Sonar X3 and Windows 8 with touchscreen

Yes it can and from all I have seen it works very well indeed.

Some things work well. There's no 'touch toolbar' so there's no sort of 'context menu' for touch. This means that when working with envelopes, touch is useless.
 
On the other hand, there is still tons of stuff that it works well with.
 
- The console view (pretty much everything in there including the flyout EQ which can be adjusted using touch directly in the graph as well as using the nobs)
- The synths - Certain synths better than others, but Rapture, Dim Pro and Zeta all work great with touch.
- The plugs - all PC Plugins work great. Most FX that come with Sonar work fairly well but the BlueTubes and BlueCat plugs I often get frustrated with. It's hard to get the focus on your nob of choice using touch.
- It works ok on the Track View for zooming, scrolling, setting focus on a track. But because I have to have my hand on the mouse for envelopes, I usually end up not using touch in the Track View.
 
Is it as good as the real thing - meaning a console? - no. Here's why...
- You sometimes have to touch twice to get control of a fader. For example, the first touch to the screen may set focus on the application. Once you start grabbing faders, it works great. You can grab a bunch at a time too and that also works - one on each finger.
- You can't feel your way to the fader. You have to look at it. The screen is flat.
- The developers fingers must be smaller than mine. For example, sometimes, when trying to change the Q in the flyout EQ, I can't do it with pinching. Usually I can do an initial Q Set, but after that, it's hard to grab it by pinching. Easier to touch the Q nob on the EQ. I think the trick is to get your fingers exactly equidistant from the eq node you're modifying, but it's kinda hard to do when you are wanting to reduce the Q. Your fingers must be spread, but not too far and an equal amount on both sides before you pinch to contract the Q.
 
Is it better than the real thing? Yes in many ways.
- You don't have to map controls to your plugins. You don't have to remember what is mapped where.
- You never accidentally move 2 parameters because the same control is mapped to multiple things.
 
Do I still use a hardware controller? Yes, sometimes... here's why...
I have an old Frontier AlphaTrack. Sometimes, when I'm recording for a long time, the first touch on the screen doesn't stop the transport. I often let the 'tape' run for hours and then suddenly want to do transport control. I find the stop button on the AlphaTrack more instantaneous in this case than the touch screen.
 
Do I regret my touch screen investment? Definitely NO!
When I use 2 screens - 1 being non-touch, the second screen gets covered with fingerprints. :-)
 
Tip: Try your Control Bar at the bottom of the screen. Much better for touch!

I'm developing an alpha channeled pinned app that when you touch the onscreen musical piano keys they flash and trigger a midi note sent to SONAR XXX...should be awesome! -Shawn Lee Farrell
 
My HP ENVY x360 rotates 360% so I can get a better angled keyboard...
 
Super Excited...
 

 

"In the Near Future Release...may come bundled with SONAR XXX...or a $10.00 add-on"...that's my dream. -Shawn Lee Farrell