X2a touch experiences?

I'm interested to hear what experiences people have with the new touch gestures that are supported in X2a running on Windows 8.

I have all the pieces in place except for a touch screen or touch pad.  For my main DAW it's probably going to be a touchpad (something like this http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412536,00.asp).  I like the look of the giant 27" touch screen but cost and practicality put that on the back burner for now.  I may get a touchscreen laptop at a later date that I can use for working on when I'm away from my home studio.


I suspect that the experience might be affected by the quality of the device itself so I'm hoping that we can pool our knowledge here.  Note that although I can't offer any direct touch experience with X2a yet, I can say that the touch screens I tried out at a local Microsoft store were quite impressive, and the closest in experience I've had to the Macs and iOS devices I'm using at work and home...it remains to be seen if the apps and software will be designed well to take advantage of it.

Thanks for that link VariousArtist...like you I'm very interested to see how this was implemented as I have been interested in a control surface for several months now (VS-700 high on the list). If touch really works well (faders, pots all working) then I will go straight to Win 8 and embrace the beast ;-).

I wish they would have shown some operations occuring other than just zoom and docking (which are both very cool)

Thanks again,

Okay, well a bit of searching and, lo and behold...

http://www.splashtop.com/win8


Using your iPad to control your Windows 8 desktop with touch gestures.  Is it practical for DAW use?  Maybe, but either way it shows the possibilities that might give the best of both worlds:  a nice big monitor set off out of comfortable reach, being controlled by a lightweight touch screen that's easy to grab and use when you need to.

Multiple video's about touch on the cakewalk.com home page.

The honesty's too much...

I wonder if touch screen will replace the big console controllers in the near future? I mean you can buy a big 30# touch screen for 5% of the cost of example SSL Matrix.  Some say that it will not. Some say on Gearslutz they don't want to look down making music and mixing. I think that is just ridiculous. I have news for them. You look down on hardware console controller too!

 
SSL Matrix




Slate RAVEN touch screen..

One thing's for sure...

We all have to keep our hands cleaner from now on!

VariousArtist

 I'm interested to hear what experiences people have with the new touch gestures that are supported in X2a running on Windows 8.

I have all the pieces in place except for a touch screen or touch pad.  For my main DAW it's probably going to be a touchpad (something like this http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412536,00.asp).  I like the look of the giant 27" touch screen but cost and practicality put that on the back burner for now.  I may get a touchscreen laptop at a later date that I can use for working on when I'm away from my home studio.

Tried the Logitech T650... Seems difficult to work with Sonar X2a... 

Thinking about the Acer 231h 23" Touch Screen monitor ... seem like it can be had for $240... That just $150 more for the full experience..

VariousArtist


Okay, well a bit of searching and, lo and behold...

http://www.splashtop.com/win8


Using your iPad to control your Windows 8 desktop with touch gestures.  Is it practical for DAW use?  Maybe, but either way it shows the possibilities that might give the best of both worlds:  a nice big monitor set off out of comfortable reach, being controlled by a lightweight touch screen that's easy to grab and use when you need to.

I installed this app on my iPad soon after my post above and meant to mention that this works pretty nicely.  It's not as ideal as having your own dedicated touch screen, but it has it's nice side benefits such as being able to remotely control your DAW using a touch screen that looks exactly like what you would see on your DAW (rather than a console emulator app).

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

I posted some info about splashtop yesterday here
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2746916

I wasn't aware that they had added native Win8 touch gestures for IPad yet since their website still has info that said that the IPad win8 support was todo. May be out of date..

On my Android tablet although the touch gestures translate well, I am unable to get the charms to display by swiping in from the sides of the screen.

Cool coincidence!  Yes, I downloaded Splashtop on my iPad within minutes of downloading X2a, and I was pretty impressed at how well all the touch features worked -- not just on Sonar X2a, but on Windows 8 in general.  All the Windows 8 touch features seem to be supported{  I could pull in the charms menu, and glide through the start menu as if I was on a dedicated Microsoft Surface (which I had experience with first-hand already, so I knew what to level of standards to expect).
 
It's a little odd, and ironic, to be able to use Windows 8 remotely on your iPad, but I have to say it works pretty well and the graphical side is pretty sharp.  But more to the point, I was able to replicate many of the Sonar X2a touch gestures from the official video on my iPad using Splashtop.  Mind you, this was a quick 5-minute test and I have not had the chance to revisit it since then so I would caution against recommending that everyone feel that their iPads will function perfectly.  But I have to say it was pretty impressive all round...both for Spashtop as well as you et al at Cakewalk.
 
Exciting times.

@Noel : May I check with you if the X2a / Win 8 touch update handles note delete from the Step Sequencer ?

Thanks.

kind of expensive but man, I would love to have this. 20 simultaneous touch points - all fingers & toes at once!
 
have a look at the video.
 
http://www.planartouch.com/products/pct2785/#t-0

I'm interested in the upcoming Transformer book.
http://transformerbook.asus.com


This does 1080P, 10 touch points, has an I7 and also has a 13 inch display which is necessary when working with a hi res display so that things don't get too small. And you can detach the screen and lay it flat on a table if you want.

tomixornot

@Noel : May I check with you if the X2a / Win 8 touch update handles note delete from the Step Sequencer ?

You should be able to delete by touching a row to select it and then touching the X on the SS toolbar to delete the note.

A point of interest:  Just saw this on the Windows 8 upgrade page & thought someone might benefit from reading it before they purchase something regarding the 2,5,10,20 touch points etc: 


...If you have touch input hardware that isn't specifically designed for Windows 8, but is compliant with Windows 7 certification, you will experience touch responsiveness at least as good as it was on Windows 7. Because Windows 8 touch requires a higher degree of responsiveness and precision, Windows 8-certified touch PCs provide a much better experience typing on the on-screen keyboard and using certain controls than on Windows 7 certified PCs. For example, touchscreens that support fewer than five simultaneous touch points cannot enable certain Windows 8 features and applications...


http://windows.microsoft....ltitouch-hardware-reqs


That might be a concern on the 'cyclotouch' screen over lay, which I believe has only 2 touch points.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

tomixornot

@Noel : May I check with you if the X2a / Win 8 touch update handles note delete from the Step Sequencer ?

You should be able to delete by touching a row to select it and then touching the X on the SS toolbar to delete the note.

With my Win 7 / X2a - this action will delete the whole row, not a single note.

Edit : Feature request sent. Few times already.