less about touchscreen?

[shonoob]

I am still a beginner but I bought Bitwig because I heard promise of it being a new, albeit cheaper, take of what Ableton was, and possibly even an innovative new DAW in comparison. Sure there have been cool features that were innovative from the start; sandboxing, PDC, grouping, a nice interface etc etc. But now looking at it, still simple stuff like an updated sampler, piano roll update (it colors etc look horrible IMO), basic features like fader adjustment, side browser template size, and automatic replay of samples not saving etc... And now new bugs like sample playback clicking? How can something so crucial like this pass by your team to a full version release? It makes me feel skeptical that Bitwig isn't focusing enough on their DAW nowadays.

....And now with these new advertisements with Microsoft and the touchscreen, and now at NAMM, there is hardly anything to do with the DAW itself AT ALL?, it is just continuous product advertising of roli, surface pro etc... (stuff I cant care less about). It seems Bitwig is pooling all of their efforts into the touchscreen market and other nonsense (In terms of a DAW product).

Am I the only one who is disappointed here? I don't mean to rant, but I bought the DAW for strict computer music production, I didn't buy a 'touchscreen' or surface pro tool, and was hoping the DAW would be backed by a company with the same intent, to innovate a DAW for the desktop/laptop computer platform, not some Touchscreen or touchscreen laptop hybrid.

It seems Bitwig is focusing to take the touchscreen market now? I feel this sort of thing strays from the path of a traditional DAW which is what I had originally purchased. If I had foresight of what is occurring now when I had initially bought Bitwig, I wouldn't have made the purchase, and am greatly considering to switch to Ableton.

Can anyone chime in and give me their 2¢ on this whole thing? Am I overthinking this, or does anyone else feel somewhat ambivalent about the path Bitwig is taking as of late with NAMM and otherwise?

[Andrei Marchenko]

Ha-ha )) You know that i can feel you pain matey )

[anp27]

You are not alone. I really couldn't care about Touch features either. I think because it's such a futuristic thing and looks really cool... that's maybe why there seems to be an emphasis on it. But I'm totally with you... there are way more important features to focus on.

I'm not entirely disappointed though.. the Bitwig team seems to still continue working on the other features. But I do see what you're saying.

[TeePee]

Dactylphobia

[ras.s]

I don't have a touch screen, but would really like having one. Anything - and I mean anything - that lets me do less mousing around is a massive improvement.

It's about interacting with the software really. Having multiple touch points on the screen instead of a one hand mouse with max three buttons and a scroll wheel, well, it's just great. No grabbing the mouse. I mean, thinking about it, touch screens cut out the middle man when your brain says "there's the control, move it" and you just do it, instead of locating the control, getting hold of the mouse, looking for the pointer and clicking the control (and letting go of the mouse and returning to the music keyboard, for instance).

Damn I wish I had a touch screen already. :-P

I've been mucking about with using TouchDAW, a Android app, for controlling Bitwig and it's lots of fun. Obviously a bit different deal as I use it as a controller and not interacting directly with the interface, but great still. I have two hands, I want to use both of them at the same time.


More power to Bitwig for putting effort into the touch department as well, and in performance functionalities in general. Good stuff. I don't think they're aiming for "the touch screen market", "the touch screen market" will eventually be the norm when it comes to controlling software (or rather, a part of the norm). It's one more option besides a keyboard and a mouse and a very good one at that.

~2c.

[brok landers]

i'm right with you, shonoob. i just don't understand it. i've tried it again and again, i just cannot be as precise as i would love to, there's always a certain lag to whatever movement one does, and even if that is ironed out, it still feels awkward for the reason that there' s no tactile response like from a hardware knob or fader you can actually physically grab. i think we have to face it - either perfectly integrated hardware controller (not really possible due to way too many features and semi-modularity), or we're way more accurate with the mouse - at least we have gotten used to it anyway... a touchscreen to be sufficient imo has to be even bigger than 2 30inch monitors, due to the size of our sheer fingers...

on the other side i can see some uses for touchscreen stuff, f.e. if you play kinda live in a club and have prepared the necessary elements in the studio.

but to me there' s still quite some stuff to work on in bitwig studio desktop version, that imo has to be prioritized to be fixed, f.e. the envelopes in the sampler, which, when used with fast decay and/or release on the pitch of, say, a kick or some other percussive element, are way off, when played back by the clip. or the delay, that for ping pong mode doesn't sum up both sides to mono before feeding the feedback cirquit. tiny things like that, which sum up, are to be aware of at the first, before pulling bitwig studio off the desktop into an app or on touchscreened systems.

but then again - who am i...

[anp27]

Anything - and I mean anything - that lets me do less mousing around is a massive improvement.

It's about interacting with the software really. Having multiple touch points on the screen instead of a one hand mouse with max three buttons and a scroll wheel, well, it's just great. No grabbing the mouse. I mean, thinking about it, touch screens cut out the middle man when your brain says "there's the control, move it" and you just do it, instead of locating the control, getting hold of the mouse, looking for the pointer and clicking the control (and letting go of the mouse and returning to the music keyboard, for instance).

Totally see the points you made, and I too love the option of not having to use a mouse. That's where control surfaces come into the picture for me... I favor the tactile feel over something like a screen any day. I like knobs, pads and faders. Screens just feel really weird to me. Everybody's different, as they say.

[pekbro]

Hopefully they're doing that because MS is paying them ridiculous amounts of
money to do it. That's what they tend to do. They'd be fools not to take it.
Like it or not, money is what it will take for bitwig to continue to grow. We should be
happy for them if they've attracted such support. And lets pray MS isn't looking
to get into the Music Production business...

-Cheers

[shonoob]

I don't have a touch screen, but would really like having one. Anything - and I mean anything - that lets me do less mousing around is a massive improvement.

It's about interacting with the software really. Having multiple touch points on the screen instead of a one hand mouse with max three buttons and a scroll wheel, well, it's just great. No grabbing the mouse. I mean, thinking about it, touch screens cut out the middle man when your brain says "there's the control, move it" and you just do it, instead of locating the control, getting hold of the mouse, looking for the pointer and clicking the control (and letting go of the mouse and returning to the music keyboard, for instance).

Damn I wish I had a touch screen already.

I've been mucking about with using TouchDAW, a Android app, for controlling Bitwig and it's lots of fun. Obviously a bit different deal as I use it as a controller and not interacting directly with the interface, but great still. I have two hands, I want to use both of them at the same time.


More power to Bitwig for putting effort into the touch department as well, and in performance functionalities in general. Good stuff. I don't think they're aiming for "the touch screen market", "the touch screen market" will eventually be the norm when it comes to controlling software (or rather, a part of the norm). It's one more option besides a keyboard and a mouse and a very good one at that.

~2c.

The thing is touchscreen interface and mouse and keyboard interface are completely different. Touchscreen interface will have to be dumbed down to accomodate for it, and since Bitwig isn't segregated between 2 different companies (a touchscreen and regular DAW company), the whole program will have to be dumbed down to accomodate - at least that is my biggest qualm with the whole thing.

Like I said, I bought Bitwig because it was a traditional DAW with great prospects, but now I am starting to regret it and hoped that I saved up and just bought Ableton instead.

[shonoob]

Hopefully they're doing that because MS is paying them ridiculous amounts of
money to do it. That's what they tend to do. They'd be fools not to take it.
Like it or not, money is what it will take for bitwig to continue to grow. We should be
happy for them if they've attracted such support. And lets pray MS isn't looking
to get into the Music Production business...

-Cheers

Well in that case, hopefully they put that money toward updating the DAW (ALONG with the touchscreen, which Bitwig has a throbbing hard-on towards right now), sort of like killing two birds with one stone, as opposed to the clown act they are doing right now.

[ras.s]

Totally see the points you made, and I too love the option of not having to use a mouse. That's where control surfaces come into the picture for me... I favor the tactile feel over something like a screen any day. I like knobs, pads and faders. Screens just feel really weird to me. Everybody's different, as they say.

Yea, knobs & faders are a whole another deal. But then there are things that aren't so easy to do with those, like changing device order or making changes in the arrangement view. And trying to do those things with a mouse while playing a bassline with one hand, well, at least I always have to stop and do the other. So touch screen would be really good for situations where control surfaces don't cut it and mousing is inconvenient.

The thing is touchscreen interface and mouse and keyboard interface are completely different. Touchscreen interface will have to be dumbed down to accomodate for it, and since Bitwig isn't segregated between 2 different companies (a touchscreen and regular DAW company), the whole program will have to be dumbed down to accomodate - at least that is my biggest qualm with the whole thing.

Like I said, I bought Bitwig because it was a traditional DAW with great prospects, but now I am starting to regret it and hoped that I saved up and just bought Ableton instead.

The dumbing down, I guess there's a risk for that happening. But that might as well mean streamlining the interface, which isn't necessarily bad either. And the interface really isn't cluttered as it is now (I use two screens), so I don't know what they would take out to simplify it. The program already shows different stuff depending on resolution/window size, so they might keep it that way (show more controls with more available screen estate).

I bought Bitwig exactly because it doesn't feel like a traditional DAW, but a musical instrument in its own right. And I think that's really important, since the host software is the single most important instrument for a computer musician. I've been through enough hosts to appreciate that Bitwig is really quite good in doing things slightly different from others while still remaining familiar.

[llze]

makes totally sense imo, just think about the network collab feature. Bitwig traditional DAW? Quite the opposite: Welcome to the next generation of music creation and performance software for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

[Kalamata Kid]

I have a 23" ViewSonic 10-touch screen and an iPad Air to use as midi controllers.
I am still in the learning/experimenting stage so cannot now recommend this.
I hope this works out as I find this ideal for the workflow and my studio space.

I am surprised how slow progress has been for Windows multi-touch VST fx and VSTi's.
I am also very surprised at the extreme lack of interest by musicians for multi-touch.
Some DAW's are now beginning to implement multi-touch. A couple of them are totally
multi-touch one being Usine Hollyhock and the other will be released this coming summer.

My main interest for multi-touch is for real-time performance/Creation of music.
So this means to make VST/VSTi's multi-touch.

[pdxindy]

I purchased an iPad Pro and Pencil because the combination works great as a graphics tablet. However, the touch screen interface itself I find of no interest. It feels clumsy and slow compared to key commands + mouse. The fingertip is too imprecise and touching the screen just feels so sterile.

If an alternative interface was to interest me as a DAW controller, it would have real knobs, sliders, buttons and keys/pads.

[takaii]

I agree i hate touch, becuase you touch a knob, yet cant feel it, just feels retarded for me. Anyones free for opinion, but the whole idea for touch is more that "its cool" then usefull imo, i hate touching on screens for music, mice and keyboard is the closest i wana touch when making music. Touch is for some really cool, but bitwig should focus on adding fades comping etc, not making touch friendly users happy. It has nothing to do with music, just how you use the daw that is different. Yet the remaning important features for music, recoridng etc is missing while midi should be implemented better.