John
I think its a little early still. But I am very glad Treefight is getting one. Treefight can report on his adventure with touch and X2. I look forward to any and all reports. Treefight I am hoping it all goes well for you and that your reports are positive.
Thanks John. Here is my initial report, as promised:
First, let me say that I'm using a W8 laptop (ADK desktop hasn't arrived yet) and the Planar 27 Helium shown in the CW vids.
Overall, after a brief time getting used to the touch screen and realizing what works, what doesn't work, and what sort of works, it is a LOT of fun and somewhat addictive. Also, switching between the mouse and keyboard and the touchscreen is not as much of a pain as I expected.
Now, the good and the not-so-good, with the disclaimer that I'm still getting used to the touch controls:
As might be expected, there is a bit of a learning curve in knowing how to toggle or otherwise use the touchscreen controls. Specifically, knowing where to touch. That may sound odd, but personally I feel like I have to aim a bit high for the appropriate control. It may be the angle of the monitor.
The console view controls are very good. The now time is flawless. The MSR buttons are nearly flawless, as are the PC controls. Transport controls are iffy for me. Play and stop work well, but, rather oddly, FF works 90% of the time, which RW barely works at all (even though the transport controls are large and should be easy to "touch"). You can group tracks and controls, at least grouping sends (haven't tried anything else yet).
The track view controls are a mixed bag for me so far. Using multi-touch on the tracks/clips works great, as does scrolling up and down, though you have to touch the clips as opposed to the "control" section where the widgets are. The MSR widgets in track view, on the other hand, are very iffy. For some tracks they work all of the time, for others they don't work at all despite multiple attempts. For those tracks, MSR will work in the inspector. Needless to say, selecting a track to show it in the inspector before selecting MSR is not very efficient.
Scrolling up and down the PC is also very iffy. It only works for me about 25% of the time. I'm not sure if I'm touching in the wrong place. I believe its the "handle" on the left side of the module, but then it's all to easy to move a module instead of scrolling the entire PC. I haven't found a method that works better than 25% of the time.
Plugins: I find the touch controls for plugins VERY helpful. Double touching a plugin opens it up. The controls for the plugins I've tried so far (limited on my laptop, but include those from Waves, IK Multimedia, and Native Instruments) have worked flawlessly, which makes for a very nice control surface without messing with ACT, Automap, etc., which, for me, is a big deal. Browsing presets depends on the specific plugin. For example, in Amplitube 3 it is nearly impossible because the browser menus and submenus are so small. On the other hand, Guitar Rig 5, which its large font plugin browser, is very easy to scroll and select presets.
In sum, I don't regret upgrading the W8, nor purchasing the touchscreen. It's a lot of fun and, in many instances, improves workflow, again, at least for me. On the other hand, there are quite a few things to be sorted out. I'm not sure if "bugs" is necessarily the correct word, but nonetheless, I hope CW continues to improve the touchscreen capabilities. It could be a real game-changer in the industry, IMHO.
As always, YMMV.
Regards,
Chris