Touchscreen laptop as controller for Reason?

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BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

29 Jun 2020

I realized that my touchscreen laptop would make a great DAW controller, and it's already paid for, unlike other controllers. But I've just browsed the Reason Operation Manual chapter on Remote, and I'm not seeing the support for touchscreen laptop I was hoping to find.

It can't be impossible, since I see it being done in a different DAW here:



I have that DAW too, but would rather use Reason if possible.

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Jagwah
Posts: 2549
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

29 Jun 2020

BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
I have that DAW too, but would rather use Reason if possible.
You can use your touch screen but Reason only supports one gesture at a time, so basically you can control any knob / slider etc with the touch screen, but you can't move two things or more at the same time with the touch screen.

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

29 Jun 2020

Jagwah wrote:
29 Jun 2020
BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
I have that DAW too, but would rather use Reason if possible.
You can use your touch screen but Reason only supports one gesture at a time, so basically you can control any knob / slider etc with the touch screen, but you can't move two things or more at the same time with the touch screen.
One gesture is a serious limitation, but one gesture would still be better than zero, which is what I feared. Do you know where I could find documentation? Watching Junkie XL's video now, I'm learning for the first time of OSC, and this would be my first time using any controller at all besides my basic MIDI keyboard; so documentation is much needed here.

What about one two-dimensional controller? Several synth VSTi's I have support X-Y squares (not sure the technical term offhand).

Thanks for the good news.

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Jagwah
Posts: 2549
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

29 Jun 2020

BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
Jagwah wrote:
29 Jun 2020


You can use your touch screen but Reason only supports one gesture at a time, so basically you can control any knob / slider etc with the touch screen, but you can't move two things or more at the same time with the touch screen.
One gesture is a serious limitation, but one gesture would still be better than zero, which is what I feared. Do you know where I could find documentation? Watching Junkie XL's video now, I'm learning for the first time of OSC, and this would be my first time using any controller at all besides my basic MIDI keyboard; so documentation is much needed here.

What about one two-dimensional controller? Several synth VSTi's I have support X-Y squares (not sure the technical term offhand).

Thanks for the good news.
Yeah the one gesture should work with any software or website really, Facebook or any software will support the one gesture at a time. There won't be any documentation about this as far as I can tell but I have brought this up before and received official answers about the one touch gesture in Reason which was basically that it will work.

Yeah I have used an XY Pad in Reason before and it worked, it's still a one touch gesture though.

I haven't heard of OSC before, it looks complicated but as far as Reason is concerned everything is rock solid so just add it to your set up and you should be on your way.

Happy Reasoning!

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

29 Jun 2020

Jagwah wrote:
29 Jun 2020
BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020


One gesture is a serious limitation, but one gesture would still be better than zero, which is what I feared. Do you know where I could find documentation? Watching Junkie XL's video now, I'm learning for the first time of OSC, and this would be my first time using any controller at all besides my basic MIDI keyboard; so documentation is much needed here.

What about one two-dimensional controller? Several synth VSTi's I have support X-Y squares (not sure the technical term offhand).

Thanks for the good news.
Yeah the one gesture should work with any software or website really, Facebook or any software will support the one gesture at a time. There won't be any documentation about this as far as I can tell but I have brought this up before and received official answers about the one touch gesture in Reason which was basically that it will work.

Yeah I have used an XY Pad in Reason before and it worked, it's still a one touch gesture though.

I haven't heard of OSC before, it looks complicated but as far as Reason is concerned everything is rock solid so just add it to your set up and you should be on your way.

Happy Reasoning!
I've had Reason since v7 (along with three other DAW's). I'm not an expert at Reason, but I've come to expect it to do very well the things it does, while not doing a number of things my others DAW can do. And when Reason does do something, its operation manual is the clearest and easiest to read of any DAW manual I've seen.

From what I've learned so far about OSC, Reason doesn't support it (no OSC in the Index of the operation manual), while Reaper does, and from JXL's video, it sounds like Cubase 8 supports OSC too. OSC is a protocol like MIDI, not a VST you can plug into any DAW.
one gesture should work with any software or website really, Facebook or any software will support the one gesture at a time. There won't be any documentation about this as far as I can tell but I have brought this up before and received official answers about the one touch gesture in Reason which was basically that it will work.
I won't figure out how to do that in a million years. My desktop running Reason has never heard of my touchscreen laptop, and vice versa. My DAW isn't about to start responding to me touching my laptop unless I see documentation. Glad it works for you though.

Futz
Posts: 17
Joined: 18 Apr 2020

30 Jun 2020

Vst plugins that support multi-touch function in Reason with multi-touch. I have a couple of Cakewalk eq vsts that work fine this way. I don't know how many plugins are designed to do this.

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

30 Jun 2020

Futz wrote:
30 Jun 2020
Vst plugins that support multi-touch function in Reason with multi-touch. I have a couple of Cakewalk eq vsts that work fine this way. I don't know how many plugins are designed to do this.
No. I already pointed out, my two computers have never heard of each other. No way will they figure out to how to communicate with each other until someone instructs me how to get them to communicate with each other. Please don't waste more of your time telling me this can work, unless you're going to tell me how to get it to work.

I bet I can get it to work in Cubase or Reaper before anyone can describe how to get it to work in Reason.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

30 Jun 2020

BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
Do you know where I could find documentation? Watching Junkie XL's video now, I'm learning for the first time of OSC, and this would be my first time using any controller at all besides my basic MIDI keyboard; so documentation is much needed here.
What documentation?? You just run Reason on a tablet PC (like Surface Pro, for example) or connect your desktop to touch screen. Windows and programs running in it work in touch out-of-the-box. In case of that video it's a special dedicated software layer that passes user-defined touch commands to Cubase, but ANY software can be operated by touch directly, at least on Windows. In case of Reason though it pretty much sucks ass - there's no multi-touch support and most things are way to small to be usable (often ever for mouse controle). It simply wasn't designed for touch, in contast to e.g. Bitwig Studio:

Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

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DaveyG
Posts: 2499
Joined: 03 May 2020

30 Jun 2020

antic604 wrote:
30 Jun 2020
BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
Do you know where I could find documentation? Watching Junkie XL's video now, I'm learning for the first time of OSC, and this would be my first time using any controller at all besides my basic MIDI keyboard; so documentation is much needed here.
What documentation?? You just run Reason on a tablet PC (like Surface Pro, for example) or connect your desktop to touch screen. Windows and programs running in it work in touch out-of-the-box. In case of that video it's a special dedicated software layer that passes user-defined touch commands to Cubase, but ANY software can be operated by touch directly, at least on Windows. In case of Reason though it pretty much sucks ass - there's no multi-touch support and most things are way to small to be usable (often ever for mouse controle). It simply wasn't designed for touch, in contast to e.g. Bitwig Studio:

I think he is wanting to use the touchscreen on the laptop as a remote control for a non-touchscreen PC running Reason.

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

30 Jun 2020

DaveyG wrote:
30 Jun 2020
I think he is wanting to use the touchscreen on the laptop as a remote control for a non-touchscreen PC running Reason.
Exactly. Thank you.

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

30 Jun 2020

antic604 wrote:
30 Jun 2020
What documentation?? You just run Reason on a tablet PC (like Surface Pro, for example) or connect your desktop to touch screen. Windows and programs running in it work in touch out-of-the-box. In case of that video it's a special dedicated software layer that passes user-defined touch commands to Cubase, but ANY software can be operated by touch directly, at least on Windows. In case of Reason though it pretty much sucks ass - there's no multi-touch support and most things are way to small to be usable (often ever for mouse controle). It simply wasn't designed for touch, in contast to e.g. Bitwig Studio:
My apologies for getting frustrated above, when people were only trying to help me.

What I want is (1) desktop computer running a DAW, plus (2) a second computer, a Windows 10 touchscreen laptop, acting as a remote control for the DAW, with an interface designed specifically for touchscreen, not a regular DAW interface with small buttons, small faders, etc. I already own both the computers, and normally when I DAW on my desktop, my laptop is just sitting nearby doing nothing and turned off.

Now looking back at my original post, I see I failed to clarify that I'm seeking a two-computer setup. JXL's video shows a system like I want, with two computers. In the opening shot, you can see a large screen, which is computer one, and then in between the large screen and his keyboard, he's got a pad / tablet probably or possibly a "2-in-1 convertible" touchscreen laptop folded into its tablet-position (convertible is what I have). But then at 0:14, when he introduces auxiliary touchscreen, the camera zooms in at an angle making it look like his touchscreen is his main screen. So that didn't help clarify what I'm trying to do.

I have gotten it working in Reaper now, with my two computers. Not a contest, Reaper does some things better, Reason does other things better. I use them both instead of picking a favorite. It's cool, something Reason Studios might consider supporting in the future, especially since a good number of Reason users probably already have a touchscreen laptop, pad, or tablet already available, so it requires no additional hardware purchase. I ended up not using OSC, which I'd mentioned above. Reaper has slicker solution, called "Web Browser Interface". On my main computer in Reaper, I tell it to turn on the Web Browser Interface. Reaper then gives me a local I.P. address to use. Then on my laptop, I open a regular browser, any browser will work, and I send the browser to the I.P. address Reaper gave me. Assuming the two computers are on a local network, the laptop's browser follows the I.P. address to my main computer, and on my laptop screen, I get nice big controls designed for touchscreen. That's all there is to it. I have yet to learn how to set up which controls I see, but it's possible once I read the manual. For now I'm just seeing transport controls, which isn't exciting.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

01 Jul 2020

BadMusic wrote:
30 Jun 2020
What I want is (1) desktop computer running a DAW, plus (2) a second computer, a Windows 10 touchscreen laptop, acting as a remote control for the DAW, with an interface designed specifically for touchscreen, not a regular DAW interface with small buttons, small faders, etc. I already own both the computers, and normally when I DAW on my desktop, my laptop is just sitting nearby doing nothing and turned off.
Ok, not exactly what you're after but how about this?

https://retouchcontrol.com/retouchduo/

Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

01 Jul 2020

P.S. to my previous post:

Well it turns out that Reaper's Web Interface gives me buttons to operate the transport, but no big faders, which is all I really want. So I'm almost back to square-one, but now I'm investigating this, which seems free and worthwhile (for DAW's that support OSC) I hope: https://www.equipson.es/products/oscillation

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

01 Jul 2020

"for iOS and Android" (but not Windows 10 touchscreen laptops)

Thanks though.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

01 Jul 2020

BadMusic wrote:
01 Jul 2020
"for iOS and Android" (but not Windows 10 touchscreen laptops)

Thanks though.
I know. I can read. I just thought it's wasteful to use one PC to only do touch control of other PC :)
Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

01 Jul 2020

antic604 wrote:
01 Jul 2020
BadMusic wrote:
01 Jul 2020


"for iOS and Android" (but not Windows 10 touchscreen laptops)

Thanks though.
I know. I can read. I just thought it's wasteful to use one PC to only do touch control of other PC :)
Instead of doing what I want to do with my own laptop, what do you suggest I do with the laptop while I'm using a DAW on my desktop, so as to not be wasteful?

Never mind, your reply is moronic. If you really can read, you know your post was off-topic, as this thread is about using 2nd computer to control a 1st, like Junkie XL and many others do. You'd rather do single-touch on Reason's tiny buttons and sliders.

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Jagwah
Posts: 2549
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

07 Jul 2020

Jagwah wrote:
29 Jun 2020
...one gesture should work with any software or website really, Facebook or any software will support the one gesture at a time. There won't be any documentation about this as far as I can tell but I have brought this up before and received official answers about the one touch gesture in Reason which was basically that it will work.
BadMusic wrote:
29 Jun 2020
I won't figure out how to do that in a million years. My desktop running Reason has never heard of my touchscreen laptop, and vice versa. My DAW isn't about to start responding to me touching my laptop unless I see documentation. Glad it works for you though.
Firstly, you will not last here very long calling people names.

A touch screen as far as I know does exactly as I described. I just sold my Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet. When I had it, once I installed the drivers and software on my computer - the screen was used to navigate everything just like I did with the mouse, therefore - Facebook, Reason, everything that works in windows works as if you are using your mouse to control them except you are using your fingers on a touch screen. No head scratching involved.

Philup
Posts: 85
Joined: 21 Feb 2015

08 Jul 2020

You will need to stream the mouse and keyboard data between computers.
Basically use one mouse and keyboard for both PC's

Remote Desktop has been around for ages, have you looked into that?

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

14 Jul 2020

Philup wrote:
08 Jul 2020
You will need to stream the mouse and keyboard data between computers.
Basically use one mouse and keyboard for both PC's
Nonsense. You exhibit total misunderstanding of how OSC works, and you misrepresent what's demonstrated in Junkie XL's video in the original post.
Remote Desktop has been around for ages, have you looked into that?
It's inferior to OSC.
Last edited by BadMusic on 14 Jul 2020, edited 4 times in total.

BadMusic
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Apr 2020

14 Jul 2020

Jagwah wrote:
07 Jul 2020
Firstly, you will not last here very long calling people names.
If I don't last, I'll miss the ridiculously bad advice with which you've been harassing me.

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