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

[chroma]

When the day finally arrives that we have tablets powerful enough to be the heart of our studio then I know everyone who slags off the touch screen experience will be eating their words. I envision a day when I place my tablet in a docking station and get to use bitwig as a normal DAW in conjunction with my big fat 26" screen, my soundcard for all the inputs, my controllers and maschine and my genelec monitors.

reasonable enough tablets are getting fairly cheap... i know 'powerful enough' is very relative, but i just picked up an old HP 2760p for $120 off of ebay. it needed some memory ($40) and a hard drive ($160 for a good 480 GB SSD), so it wasn't just plug-and-play, but it's got a 2nd gen i7 in it, which can compete with a 4th gen i7-4650u in some benchmarks, and it's got the wacom pen interface in it (more precise if you need it). it's enough for my current needs. i saw plenty of 2nd-3rd gen i7 convertibles in the $300-500 range as well, if you want something more plug-and-play.

these won't compete with high-end xeon workstations, or even something like an i7-4770k (full-voltage desktop parts), but the power is getting there...

[UniqueUsername]

Just don't use the "tablet" screenset, which is anyway only in there because of tablet having small screens - because touch always works, not only in the tablet screenset.

Editing works better with the mouse. The really awesome thing about Bitwig's touch implementation is the touch keyboard, everything else is just to enable editing in the absence of a mouse. But right now we have either desktop mode where you can touch editing (which is not as good as using a mouse) but not the awesome touch keyboard, or tablet mode which is cumbersome for mouse use but has the awesome touch keyboard for recording. The ideal case - having a normal monitor for Bitwig's desktop window, and a touch monitor for the touch keyboard - is not possible. But I think this is a really low-hanging fruit to pick, all the components are there already, and it's a highly attractive use case. I already have the touch monitor sitting in its stand right next to my mouse, waiting for the day I can finally use it in Bitwig. Playing on the touch keyboard in tablet mode is fun, but it's too frustrating to have to constantly switch back and forth between editing and recording.

Forget about editing on a touch monitor. Let us use touch monitors as proper controllers (maybe even add some knobs and sliders to it) and I think people will stop complaining once they realize the possibilities.

[ThomasHelzle]

When the day finally arrives that we have tablets powerful enough to be the heart of our studio then I know everyone who slags off the touch screen experience will be eating their words. I envision a day when I place my tablet in a docking station and get to use bitwig as a normal DAW in conjunction with my big fat 26" screen, my soundcard for all the inputs, my controllers and maschine and my genelec monitors. When I'm travelling I pack my 900g tablet in a bag and I can produce wherever and whenever I want. Back at base I plug in my tablet and all my ideas are there ready to use. I have the full DAW and all my plugins on my tablet all of the time. This is the future that bitwig, microsoft and other tablet manufacturers are working towards. The day will come when we'll have quad core, 32GB ram and 1TB SSD tabs running Bitwig and I am excited for that day to come. I really can't see how there is any negative side to developing technology like touch for Bitwig? Sure, there are other features missing in bitwig that aren't there yet, but surely comparing such a new kid on the block to other DAW's is like comparing Madonna to Taylor Swift. One is old and has been around the block and has a lot to offer in terms of experience, and lets be honest she could probably suck the chrome off a towbar. The other is new, sexy and has so much potential. As a bitwig user I love the direction the DAW is taking and if the Bitwig guys ever visit my part of Germany I will personally buy them all an Altbier and a Döner.

[2ZrgE]

I am not against touch. I dont like it myselft, i just wish bitwig could focus on touch when bitwig was more grown.. But so many things from bitwig i need as a musisician. I hate also using 2 daws btw..

This!

Right, but if the guys from MS approach you with some business offers and a bunch of bucks, can you tell them: Let's wait one or two years until comping/fades/whatever is ready? That's not how it works I'm afraid.

[2ZrgE]

There are so many times ive read and seen people say "i wait to buy bitwig until fades comes", or "i wait to buy bitwig until comping, midi routing out per channel comes" Never ive read read that "i want bitwig on surface pro". .

+1. This is actually very true.

I'm sure those people are an absolute minority. And they are most likely to demand more and more and more. Wouldn' care much about those potential 'customers' really.

[anttimaatteri]

There are so many times ive read and seen people say "i wait to buy bitwig until fades comes", or "i wait to buy bitwig until comping, midi routing out per channel comes" Never ive read read that "i want bitwig on surface pro". .

+1. This is actually very true.

I'm sure those people are an absolute minority. And they are most likely to demand more and more and more. Wouldn' care much about those potential 'customers' really.

true,
but the most funniest part of it is, how the hell did people, from the "stoneage of producing", produce or made good music? for sure not while waiting and complaining about what they dont have and could or should have. they just did it with what was available at the time, from the tipetitop of available technology to the simplest budget setup, from beatles to zappa to clock dva to juan atkins to...
and, oh my, they had no forums these days...how were they even able to get one single song together without a forumthread..

[kaspy003]

Yes, mate, i disappointed to
I'm thinking about selling my license.
i think 1.3 update is a total joke! I need powerful daw, not some touch screen toy!
So basic features are missing, but touch screen? wtf!

[ras.s]

*devil's advocate* Who needs comping anyway? Aren't you guys musicians enough to get it right when you play it in? >;-)


And we can imagine the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth if they'd start working on the touch features later on, when there's even more stuff they should be working on. It's just good that they get it done now and not later.

[maitake]

I think you guys are crazy.
Just the other day I was looking at the UI wondering to myself how they were planning on cramming all of the little buttons and indicators into a touchscreen UI. It only made sense after I switched out of 'Single Display (Large)' mode and into 'Tablet' mode for the first time after reading this thread.

To me, it doesn't feel at all like a touchscreen interface while in regular viewing mode. I don't have any complaints about it personally. As time has gone by and changes were made (like the browser) i've adapted to them just fine.

I think you guys have might be better off spending your time actually making music and having fun with it than worrying about this little feature or that little feature that MIGHT make your tracks awesome or something.. It's just a bunch of gimmicks innit?

The core of Bitwig is there, and it's great fun. I've been more productive and creative with this software than I ever was with Ableton, which was great too but still a different thing..

People just want it all sometimes huh.. It's not enough to just have the BEST PLUGINS with the BEST DAW with the BEST FEATURES and EVERY LITTLE TOOL IMAGINABLE... all to make more boring EDM shit that sounds like everything else out there on beatport or soundcloud.

Just have fun with it guys.. Bitwig is fun, right? We're supposed to have fun with it, right? I understand it's also fun to fantasize about what else we could get the devs to add to the program. I just think you're being a little dramatic about it.

[codec17]

Well im saving for a touch-screen, thing, maschine ,unit, whatever they call it !
I think its awesome! Lazy hang-over couch beat making here i come!
@ kaspy003. Do it! Do it for me.

[pdxindy]

To add to all of this... I dream of the day where I'm not on this forum, complaining and begging for features anymore because everything is already there in Bitwig. Where we can just come together on this forum, share workflow ideas, learn new things, make awesome music and congratulate the Bitwig team on the awesome work they continue to do.

You can choose to do that right now... Bitwig, as is, already is more capable than people were even dreaming of 20 years ago.

[shonoob]

Yes, mate, i disappointed to
I'm thinking about selling my license.
i think 1.3 update is a total joke! I need powerful daw, not some touch screen toy!
So basic features are missing, but touch screen? wtf!

Exactly.

[takaii]

To add to all of this... I dream of the day where I'm not on this forum, complaining and begging for features anymore because everything is already there in Bitwig. Where we can just come together on this forum, share workflow ideas, learn new things, make awesome music and congratulate the Bitwig team on the awesome work they continue to do.

You can choose to do that right now... Bitwig, as is, already is more capable than people were even dreaming of 20 years ago.

Songs today is a bit more complex then 20 years ago.

[shonoob]

*devil's advocate* Who needs comping anyway? Aren't you guys musicians enough to get it right when you play it in? >;-)


And we can imagine the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth if they'd start working on the touch features later on, when there's even more stuff they should be working on. It's just good that they get it done now and not later.

If it gets done... now they'll be fixing bugs and wasting even more time on the touch surface before any actual 'DAW' work. I feel like I've been ripped off with Bitwig at the current interim.

[pdxindy]

well, considering the lower sales on desktop computers and the rise of tablets it is just a normal market reaction and offers a lot of benefit. With the collab feature, one could have his desktop session running and the tablet in front of you just like a mixing desk, way more compfortable than mixing with the mouse.

That does not interest me... an alternative for the mouse is real faders.

I do not find the touch screen very multi-touch capable. This is because I cannot feel it. While using one control, I cannot easily just reach for a second without looking because there is no tactile reference. Also, there is no tactile feedback that a virtual knob has moved like there is with a real knob. Real controls allow me to use them without seeing them because of the tactile feedback.



btw, I am not against Bitwig developing the touch interface... it is inevitable... I do not see it, however, as a keyboard mouse replacement... something potentially interesting as an addition to, the jury is still out.