touch screen laptops

[GaryG]

Hi,

Any words of wisdom on touch screen laptops anyone?

Never considered them before but see they've filtered down to the low/mid range i was looking in (lenovo flexs etc).

I think i'm too stuck in my ways to fully go over to that methology (don't really get on with trackpasd... ) but thought they could have a place in my workflow when playing guitar etc. Having a number of effects pinned for easy access. I guess the question is how do people find them for this kind of tweaking? I can see some fx (maybe valhallas) being better (having used TouchOSC for this kind of thing in the past).

Cheers.

[Steve Bolivar]

I went from touchscreen laptop to non and didn't miss it. I just wasn't using the touchscreen in my DAW, Tracktion Waveform. Other DAWs, VSTs VSTis may be more set up for touchscreen use.

[iPlogger]

I have had a touchscreen for six years and don't really use it that much. I really liked the iPad for music so thought the touchscreen would be useful, but the biggest problem is, most applications are not really designed for touchscreen use. Controls are often too small, there is no precision control, multi-touch is not implemented. When I was looking for a new laptop at the end of last year, touchscreen was no longer a "must have", but it just so happens, the laptop I ended up getting has a touchscreen.

It turns out JUCE has touch ability built in and can use multi-touch. Sometimes when I get something new, I don't want to hook up the laptop to my equipment and I fire up PlugInGuru's Unify (uses JUCE). I show the keyboard, increase window size, and play directly on the screen. You can even control the modwheel on the screen. Also kind of nice, the macro knobs are multi-touch allowing you to control multiple knobs at once if you want. The knobs are a little small, though. I made a request at some point to make the knobs larger so they are better sized for touch, but I know that one's going to be low on the list.

You mentioned effects. This might be useful if you want to maybe touch the screen to turn them on/off, but any type of knob tweaking is going to be limited unless the VST itself has decent sized controls providing the necessary precision. I do everything with the laptop pad or a mouse when working in Ableton Live. Everything is too small and difficult to use with touch. I tried using a pen at one point, but even that just didn't work out too well.

A touchscreen can be useful, but it's not nearly as useful on Windows as it could be. I had hoped Lemur would make the jump from iPad to Windows, but that never happened. They have an editor written in Windows, but you can't use it to control anything. You have to transfer it to your iOS device.

Maybe others have different thoughts.

[kingozrecords]

I rarely use my touch screen. I'd avoid cleaners with moisturizer in them. Isopropyl alcohol for cleaning is best imo, less residue.

[GaryG]

Thanks all.

With effects I was thinking about taking a 'layer' out, not having to reach for the mouse, staying focused on the effects on the screen but guess I'd need to try them out, small controls etc.

[CrystalWizard]

I think it’s wide range experience. I have an ipad which i got mainly to control vsts. Haven’t done much of that but i have used it as a separate signal source. I have a bunch of noisemaking apps. I must admit that for actually getting to work on music i rarely go to the ipad. I do all of that on three laptops. Having pinpoint fingertips could change that… There are some great apps though that use the technology of the touchscreen to do really creative things.