What DAW is best for touchscreen? Pros/cons?

[warriorjoe007]

Getting a touchscreen soon.

[jinotsuh]

Have you tried REA . . . Oh never mind.

[cel4145]

I've heard that Bitwig is very good.

[warriorjoe007]

I was actually wondering if reaper would be good for it?

[jinotsuh]

It's good for everything else, I heard it'll even wash your clothes and mow your lawn, among a litany of other things it's that good.

[warriorjoe007]

Will it shit gold nuggets? But seriously, anyone want to chime in with experience?

[moss]

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.

[machinesworking]

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

For me being on a Mac it doesn't do too much that way, the touch friendly DAWs for me are the ones with adjustable size mixer faders, and native plug ins that work with touch.

IMO (and it's a bit like any opinion, biased), the best parts of touch are mixing, plug in preset making, and automation writing. So for the most part it's going to be DAWs like Reaper, Digital Performer that have adjustable size mixer faders.

If there's a trick on Linux and Windows that allows mixer faders to grow big when touched then Bitwig is an obvious choice though, and I know there's a "fine fader" key command (Shift) you can use to get minor adjustments with touch, even on Mac.

[warriorjoe007]

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

For me being on a Mac it doesn't do too much that way, the touch friendly DAWs for me are the ones with adjustable size mixer faders, and native plug ins that work with touch.

IMO (and it's a bit like any opinion, biased), the best parts of touch are mixing, plug in preset making, and automation writing. So for the most part it's going to be DAWs like Reaper, Digital Performer that have adjustable size mixer faders.

If there's a trick on Linux and Windows that allows mixer faders to grow big when touched then Bitwig is an obvious choice though, and I know there's a "fine fader" key command (Shift) you can use to get minor adjustments with touch, even on Mac.

Thanks. Very informative. I looked around online and saw that sonar is multitouch but kind of defunct. There was some rumblings about studio one but im not sure. Well bitwig it is then. Maybe there is some kind of magnifying overlay in pc/mac like there is on ipad. Its under the disability enhancements section.

Looks like i kissed getting free xo with bitwig... damnit.

[machinesworking]

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

For me being on a Mac it doesn't do too much that way, the touch friendly DAWs for me are the ones with adjustable size mixer faders, and native plug ins that work with touch.

IMO (and it's a bit like any opinion, biased), the best parts of touch are mixing, plug in preset making, and automation writing. So for the most part it's going to be DAWs like Reaper, Digital Performer that have adjustable size mixer faders.

If there's a trick on Linux and Windows that allows mixer faders to grow big when touched then Bitwig is an obvious choice though, and I know there's a "fine fader" key command (Shift) you can use to get minor adjustments with touch, even on Mac.

Thanks. Very informative. I looked around online and saw that sonar is multitouch but kind of defunct. There was some rumblings about studio one but im not sure. Well bitwig it is then. Maybe there is some kind of magnifying overlay in pc/mac like there is on ipad. Its under the disability enhancements section.

Looks like i kissed getting free xo with bitwig... damnit.

I think if you're on PC Bitwig is a no brainier. it's just more complicated on Mac since touch isn't native to Mac OS because Apple holds onto it's ideological standpoints far longer than they should.
I have a Slate Raven which helps with touch on Macs, but Bitwig isn't working with it's touch tech 100% on Mac, although it's still laid out better for touch than most, and responds well to single finger commands etc.

On a PC Bitwig is an obvious choice, the only caveat is Bitwig has tiny faders on it's mixer, which is just.... weird, it's a super modern advanced DAW but that one thing is?... Holding the 'shift' key and moving the fader with touch you get super fine adjustments, so it's not a real issue, although I think it's one area Bitwig should change.

I've used around 5 DAWs over the years and there are oddities about them all, Bitwig is absolutely fantastic in almost every respect, you can get things done with it, and it will be cool with a PC/Linux and touch. On a Mac I would go with either Digital Performer or Reaper, depending on your controllers and patience (with Reaper).

[sQeetz]

If touch optimization is what you want, an iPad is what you probably need. Plenty of audio instruments, FX + au hosts etc.. to play with.
But that was not really the question, now, was it?

[jens]

Studio One is absolutely great on Touchscreen. So far I have not come across any other DAW that even came near it in that regard.

[machinesworking]

Studio One is absolutely great on Touchscreen. So far I have not come across any other DAW that even came near it in that regard.

Bitwig, they spent months working with Microsoft on touch implementation. Like people have mentioned it has touch specific controls on Windows and Linux. If I was on Windows or Linux that's 100% what I would use.

[jens]

Well, I personally only go by my own experiences, not by what I read about who claims how much time they spent with whom on whatever...

I only tried Bitwig quickly (it has been a while tough, I haven't really seriously worked on touchscreen (on music productions) for more than a year now), however I didn't like it very much. It didn't really seem too touch-friendly to me tbh, despite the claims (can't really remember the specifics anymore, but I think I found it rather fiddly somehow, and that included that wheel).

Studio One however seems to me clearly developed 100% with touchscreen in mind (as one way of using/controlling it).
This starts with the tree big and quite accessible buttons for the editor, the mixer, the browser, which makes it so easy to effortlessly switch between the different workspaces.
Then it is totally optimized for dragging and dropping everything.
Also (almost) all the controls have a good size so that you can reach them well using your fingers.

And on top of all that, which is the most important point, you have the macro-toolbars that you can create/setup any way you like in order to create your own dedicated buttons for any functions/macros you like, to always have them in quick reach for your fingertips. In other words: with that you can make Studio One with little effort even more touch-friendly in exactly the way you personally need it.

[NER]

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