Touch features. Too Soon?

From my observation, most users do not use touch screen, at least not immediately, unless perhaps till the day when all screens have touch support built in.

But it's important for Cake to have touch support now, especially when moving to Win 8 - where touch is an important part of it - and moving forward. And I don't think it took a long amount of time for Cake to implement it. 

I can imagine someone new to DAW having a look at X2 / X3..on Win 8 / 9.. and say..what ? ..this thing don't respond to touch ? ..never mind when they actually use it, touch won't be used. In fact, Cake needs to catch up a little.. Reaper already has touch support (well.. it just translate touch to mouse more accurately), as long as you have a touch screen - with any version of Windows.

But once implemented, little improvement can be fine tuned - even if majority of users are not using it.. Till one day, when touch really takes off (IF) ..then we are all glad Cake did it today.

brconflict

I'll say it: Personally, I'm not interested in touch features for Sonar. 

I am. Way to go Cake.

as a mouse hater, ive been waiting for touch for years.

win7 already came with touch capabilities and i was first very enthusiastic about it. so I got myself one of those all-in-one machines with a touch screen.

sonar x1 already did work alright with it. it was quite nice to just touch the screen to arm, mute, solo, push play etc and occasionally move a fader or rotary ... but when I tried to do a simple mix, I got sore arms soon and it just felt unnatural / weird. so instead of taking the screen of the wall and laying it in front of me, I ordered a proper control surface. Nothing beats real faders and knobs (if they work) ... call me old-fashioned, I can live with it ...

Bristol_Jonesey

the choice - as always - is up to you

As long as the choice remains, anything that potently increases the Sonar user base is a good thing So I think its the right move.
 
But for me, I can't see any situation where I would rather use a touch screen than a mouse/keyboard/controller combination. I have a touch screen phone but can't say I like it, the only advantage I see, to me, in touch screens is minaturisation.

One thing I need to be clear on. I'm personally ok with "touch" control in an of itself. There's a really neat little iPad2 app that allows you to control some functions o Sonar (and many other DAW's) over WiFi. It's way cool, but I stopped using it. It really didn't help me work faster, even though the sliders were much larger and easier to touch. With that said, the issue I have is more that Skylight isn't ready for touch. Needs bigger faders, and buttons for larger fingers. If you compare Sonar's faders and buttons to an SSL (physical) console, you'd see quickly that Skylight is a lot of GUI crammed into one screen. So, what I see happening (I sincerely hope) is that there will be a quick way to zoom into, not just the audio, but Zoom the Skylight GUI itself. If one could zoom into the GUI so that faders could actually replicate the size of a real large console, then use swipe to move down the console to higher-numbered faders, or up to see my plug-ins, not just the Pro-Channel (which I rarely use), I think the touch experience would be 200% better. Right now, I simply don't think Skylight is ready. NOW, what I see in the distant future, but rest-assured, it will get here (hopefully in the next 20 years or so): Virtual consoles. Yes, a real 3D console that you can actually TOUCH, generated by an interface from Windows21 (hypothetical). Can you imagine a table in front of you with an actual 3D console projected on it that you can actually FEEL and control? Otherwise, gimmie zoom, size-lock, and swipe ability always on top for the Skylight interface itself and we're on our way!! I'll get some extra touch monitors, and voila!! THEN, I'll see the "light"...err Skylight.

I think it is important that Cakewalk keep up to date with new tech.

I also believe that touch screens are best as horizontal surfaces, i.e. control surfaces.

I see it as, Screen 1 main display-vertical, Screen 2 interface-horizontal.

The way I see it, a lot of applications don't need touch, so it's easy to write it off. But some applications are perfect candidates for multiple inputs, and audio/midi sequencers fall into that category (mixing, drum pads, virtual keyboards, etc.). Like any new approach, it will take time to get it right, but I think it's a smart move by CW. I personally wouldn't want to use it on a vertical monitor, but as a second horizontal input surface, there's a lot of potential. It might also be a good incentive for CW to make at least parts of its UI dynamically scalable.

I had an epiphany.

Who in their right mind would want a vertical touch screen?

I like my iPad, but would never use it vertically, even 45 degrees would be a pain.

Touch screens should always be near horizontal and if they are horizontal then they are poor replacements for monitors.

I don't see how a vertical touch screen can ever be a win.

@jkleban-- Thanks for posting the video. That's definitely inspiring, to say the least. Having a 46" screen with the DAW is definitely a must for the future (or even a larger screen). But if you look closely, and this echoes my feelings about Skylight in a "touch" screen world, note how large the faders buttons and knobs are. Perhaps on a 46" screen Skylight may be large enough to use, but on a laptop, tablet, or any monitors or touch screens less than 30", and it just falls short, imo. Perhaps Cakewalk can introduce a "touch" mode that increases the size of buttons, knobs, and faders, meanwhile leaving the rest of the graphics at the current dot-pitch.

Touch screen interface is a glorified mouse. I tend to agree. Stability and consistency in workflow is far more productive and profitable.

Its probably a good idea to hang back and see but Microsoft and Cakewalk are taking the right approach here. Microsoft is creating a consistent touch enabled UI across the desktop, tablet and phone platforms. Cakewalk is taking full advantage of that platform to make the obvious next leap. pros and semi-pros are not going to be doing their thing on tablets. Control surfaces aren't cheap. Touch sensitivity on desktops and laptops will be standard within a couple of years. So every Sonar installation will have a built in control surface. Makes sense to me. The trick to work out is placement. Really a 2 monitor setup makes sense. 1 mounted flat to control the console. The second mounted vertical to display the track view. At least I think...

My biggest issue with making the plunge is more related to WIN 8 than it is to TOUCH.  I am hanging back until the final verdict of WIN 8 starts to roll in...  

I have too many unanswered questions about WIN 8... drivers, compatibility, etc... first.  But, if this turns out to be a non-issue, I am sure that touch monitors will be a plenty with many sizes available.  ASUS has a touch screen out that allows you to tilt the monitor down to almost flat.

But my big update for 2013 is going to be a UAD Apollo.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Jim

As I mentioned in another post, if you are able to get Sonar X2a running with no issues at all, then you should rejoice and smile at the rest of us. I wish everyone could do that, for our sake and Cakewalk's! Many of those successful users don't really find their way here; so, it could very well be that if the system and all stars are aligned and you have no issues, don't move an inch. I feel like my system is pretty well standard (everything iNtel where possible, ASUS video, Kingston RAM, Western Digital Drives, MOTU 24i/o Core, SoundBlaster, and Windows7 64-Bit with all the latest patches/updates. I'm an advocate of updating drivers, BIOS, etc. when they are ready (grain of salt, here), but I don't think I've run into any one Cakewalk update with X1/X2 that was perfectly running on my system. However, I do work for a software company myself, and hardware companies in the past. The initial product typically sees more grueling tests than most, if not all, of the updates/patches. It's just the way of things. Someone posted they would love to see more Beta testers. I admire that and wish whole-heartedly Cakewalk will do this (again? Have they done it before?). If I could Beta test, people like me could help find issues/errors pretty quickly. It's what I did for a living a decade ago and, to some limited degree, what I volunteer to do now for a few VST plug-in companies. I don't get that Cakewalk would be interested in such a venture, since being in with Roland.

brconflict


If I could Beta test, people like me could help find issues/errors pretty quickly. It's what I did for a living a decade ago and, to some limited degree, what I volunteer to do now for a few VST plug-in companies. I don't get that Cakewalk would be interested in such a venture, since being in with Roland.

If you want to beta test, all you need to do is apply. CW has a pretty extensive beta program, and that includes point releases. I'm looking forward to a flawless application with you behind the wheel (just kidding).

http://www.cakewalk.com/beta/forms/default.aspx