Capacitive technology has risen to the top, primarily through Apple’s use of it. However, infra-red screens are vulnerable to accidental ‘touches’ from elbows, clothing, insects and so on.ģ. It benefits from great accuracy, not having to use annoyingly reflective glass, and the ability to register touches from any object (not just a finger). It’s what the Microsoft PixelSense was based on, and it can be found today in Slate Digital’s Raven MTX. This is particularly suited to larger screens. Infra-red technology creates an optical grid across the screen, and registers a ‘touch’ when the beams are interrupted. This is still in use in the graphics tablet market.Ģ. Before the iPhone, it was found on most mobile touchscreen devices, such as PDAs and mobile phones, and tended to use a stylus for superior accuracy. Resistive-touch technology uses pressure on the screen to register each input. Competing TechnologiesĪ number of multi-touch technologies have battled it out for supremacy, and each has its pros and cons:ġ. So, maybe it’s finally time to figure out how and where multi-touch-capable software could enhance your own recording studio, whether that be a modest home-studio setup, or something on a grander scale. And, with high-quality, 24-inch, 10-point touchscreens now available for a very modest outlay (around £300), Windows 8 maturing through version 8.1, and Windows 9 on the horizon, some developers are now making significant progress. Surprisingly, perhaps, given the ubiquity of the iPad, Apple’s OS X doesn’t support multi-touch, but on ‘the other side’ it’s been available in some form or other since Windows 7. Multi-touch technology has been very slow to make any headway in the world of desktop computing - and not just in terms of music production software, by any means. Conversely, on our desktop and laptop studio machines, we have far more power available and access to all the software tools we could wish for, but often find ourselves reduced to controlling them with a mouse.

But we’re also perhaps grumbling at the size of the tablet/phone screen, quickly running out of processing power, and troubled by how best to integrate our devices into a larger studio setup. We’re completely at home with the multi-touch screen environment. What’s more, we’ve probably tried using it to make beats, play synths, do some field recording or control our studio computer with a swipe-swipe of our fingers. Most of us now have an iPad or some sort of tablet or smartphone. What Windows music software works well with multi-touch screens, and what feels a bit out of touch? Find out in our in-depth guide.

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