Touchscreen Cubase controller for Cubase 7 PLEEZ

Steinberg Lounge
1

With the announcement of Windows 8, pretty much everybody is (or will be) building tablet/slate devices. And, to me, it seems evident that the heyday of controllers like CC121, Faderport, Maschine, etc. will soon be over. These hardware controllers solved with touch what was clunky to do with a mouse. And while there is some benefit to the feel of a fader or a knob, that benefit is far outweighed by the flexibility and future-proof-ness of a flexible tablet/slate device.

Think of how much more you could do with a touchscreen companion to Cubase that could adapt to many different use-cases depending on your context in Cubase. For my work, I don’t envision a slate replacing my two big landscape screens. But I do imagine a touch screen sitting on my desk, playing the role of the CC121 and then some.

Here are some of the things I imagine for Cubase 7:

  1. Instead of having my mixer on my main screen competing with my project window on my PC monitor, why not a new mixer designed specifically for multi-touch that sits on my touchscreen, where I could grab several faders at once. Make it easy for me to easily jump to different mixer groups–just my busses and the master, then all of my VSTi outputs, my returns, my vocal group, at the touch of a button instead of hunting left/right with a scrollbar.
  2. Automatically switch to an extended channel strip view for the channel I have selected in the project window. Not only would I have the basics (Mute/Solo, Read/Write, Monitor, Channel Fader… but there’s enough room on a slate screen to also host the VST rack (inserts/sends).

The above two alone would be revolutionary for my workflow. But there are some more applications:

  1. Draw automation curves with my finger.
  2. Edit MIDI in the piano roll and draw MIDI controller data with my finger.
  3. Live mode controller

What would you want to do with a touchscreen?

2

I totally agree, touch screens are looking like the future, I would be in no doubt that DAW manufacturers will be looking at this technology and thinking about best ways of incorporating this into their future releases.

All very exiting :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Good thread, mate!!!

To start with, I prefer dedicated hardware devices. I am old school, and hands on. Part of the reason is because they can actually be fingered, felt and tweaked by feel. I have a few (younger) friends that are just tied to numbers, i.e. obsessive about the “neatness” of values of parameters at “neat” intervals. (Like how the UI was in the early Pro 24, NUMBERS, lol!) It feels so estranged from music. And just like software VST’s are a replacement for hardware synthesizers, they don’t make them the same as their counterparts, except for maybe soundwise, of course. But there certainly IS a difference.

Secondly, I would prefer that the devices be replaced SEPARATELY from Cubase. Meaning, no mucking up Cubase until there is a usable advantage to make the change. Just like the laptops were supposed to replace workstations, because of their smaller size, convenient to move, etc., we have yet to see that happen. There IS a difference.

And after all, the touch screens ARE usable NOW, without any special customization to anything. It is basically just a replacement of the mouse, anyways.

Now, this is not because I am not against touch screens, in particular or in any other way. Absolutely not! However I am not willing to jeapordize my entire livelyhood for something, just because it’s the new cool toy. It should be a proven usefulness before a professional software starts using something “specifically”. For example, look how long it has taken to phase MIDI into second place. I.e. Note Expression is certainly the best attempt yet. That does not mean MIDI is dying or not supported in any way, since NE is not replacing MIDI, but a complement inside the host itself. HOWEVER, there is a difference.

In the case of MIDI though, I simply has to bow for Steinberg. No matter how much I love my synthesizers, I see the absolute awesomeness in where they are going. No matter how much I love my hardware synthesizers, they are moving dangerously close to the museum. And I am not going with them! And please, understand that I LOVE the knobs, the buttons, the sliders, the fiddling! There is a difference! :slight_smile: In the case of NE however, I am certainly willing to have my machines take a back seat. I feel an extreme change with NE, cannot explain it, really. But somehow I feel a “change in the air”.

Anyways, back to the… ehrm… touch screens, yes, lol, sorry folks. I don’t quite see the same type of replacement of use for this, at my workstation that is. As a MIDI controller replacement? Sure I can see that. But I simply LOVE the CC121, it is invaluable (within Cubase of course). Fluent and with the touch I so like. Now a touch screen might have flexibility, but surely the physical feel of its generalness will not be as apparent? I mean, it’s always the same shape and if the screen changes, I feel like I would have to LOOK at it to find where the controls are (if simulating different devices, I mean). And after all, as they say, with flexibility comes complexity, and a physical knob, button or slider has a known physical place. I would’ve like to typed “there is a difference” again, but I was not really trying to preach really, merely expressing my opinion on (well, close to) the topic.

Again, a very good thread, and please, I was not trying to be a pain with my ramblings!!! I beg forgiveness if it seem so.

4

If I read your post correctly, I think you’re saying “don’t mess up cubase” – I don’t disagree… what I’m getting at is using a touchscreen as an addition–a multitouch controller that could do WAY more than CC121. Sure, it won’t have a knob or a fader to grab onto. But it could let you do so much more. That wouldn’t take anything away from Cubase. It would add to it.

5

Aloha
+1

Being older than dirt, I looove the ‘feel’ of driving a stick shift auto-moblie
but do they even make them any more?

IMHO
one day the iPad (or other pad) will be the
only computer input device needed for most people.

You can type/talk/draw/play a musical instrument into it and
because it can be configured in sooo many personal and
undiscovered ways.

{‘-’}

6

Like I said though, obviously more flexible, but also more complex. Having the same rectangular area with no feel for where the controls are, I will need to look at it to manage the controls for various layouts (unless the layouts are all the same, but then what’s the point). With the CC121 I know where they are without needing to look. Granted it cannot do everything a dynamic screen can do, the touch screen does not have that “natural” feel of layout (without looking at it to coordinate my movements).

But as I also mentioned, I am not against the device in itself. Definitely not. I am simply stating that it is just another integrated input/interactive device, not a new type of computer, per se. It has a place, certainly!

7

How sad is that. We can only buy things that Apple sells? What if they don’t support certain types of music or other interests? What happened to “information should be free” and “open source” and all that? Not that I am a proponent of such, per se, just thinking out loud. Apple almost went under because of their absolute dogma of having everything under their strict control (the old Macintosh) and refuse to license their OS on anything else but their own built hardware.

Seemed many developers bitch about say Microsoft and their “lack of support for open this and open that”, and here a huge populus think it’s cute with Apple controlling even what you can put on basically a locked down computer? If this sets a model for the future… scary is what I think, to be honest.

I am not sure undiscovered ways is how I would put it. Call me paranoid, cynical, whatever… but “controlled ways” comes to mind. The iPad, to me, seems like one of those childrens learning tools, for adults. (Or an industrial sized iPod!)

Give me one with Windows on it, and the ability to control the content myself, and I’ll be a bit more positive. :wink:

8

As the thread starter, I started with pointing out with windows 8, everything will be a touch-capable device (the other two biggies, Apple an Google already have slates).

I don’t think curteye meant to say that apple will control everything. I think he just meant that the flexibility of a touchscreen input device makes it far more compelling as a control surface than a dedicated one.

9

Within 5 to 10 years just about every computing device will have touch screens, it’s the future.

In a DAW I see it as complementing other type of controllers, but I think the reality of the situation is it’s coming and any software company that doesn’t take advantage of it will be left behind.

10

I’ll just see what happens. Personally I’ve been moving more towards hardware controllers recently, I find it better for the reasons already mentioned, like blindly finding your controls.

11

Unless you have your head embedded in a place where the sun does not shine, then you should know that they still make plenty of these “stick shift” automobiles.

As for the topic, as we progress, so do we digress. Something is lost in translation. Perhaps for the first time in history, we can see old ways pass into obscurity, and new ways subverting them. Are these new ways better? In some very limited ways, yes, in many others, no.

When a touchscreen breaks, it will probably be completely useless: a useless piece of toxic materials not easily recycled. When a fader breaks on a mixer, it can be replaced. Of course, we have long been in a cycle of discarding rather than fixing what we acquire. This is one of the downsides to the free market. Everything has become so cheap to buy, it is no longer considered by most to be worthy of repair.

For me, it doesn’t make so much of a difference, although I do my best to fix that which I have for the future generations, so that they are not mired in a sea of toxic garbage. For future generations, I see a world like the one portrayed in WALL-E: mountains of garbage, and no place to live. Yet people who want to save beautiful things are often derided as tree huggers.

Tell me who will be hated 200 or 500 years from now when there are no more trees? Will the people who used foresight and tried to save those trees still be looked at with revulsion and scorn by those with limited vision and lack of foresight?

Would a touchscreen interface (which already exists, BTW - it’s called a LEMUR really make your life better or just lazier?

Edit: It appears that the company that makes the LEMUR was not able to sell enough of them to make it commercially viable. This does not surprise me. Music is becoming more of a hobby, since so few can make it a viable business. Therefore, mostly hobbyists will be musicians in the future, as music dies the death of homogenization and democratization, which has already mostly happened.

12

Ceiling Duck:

I actually think you have it backwards in a big way. I could replace a diningroom tabletop of gear with a single slate device like an ipad. Every controller, mixing surface, etc. you could buy will have chips, lead, etc. in it. It’s all toxic.

But with a single slate device like an iPad, I could easily swap between dozens of producing, recordng, and mixing needs. And then take it with me on the road to watch a movie or play Angry Birds :wink: Let’s face it, many people will have some sort of slate device within the next 5 years anyway. Why not build apps that make that single device MORE useful instead of more physical control surfaces that have limited uses.

13

Bloody Angry Birds are responsible for many hours of lost time I’ll never get back :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

14

WORD!!! I had to uninstall it because I was playing it too much :laughing:

15

For every truly significant thinker, there will always be those who simply lack the reading comprehension or intellect to comprehend what you have said.

Join the club…the latter, not the former. Please, in the future, avoid putting the words “I think” in there.

Thank you.

16

NO Update to cubase is required to do these things you want. Almost any touchscreen sold today can do that when connected to your Windows 7 machine.

23" touchscreen has been on my list of things to get before this Windows 8 discovery - fully supports Windows 7 - see it here - YOUR DREAM CAN BE A REALITY TODAY !

—> here <—

17

hello, please check this post about this subject:

18

A touch screen device is an interesting thing, but I think its biggest flaw is that you can’t just grab a fader or a knob and operate it without looking at it, like you can with a physical device. Imagine, you’ll have to shift your eyes from a virtual knob to the computer screen and back all the time. If Euphonix devices weren’t as expensive or Steinberg offered something on par at a reasonable price would we be entertaining the idea of a tablet?

19

knobs ,faders ,bottons ,faders ,knobs ,buttons ,buttons knobs ,faders … i couldn’t imagine life with out them ,
i need to twiddle ,
i need to tweak
that is why im called the freak ! …
touch screens are going to control the universe one day but for us anti plugin boys synths will never die and hardware controls allow us to act like mad professor in sound creation and i find it very hard to believe that a touch screen will give you the same experience an satisfaction of something you can touch and feel !

just my honest opinion of course ! :wink: :wink:

20

Recently got my first hardware synth. Haven’t used a single softsynth since :sunglasses: