Anyone using twin side by side touchscreens in SONAR?

Sweet setup. I can imagine that if the bottom screens were touch-enabled you could really fly...

I'm just starting out and am stuck with a single monitor, but coincidentally I was daydreaming about a setup like this just yesterday. Was wondering what would be more natural... using two fingers, pinched together, to turn a knob... or just one finger on it, and twist?

The whole 'reaching is hard' thing has not been an issue for me.
 
Also, using the touch screen during recording is silent compared to a mouse and keyboard (if you're in the same room with a musician or two).
 
I definitely use touch and really enjoy it. Before you buy two, you might buy one and see how you like it. The monitors aren't that expensive, but still...
 
I don't use touch much in Track View. You can use it for zoom and navigation, but I'm fast with rewind and markers and so on. ctrl+page up and ctrl+page down. For me, if I can do everything with touch I tend to be ok with touch. Once I'm switching to keys, I tend to stick on the keys (unless there is a reason not to). On Track View, there are lots of things I can't do with touch.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that I like to keep the browser handy for dragging FX into the PC. It's actually one reason I'd like to have the PC items in the Browser. Currently, it's not easy to use touch to add PC Modules to the PC. Adding FX is easy to do when you drag the FX from the Browser to the track or PC strip. But this means you might want to plan on a little space for the browser window.
 
Another constraint that keeps me using my AlphaTrack is that it controls Sonar even when it doesn't have the focus. Let's say you switch to your interface control to mix monitors, now to stop the recording, you have to switch to Sonar before you can stop it. It's not the end of the world, but I thought it might interest you to know why I still use my AlphaTrack at times (not all the time).

Yeah, mostly flat with maybe a 5 - 10 degree tilt.  My mix desk (which I built) could easily be adapted to accommodate the monitors.  But if two monitors won't work together, it wouldn't be as appealing.  This is what it's like at present.  I feel like the MCUs are becoming archaic and instead of fighting the tide of things to come, I might consider going along with it.  
 

 

That's a beautiful Desk, Mod Bod.
 
You definitely can configure multiple touch monitors. When you get them, if you have any issue, ping me and I'll get on the phone with you and walk you through it.
 
Basically, you open up the monitor configure screen. You click a button to 'Identify' the touch monitor currently selected. Then a number appears on each monitor. You touch the screen corresponding to that touch screen. You then repeat this for your other touch monitors until each is identified.
 
Bottom line, yes, you can configure a whole pile of touch screens to work concurrently.

mixmkr
Isn't the Raven kinda what you're looking for?  Touch screen seems appealing to me, but I mix and record so differently from the "hardware" days, that I'm not constantly tweeking and fiddling, like I did on a large format console and outboard gear.  More precise edits and stuff like that are the norm, and the control seems there with the mouse.  I'd have to really see it in {useful} action to be convinced, and not just by the technology of being able to do it, sans mouse.

Yeah, but the Raven is stoooopid expensive and it only works in certain environments at the moment.

Dave, you have a great setup already, I'd leave it be. Why get rid of the real stuff to use emulations of the real stuff you already have??? The only reason for touch is budgetary concerns and you've already made the investment in real equipment. Just because something is cheaper it doesn't make it better :)
 
Bill

Mod Bod,
 
I used to have twin touch screens, but went back to one and one... I found that mixing with the mouse worked better for me but navigation on the console view, I use swipe motions to move from track area to track area on the touch screen. Perhaps not really liking the touch console view, had something to do with reaching comments and the mouse was more comfortable.  
 
I had 2 27 inch touch monitors and they weren't big enough for me to mix with.... and the larger screens are a bit out of my price range. I gave one of the monitors to one of my kids (if you call a son 30 something a kid still) and went back to an IPS non touch 30 inch screen to use with the mouse on the track mode screen.
 
So, I think it was a good idea to have a desktop made and tilt the screens like an old mixing desk and then make it low enough so that you hands resting naturally where the faders would be.  Maybe a project for when I retire from my day gig.
 
Jim
 
 
 

I just wanted to chime in - I sold my Mackie Control Universal Pro a few months back when I bought a 27" touch screen. I mounted it at an angle below my primary monitor to mimic a console, sort of. I was SO PUMPED about this set up, but I was sorely disappointed by touch - I found the console view in Sonar very cumbersome with touch. The buttons are too small (same with the transport), and the sliders never reacted quite the way you would expect.
 
I ordered a new Mackie Control Unversal Pro and hooked it up last night - ahhhhhh! It's like coming home. I love the promise of touch, but the Mackie just works and works REALLY well, is intuitive, and stuff moves. :) The new version has updated faders (Penny and Giles) and they are a nice improvement.

love the set up....swinging a little bit off key how do you set up 2 monitors?

Just had a second look at your screens and counted them as 16 channels wide. This is the same as my Full HD screen in default display setting (125%). But this setting is buggy for me with the mouse.
At the smaller 100% where the bugs clear up, it becomes a bit more fiddle, but of course yours are larger screens than mine, which counteracts this. I have wondered about what it would be like using a stylus, so you could still see the knob you are adjusting, instead of smothering it with you finger tip

smallstonefan
I just wanted to chime in - I sold my Mackie Control Universal Pro a few months back when I bought a 27" touch screen. I mounted it at an angle below my primary monitor to mimic a console, sort of. I was SO PUMPED about this set up, but I was sorely disappointed by touch - I found the console view in Sonar very cumbersome with touch. The buttons are too small (same with the transport), and the sliders never reacted quite the way you would expect.
 
I ordered a new Mackie Control Unversal Pro and hooked it up last night - ahhhhhh! It's like coming home. I love the promise of touch, but the Mackie just works and works REALLY well, is intuitive, and stuff moves. :) The new version has updated faders (Penny and Giles) and they are a nice improvement.

Finally someone brave enough to share real experience despite being expensive;-)
 
To the OP: we all need to splash out money for new toys. that's what we are all here for and it feels good to do it :-) but my 50c (even before reading the quoted post) would be to hold on the MCUs just in case ... nothing beats real knobs and faders ... I was a touch early adopter myself ...
 
As regards audio quality (how could that be impacted by touch???) ... well, try mixing with your eyes closed - the most sensitives pan and fader etc. moves I want to do without having to look at the actual knob/reading ...
 
Apart from that I'm surprised that so far no one has ever voiced any concerns about mounting a huge perfect reflector just underneath your face ... basically any handbook on studio acoustics talks about getting a grip on those reflection paths to avoid comb filtering; most actually mention the console in that respect (yet you don't have many options as you need a console ) ... however, with touch screens and near fields you seem to be building something that's "acoustically not in your favour" ...
 

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Hi guys, I use a surface pro 3. Because of the high resolution screen It is NOT ideal for working on the cakewalk mandated 100% screen reso. The console, and matrix are a blast. Track View is a drama. The Stylus and guessing It would work the same evereywhere is a dream. A (very)Good alternative for the Mouse. The bakers should optimize for It though if sonar is to become DAW 3.0

Another issues for anyone considering a touchscreen laptop, is that when you touch the screen the hinge will give a little, so you have to increase the pressure, making the controlling a little more difficult. The way around this is to have the top of the screen at the back touch the wall or something behind your desk, so it is more stable. This limits being able to move the laptop around as you are working. So for instance, you are playing guitar and you want to hit the transport, in you standard set up you reach across your desk.

yeah bro I'd absolutely recommend you hang with the Mackie controllers for a while.  It seemed touch was gonna take off but damn, it's sputtered to a halt!  I bought a 23" Acer touchscreen when they came on sale and it's pretty much become just another monitor for Sonar.  I stopped trying to use the touch stuff because there really isn't enough real-estate.  Now if you have the resources to get a couple 30" with much higher resolution that might work out!