What DAW is best for touchscreen? Pros/cons?

[jens]

Steinberg makes Cubasis for tablets specifically https://www.steinberg.net/cubasis/

It is pretty safe to say that he is using Windows though. Otherwise this really wouldn't be thre right forum for it anyway, as there is a dedicateed forum for moblie apps and hardware:

viewforum.php?f=166

[Trensharo]

While you can use any of the known DAWs with a touch screen (by simulating a mouse with the touchscreen) up to my knowledge Bitwig is the only one which is optimized for touch.
Which means you get a specfic layout for touch incl. playable MPE note layouts as well as additional touch gestures.

Cakewalk is optimized for Touch, since touch became a thing on Windows. They're pretty good with trailblazing that kind of stuff.

[stk]

I can answer this with some experience.

I've been gradually transitioning much of my music making over the past few months from a traditional "big box" tower PC running Reaper, Ableton and FL Studio to a Surface Pro running Bitwig.

So far, Bitwig in its dedicated "Tablet Mode" is the clear winner (unsurprisingly), with the caveat that touch support is still not 100& fleshed out.
While the majority of the program functions quite well with touch, there is still some stuff missing;

- The aforementioned mixer; pretty much useless under touch for anything but broad strokes.
- Editing loop points in audio/midi clips is clunky af and requires a mouse for any kind of precision.
- Editing anything in text boxes all but requires a keyboard (dragging to increment/decrement works, but almost impossible to set values with accuracy much like the mixer).
- Focussing a text box (for eg renaming clips or mixer channels) does not automatically invoke the onscreen keyboard (like it does on iPad)
- Editing multisamples in the sampler also requires mouse & keyboard.

I do hope that the developers continue to refine Bitwig's touch support because there really isn't anything quite like it. Most of the program is a pleasure to use purely with hands (or stylus), and it really feels like it breaks the traditional keyboard + mouse DAW paradigm.

Happy to answer any more specific questions when I have a chance.

sk

[Sebastiantheseeker]

Steinberg makes Cubasis for tablets specifically https://www.steinberg.net/cubasis/

It is pretty safe to say that he is using Windows though. Otherwise this really wouldn't be thre right forum for it anyway, as there is a dedicateed forum for moblie apps and hardware:

viewforum.php?f=166

i am transitioning from ipad to daw like op

[machinesworking]

- The aforementioned mixer; pretty much useless under touch for anything but broad strokes.

- Editing anything in text boxes all but requires a keyboard (dragging to increment/decrement works, but almost impossible to set values with accuracy much like the mixer).

These two anyway, holding the shift key while dragging gives you fine movements, but it requires you to a hold a shift key down...

I'm on a Mac which is the worst platform for touch in a DAW, but this is how it works with the Slate Raven.

[jens]

At least you do not need to press a mouse-button for finer control...

[stk]

- The aforementioned mixer; pretty much useless under touch for anything but broad strokes.

- Editing anything in text boxes all but requires a keyboard (dragging to increment/decrement works, but almost impossible to set values with accuracy much like the mixer).

These two anyway, holding the shift key while dragging gives you fine movements, but it requires you to a hold a shift key down...

Indeed, but I bought a touch screen computer so I wouldn't have to use a keyboard

Anyway I've resigned myself to probably getting a little bluetooth keyboard for fine adjustments and text entry, until such time that Bitwig chooses to address these issues.

[Echoes in the Attic]

If you are trying to use just touch screen, you might want to make a custom toolbar with the toolbar creator here:
https://www.buttoncommander.com/

Molten music had a video about using this with touch screen awhile back. It was a different website then though I think.

[stk]

If you are trying to use just touch screen, you might want to make a custom toolbar with the toolbar creator here:
https://www.buttoncommander.com/

Molten music had a video about using this with touch screen awhile back. It was a different website then though I think.

Cheers, I'll look into that.
In my case, it's more that certain UI elements do not respond well (or at all) to touch.

[Echoes in the Attic]

If you are trying to use just touch screen, you might want to make a custom toolbar with the toolbar creator here:
https://www.buttoncommander.com/

Molten music had a video about using this with touch screen awhile back. It was a different website then though I think.

Cheers, I'll look into that.
In my case, it's more that certain UI elements do not respond well (or at all) to touch.

Yeah unfortunately Bitwig sort of half implemented touch support. It's not at a point where you can use only touch. It's too bad. I prefer using a digital pen, but that's really screwy in Bitwig.

[Kalamata Kid]

For me it is the creative plugins that are realtime manipulation friendly that require multi-touch capability.
Unfortunately Windows 11 it seems to me does not allow touch and mouse and keyboard to be used together.
Yes nice to have the DAW to to be multi-touchable. Reaper and Cubase would be higher on my list to use if they were multi-touchable. I wonder if Windows 11 allows for single-touch to be used together with mouse and keyboard.

[mikeyfam1]

I wish Apple Sidecar was multi touch for Logic. You can use an Apple Pencil and certain touch gestures to control Logic but I'm not totally sold yet. It seems like a trackpad and Logic Remote is just as functional as sidecar.

[xabkr]

I tried all DAWs mentioned in this thread. Cakewalk has the best pinch zoom for editing, excellent vertical & horizontal navigation. In my view surpasses all others. Bitwig and Mixcraft are getting closer., but not there yet.

[jens]

Bitwig indeed is the only one optimized for touch, with one caveat, it's got teeny tiny little volume faders.

Imo by far the best for touchscreen is Tracktion. It's amazing. Bitwig is a nice try.

[SLiC]

Bitwig started strong when they introduced a tablet mode but hasn't updated or added any new touch features for a very long time, I think they lost interest (touch user base probably too small)