That is some really cool info Noel.
Everybody is different in their studio working techniques it seems. I can see a definite advantage to using touch screen if I can incorporate it into my working situation in a way that is truly beneficial
Here are a few FWIW thoughts concerning Sonar X2a,windows 8 and a touch screen. I'm sure you have already given this a lot of thought but maybe another perspective will help.
I am both a keys player and a guitar player. I had a desk custom built several years ago that positions my midi keyboard right in front of me. I have a keyboard/mouse setup mounted to the desk directly in front of the midi keyboard on a made for that purpose rig. My two screens sit directly in front of me l about 6" up behind the keyboard.Touching them at that angle is counter productive.
Since making music mostly always involves looking down at the keys....looking down at the keyboard....looking down at the guitar,so from that perspective some kind of a device that is mounted to one side of the computer keyboard would make a really nice touch surface. Mounting something to a stand would be even better because it could be shifted around but won't fall off the desk if bumped accidentally.
For me an android pad probably would not give me the full advantage of the experience. It might work in a pinch but not in a day to day situation. Just too small to show all of the tracks.
I'm thinking something that is a minimum of 19" to 24", talks to X2, and is mounted ergonomically low and close to my normal working position. I could use my other two monitors to show various processes and load the mixer view on the third large touch monitor to make quick changes to the mix as necessary.
If I didn't like my midi keyboard position so much I would consider mounting a large touch screen monitor into my custom mixing desk so that I could simply have it directly in front of me . As it is now, a movable stand or arm would be second choice.
Here is the dreamer in me talking now...... I am away from my studio with my touch laptop working on a mix . When I get home to my studio I simply clip the laptop into the movable arm and it automatically connects with my larger PC and all of its systems. X2 in my studio PC detects the Sonar in the laptop and uses all of the settings and files I was working on as a reference point with the added benefit of the horsepower and memory in the studio PC.The lappy is a touch screen PC on the go and part of the larger system in the studio. Can it be done?
I could always copy the Sonar file from the touch laptop to the larger PC ,however needing to make a copy and file transfer each time could become too much to do on a daily basis if a person goes back and forth a lot. I could use only the peripherals from my larger setup but I would be using much less memory and cpu power that might not be up to the task of my project.