many of you have not used pro-tools I assume. This is GREAT for the studio!

Cordfucious

Rather than force-feed faders and knobs onto a touchscreen, turning an elegant GUI into a Mr. Potato Head, I'd rather see development efforts explore ways the new technology can control audio parameters in ways that exploit the potential of the new technology.

For example, just as pinching on a multitouch screen to zoom in is better than reproducing a picture of a scroll wheel, I'd like to see new ways to control volume, frequency, tempo, whatever, that exploit the possibilities of multitouch rather than emulate legacy controls.

After all, knobs and faders are themselves compromises for the sake of hardware limitations, there's nothing inherently perfect about them, so why go to such effort to preserve them when there's a Minority Report future within reach?

frigg

has to be said... ...do they go to 11?

master_of_fm

Make the knobs soft and pink and... oh, nevermind. I don't want to get myself banned again :)

dna

This is actually a pretty cool idea. Especially for larger screens in music studios...give the producers a way to more accurately control movement on screen.

jayhawk11

This is rather cool. It would be good for some instrumentation like oscilloscopes too.

LittleJon

@Cordfucious: The best tactile control surfaces for ProTools are probably Digidesign's own ICON, SSL's Duality or AWS 900, or one of the Euphonix systems. There are also tons of decent affordable surfaces from Mackie to Behringer (yuck) to Euphonix's new "Artist" controllers.

But once the technology takes a step forward into a virtual display, beyond an analog-mixing style control surface with multipurpose knobs and faders - of which there are already many excellent examples - the rationale for continuing to preserve anachronistic controls becomes strained.

The physical components that required physical controls aren't there. And imitating them for the sake of familiarity is inceasingly moot as almost no one's growing up using analog consoles anymore.

So... with the new control surfaces... anything's possible. Instead of turning a virtual control surface into a Mr. Potato Head, I'd much rather see a GUI that translates more natural, ergonomic, and even dance-like gestures into musical parameters. THAT would be great for the studio!

frigg

@Cordfucious: I doubt this will replace the Icon. Working an Icon in AMAZING. Although, it could have it's use for plugins...
But....I'll still stick to reaper. I don't much care for pro tools. The routing blows.

RockLobsterNet

I am not fond of Pro Tools, but I make my living in audio- go figure.

This is good for casual users of a number of media applications. Right now, one can use virtual sliders with a touch screen. One can also just set a double tap to equate a click until released and drag up or down for a knob- which is how the virtual knob currently works.

The technology might be better for something like a surface table where the technology can be used for game play and for the lay person who wants a tactical connection.

I can't see using it for live production. How long until it gets knocked off?

DeadWriter

All of you other engineers/audiophiles/whatever that are knocking this have me perplexed... I look at this and think it would be amazing for plugins... an actual tactile surface that can be changed by simply moving the controls would be awesome for me.. I'm thinking of apps like Massive or Ultra Analog.. and like many of you, I make a living working with Pro Tools..

Of course, I think I'd be fine with the SmartAV Tango.. or the Matrix.

I love the future.

.apostle.

Love it. This is great for audio and video applications. When and where can I get my grubby hands on these?

Jimbuck

Sort of a new twist (sorry) on the Vistonics system that Studer has been using on their Vista line of consoles.

The Studer knobs, however, are fixed and their labeling and function change around them.

@DeadWriter I agree that in a live situation, mixing could quickly devolve into some kind of Lucy skit..

steigsdb

@RockLobsterNet: @frigg: I am the "sound engineer" for my church, and we have a 32 channel board in the sound booth and something like this could hender a "live" service for me... especially for the soft talker and the ULTRA LOUD SCREAMER. Oh lets not forget the swallow the mic guy. [yes deacon I am looking DIRECTLY AT YOU.] ICON has its place, but I still like the to adjust on the fly without having lags or cpu wonky-ness. Besides true -philes know you cant beat that analog aound....

Cordfucious

This was my idea! Too bad my 7th grade invention fair project didn't have the budget.

They should magnetize the screen so that when the interface switches the knobs zoom to new locations.

goo2

Something about the word "magnetic" sounds wrong here.

videoCWK

@Cordfucious: something tells me that magnet knobs on a touch screen are not going to be the least laggy protection from mic swallowers!

frigg

@Cordfucious: I agree, it's definitely a terrible idea for live. It could be nice for plugins in studio though.
I would hate using a Venue--the routing is jacked up if it's anything like on the Icon. The VCAs act like analog groups, the groups are just stupid, and there's nothing similar to an analog VCA. I'll stick to the ML5000 and lots on hardware compressors and such.
That said, you can still run plugins live just fine--I do it all the time. Keep the latency below 3ms and nobody will notice even if they're using in-ears.
and by the way....people go to school for 4+ years to be called engineers. :)

RockLobsterNet

"unique sensing surface" tis called magnets . . .

NY2CA