One problem with using tablets as a touch controller in Windows is that if the PC's network connection is wifi rather than cabled ethernet then you're probably going to encounter the usual dpc spikes and latency issues caused by Windows and wifi drivers.

For whatever reason, Macs don't seem to suffer from that problem, which would seem to indicate that the dpc/wifi issue has nothing to do with Intel-based hardware but is either OS or wifi adaptor driver related. It would be interesting to know if Windows running on Apple hardware via bootcamp suffers from the same wifi dpc issues.

Craig, I will follow your story carefully.  I am happy with my VS-700, but someday I am sure I will have a monitor in a normal viewing position and a second one lying nearly horizontal to replace the control surface. My big hesitation is around ergonomics.
 
My mental image of a studio is still a long mixing desk with physical faders and knobs, but that really makes no sense for what I do (or what I've been doing for years).

I have a 23" touch monitor that cost a lot, but it's nice.
 
Mainly I use touch when playing with friends.
 
We share the screen. Take turns dialing in our sounds standing in front of the speakers wearing guitars. Twiddling dials and changing effect settings.
 
I love it as a recording engineer because it gives me a silent (like completely silent really) way to adjust monitor settings while recording other people. Say a quiet acoustic duo with me in the room with them. I can do all kinds of things with touch without impacting them. Keyboard strokes or mouse clicks have shown up on tapes in the past.
 
When I practice alone, I use touch a lot b/c my hands are on my guitar, not my mouse to begin with. I tap record, rewind, and try to change tempo to random amounts. I don't like always practicing at the same tempo because it makes me inflexible when I play with others or perform.
 
When I get down to business of mixing a band, I really never touch the screen. If I have 16 tracks and I've already mixed 3, I'm sitting back with the mouse. Click sounds will not matter since I'm not recording.
 
I do use touch sometimes when first loading up a bunch of tracks. It's a fast way to try to find the tracks and rough in a mix.
 
Off topic, but for solo performance, an adequate looping device would be cool. We really don't have one in Sonar, which kinda blows. I have a looper Pedal, but it's mono and to tell the truth I don't usually plug it in.

A timely forum.  I had been wondering how touch screens were viewed by Sonar users.  I use the one on my web surfing netbook all the time but don't see much benefit for my Sonar work flow (recording and composing). I have an A-300 Pro keyboard that has a Sonar control pad but I still resort to the mouse most of the time.  Visually I like having the monitor an arm's length away so I wont be changing over soon.
 
Cheers.

If only faders and pan in the consideration : then control surface with motorized faders will be better in conjunction with a touch screen to for additional flopping/select etc.
 
 

No touchscreen here.
 

I've been thinking that my next piece of studio gear would be a 27" multi (10 point) touch monitor.

I think it's the way of the future for DAWs and even though Cakewalk have promoted touch for a long time, it seems to have stagnated since first release. Sadly my experiments with Sonar don't give me much confidence. I still love working in Sonar and reckon it's the best but this is an area I'd like to experiment with more. I have Studio one 3.1 and there is aready a remote for iPad app that's controls Presonus hardware which is very well done. There will also soon be an app ( maybe already released by this time) that provides direct remote control of hardware from inside Studio One and full remote control of Studio One as well. Certainly interested in how this technology pans out. Would love if Sonar really had a proper working control surface function through touch.

I use a touch screen, but not an optimum solution.  I have touch on my 15" HP laptop and in my studio I have two 23" monitors that I use to extend and expand my view.  As my eyes age, it's more important to have those close-up views.


That said, I would invest in a larger (largest?) 10-point touch screen with Win10.  As mentioned, install in a position that is half monitor and half keyboard.  Maybe a 30-40 degree angle.  I still would use a keyboard for data entry, notes, text (obviously), and productivity apps, but the touch screen would be my primary interface for SONAR.


I also agree that the bakers could do more to capitalize on current touch capabilities with the goal of performing all functions efficiently using the screen, the keyboard, the mouse, or any combination, but their brilliant product development strategy is almost certain to extend current utilization.  

Hi Craig,
I use a Dell XPS18 i7 tablet with 8gig of ram. Its 18 inch screen made it the largest tablet available when I bought it. It still might be.
It has feet that allow it to stand like a monitor or lie at a angle like a mixer.
The hardware has exceded my expectations in every way, except maybe more USB ports.
Most of my old hardware drivers work. Eg tascam us122, venom, plugiator, um880 etc
Its probably just me, but I have long hoped to get the mouse out of my work flow. I despise having to use it for music. So I have been observing the development of touch for a long time.
Half the time I work with the tablet in my lap, mouse and keyboard free. When I have hardware conected I place it on a table and use the wireless keyboard as a remote.
And while its so close to working for me, Sonar is also so wide of being anywhere near usable as a touch compatable Daw.
The reason is this.
Somewhere the decision has been made that to do any editing you will need a mouse, because that is the only way you can reach the right click menu.
Without the right click menu you really wont get very far in Sonar.
I had a discussion with Noel on another thread. He said that the right click would be imcompatable with touch scrolling. It was very soothing to hear it from the top.
However Im not sure thats true. Windows indicates on the screen when its trying to open the right click men. And it doesnt seem to have any trouble determining the differece in other applications.
Actually applications that have no emphisis on touch are more generally usable in this regard. There is a youtube video somewhere showing sonar x2 being used against cubase and reason for touch and it shows Sonars approach to touch is far too self limited.
To get around the lack of tight click I use a mouse emulator called touchmousepointer. Its a utter pain, but it works.
I guess Im in a minority, but I think that monority is growing exponentially, and the bakers are going to have to rethink it soon.
Bitwigs approach of having a special overlay for touch seems the smartest way to go. But recent features like the onscreen keybooard show cakewalk are doing cool things without needing to copy anyone.
Otherwise if there was a keyboard shortcut provided to trigger the right click context menu... I could shut up for a while.
Anyway I hope you go touch Craig. Its about as addictive as crack. Once you taste it you just want more...

These are all very helpful responses. Still haven't screwed up the courage to move to W10 yet, and W7 doesn't support touch, so...right now it's down to imaging my C drive so if W10 makes things blow up, I can still get work done.
 
I'm sure that after updating to W10 I'll kick myself for not doing it sooner...on the Mac I'm still on Mavericks because it's rock solid, but I'm about to make the leap into Yosemite because I figure with El Capitan happening, they probably fixed all the issues in Yosemite by now.
 
Speaking of which, why did they stop doing cat names? I was so looking forward to the "Hello Kitty" version of OS X.
 
Thanks again everyone for the comments, looking forward to more.