Ableton Forum

have a look at this it's a low cost touch screen add on for laptop,it give maximum control in live.the future is now.


http://www.touchscreens.com/products-addon.html

... don't forget you can only touch one point at a time ... like if your finger = mouse

you have a good point,but i can see some good advantages for starting clips as i never start 2 at the same time ,& to control the x/y windows in the efect section.and honestly one more control is always good as live gives only two.as well the last time i played in a club they put the lights toward me & the only think i could see was the screen .i had to use my lighter to find the mouse & controls ,so i think this could help a lot in a live environment.

That this won't touch the screen completely, so you will have to calibrate it and use it at the exact same angle. Having used similar systems this can become slightly annoying when you are trying to click something and the pointer is a few pixels off from where your pen is.

i have to disagree with you and agree with mbazzy for a few reasons: cost is way high on touchscreens--for the price you could have an awesome controller or three. one thing at a time on touchscreen, whereas with a controller you can not only move multiple sliders and knobs at once, or hit a bunch of buttons at once, but you get the tactile response of the hardware, and you can even assign one hardware knob to multiple commands in Live. If you need light on stage there are always lamps--even usb lamps for under $20. ymmv, etc. but I couldn't see shelling out hundreds of dollars for a touchscreen that is less flexible and functional than controllers costing much less.

I have to agree with Spiderprod. This thing (for 160 bucks, no less) gives me a big ol' woody. I'll almost certainly be buying one. Guests and Mbazzy's points are valid, but only moderately important...here's why:

A mouse is only one-thing-at-a-time. You don't have "true" tactile relation to the faders and knobs on screen with a mouse, either. We're just used to it. And...here's the big one...I would continue to use my PCR-30 as the controller for my faders, knobs, and scene changes. The touchscreen would just eliminate the mouse, which I use for gradual scene changes through clips, and menu changes (like going into effects, or playing with loop markers).

So it would be a combination of touch-screen AND hardware controllers.

I say heeel yeeah!

anyone who buys one of these please give a review or feedback about it when it arrives...i like the idea a lot, but owning a 12" pb, the idea of putting a 14" screen on it sounds really ugly and inefficeint, not to mention the bullshit of PAYING for the drivers if you run os x...that's a truly wack business model

rajcoont wrote:anyone who buys one of these please give a review or feedback about it when it arrives...i like the idea a lot, but owning a 12" pb, the idea of putting a 14" screen on it sounds really ugly and inefficeint, not to mention the bullshit of PAYING for the drivers if you run os x...that's a truly wack business model

Yeah, I 2nd that. Keen enough to hear more if anyone gets one, but not quite keen enough to be a guinea pig myself! Certainly *seems* like a nice idea and cheaper than I would've expected.

trolltouch will build a touch screen into an ibook, but they can't do powerbooks (screen case to tight already.

Keep in mind, any faders or knobs will not behave very well as they use a different mouse mode to operate. As an example... if you want to increase the tempo with a mouse, you click tempo and drag up... now with a mouse you can keep dragging up even though your cursor would be off of the screen.

With a touch screen... if you drag up... you can go what, 10-15 pixels... that is not much of a tempo change.

There are similar problems when you begin using faders/sends to go down, you do have more room, but you run out of screen space very quickly.

Great points...I hadn't thought of that.

However, as per my previous post, I'd like to see what combining this screen along with my Edirol controller is like. And as far as tempo...as long as I can single-click the window, I have no problem using the arrow keys or number keys to make the change.

And I think I will be the guinea pig!

I will update this thread as soon as I've found out...hope they have a fair return policy!

Solovox
www.solovox.com

Well I've got a tablet pc and can say I've guinea pig'd myself on the interface...

I found drawing clips to be amazing! Anything requiring a double click was a bit of a pain, but single clicking on clips was handy...

However... having said all that... I'd rather just keyboard/midi jockey and use a mouse/touchpad when necessary. I rarely use the pen interface, and probably won't unless Ableton makes a concerted effort to improve the interface, which I find highly unlikely to happen, as it works perfectly well without a pen interface to begin with... *sigh*...

I just took the plunge people...I'll let everyone know what happens when it arrives...

Well, I got it.

First things first...I got the 15inch USB laptop screen...with 2 day air it was 209 bucks. It arrived on time and well-packed.

Does it work? Yes. The installation is quite painless, and there is a simple callibration procedure you should do everytime you use the screen which takes about 30 seconds. It comes with a pen, but I was using my index fingernail for most moves.

My original guess was absolutely correct: this thing rocks IF you use it in conjuction with a MIDI controller to fire scenes and adjust faders or knobs with.

Here is what it does great:

-- Quick-selecting areas of the screen (touching the tempo window, highlighting a scene, highlighting a fader or knob).

-- Dragging Faders

-- Dragging FX "balls" up and down the X-Y axis of the Ableton effects.

Here is what it does okay:

--Dragging Knobs

--Firing Clips

--Moving the menu bar up and down to navigate a session page

Here is what it can't do:

--Adjust Warp Markers on the fly

--Adjust Tempo up and down

More detail:

Highlighting an area (like the tempo window) is super fast and convenient. But if you drag your finger half-an-inch up, you will find your tempo around 400 bpm. Most drugs won't help dancers reach that speed. However, simply selecting it with your finger and then using the arrow buttons on the laptop works great.

Firing clips works, but it's going to take some practice. In general, there is a learning curve with this thing, people. My left index fingernail is going to be allowed to grow to a point, a la classical guitarists. You will need to develop relatively pin-point control to fire clips off perfectly. I'm at around 60% first-time success. I feel, however, that this is more the issue with Ableton's tiny play buttons, and not the Magic Touch's fault. It's a small play button...what are you going to do?

Fader control works great, but knobs are much trickier. Again, hardware controllers. OR...simply highlight the knob or fader and then drag smoothly with the laptop's arrow buttons.

A big need for me is to grab the menu bar and scroll up and down through the session for earlier and later groups of clips. This is tricky, but you get used to it. You basically rest your right thumb along the plastic case of the screen and precisely put the thumbnail down and then drag up and down. It's hard at first, no question. But you get it eventually.

Okay...the big question: is it worth it? Well, I think it depends on what kind of Ableton performer you are. If you are a mouse-oriented laptop performer that stares at the screen...mangling sounds, doing glitchy kind of stuff...then this may not be your thing. Then again...it might! But the mouse will offer much better control over play buttons and loop markers within clips.

If, however, you are like me: a keyboardist/performer who is more concerned with putting on a show and rocking the hizzee, then you should check out the Magic Touch. I HATE watching mouse-oriented laptop performances...and that's why I've incorporated the Edirol PCR-30 into my act...to get rid of as much mouse-work as possible. I think the more I get the hang off the Touchscreen, the more I'll like it. Yes...you have to be very precise...but that's what you're doing when you perform live anyway...this is just adding a little to your precision-requirements.

I must say that the most fun is grabbing the X-Y axis "ball" in the Ableton effects...like the AutoFilter. It's smooth, and you can get musical with it quite easily. And, yes...I'm sure it will have a "wow" factor in front of a crowd.

Hope this review helps...I'll update later with how my Jedi Touch Screen training goes...

Solovox

CD Release Show June 18, 2004 The Ohm Portland, Oregon

www.solovox.com

Thanks for the thorough review, sounds like you're getting your money's worth. A couple of practical questions come to mind...

is it difficult to attach/remove it from the screen (assuming you have to remove it to shut the lid)?

do u have to apply much pressure to click the screen?

is it as fragile as it looks?

cheers,
May your gigs be mousefree and awesome.