Touch screen monitor recomendation

[passionmax]

I wanted to use a touchscreen monitor to control Ableton. Does anyone have a brand that works well with my MacBook with multi touch without being crazy expensive (ex. Dell, acre etc.). Does it work well if you are using Ableton on it instead of Yeco or touchable. Or will those apps work better? I tried the Steven slate and it was weird and did not feel great for the price. Thanks.

[jestermgee]

Have you tested Live with touch support yet?

Apparently it's not optimized well for TS displays and some things will be very hard to adjust such as any knobs.

[yur2die4]

Live isn’t really ideal for touch, though there are a few rare situations where it can be fun.

Also, it’s kind of a Windows commitment thing to a degree. Most software made for Windows just doesn’t have to commit to the idea of touch. And in many cases if it is added, it’s an afterthought and not always smooth or desirable.

With Ableton Live, you can only control one parameter at a time using a touch screen, even if the screen supports multitouch. The interfaces you mention actually do support multitouch but you would be using those as controllers rather than directly interfacing with Live.

Many things in Live are difficult to consistently do using touch. I zoom Live way way in when I do choose to use touch. Many things even then are not always the easiest to press or trigger in an intuitive way. Triggering clips requires that you aim for the small arrow on the side of them. Drawing in chords still requires you draw them one note at a time. Arrangement View is just hard. Etc. but I do feel it has ever so minorly improved lately.

What is interesting though is that some vsts actually do support multitouch, even if not deliberately. So that is an occasional cool surprise. They’re still not always perfectly easy to control.

As for screens themselves. Ideally you should be able to use one up close. Much like a tablet, or something resting on a table, maybe slightly angled. A screen that is mostly standing upright is not ideal as you can fatigue the arms.

Personally, I mostly stick to using the huge roster of exciting iPad apps when I feel the need to use touch screens for music. In Live, I focus more on midi controllers and using a mouse for its strengths (not that you can’t connect midi controllers and audio interfaces to an iPad).

That’s a basic rambling of my thoughts on it all. I don’t have a specific monitor recommendation, I just use whatever my laptop had. I don’t really know what’s on the market. Reviews and brand reputation are kind of what you’ll have to resort to. If you’re lucky there will be display models somewhere to try out (though in this era that might be extra challenging for a number of reasons).

[Paul G Griffiths]

I invented an idea of a plastic grid that you lay over your display containing read knobs and faders which contain pen like pointer nibs. You press on a fader, the pointer makes contact with the display and you then move it. Only display the screen where needed.

I require a 3D printer, then buy a load of touch screen pointer pens and cut off the nibs(or find out what is needed).