# Touch screen recommendation



## Drjay (Apr 21, 2021)

Hi,
I am looking for a touch screen to control my DAW and instruments. I narrowed the search down to the following three models:

Acer T232HLA
FUJITSU E24-9​Dell P2418HT

I am tending towards the Acer (I think the glass surface has better haptics) or Fujitsu. Both seem to have a reasonably fast touch recognition, but I can hardly find information on the internet. Does someone have experience with these models? Thanks


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## 24dBFS (Apr 21, 2021)

If you are on Windows both will be fine but Acer looks a bit better above the other two.


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## Drjay (Apr 21, 2021)

24dBFS said:


> If you are on Windows both will be fine but Acer looks a bit better above the other two.


thanks. Yes, I'm under windows.


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## Manaberry (Apr 21, 2021)

I've been using the Dell P2418HT for 2 years now. Superb screen, perfect size, borderless and you can easily build a custom stand to improve the angle.


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## ckett (Apr 21, 2021)

I had the Acer but now have the Dell. The Dell is just a better screen. Greater color depth, accuracy and contrast. I actually prefer the no "glass" screen that the Acer had. The Dell is smooth and not sticky.


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## pmountford (Apr 21, 2021)

I chose the Acer and have been using it successfully for years and have no reason to change so can certainly recommend. Only downside is resolution is 1080p but then again the ppi is similar when sitting next to 40" 4k monitors. I like the smooth bezel/frame which was downside with a previous Tpuchscreen. Also, it can be mounted in a frame easily on a shallow incline as monitor depth is minimal.


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## Drjay (Apr 21, 2021)

pmountford said:


> I chose the Acer and have been using it successfully for years and have no reason to change so can certainly recommend. Only downside is resolution is 1080p but then again the ppi is similar when sitting next to 40" 4k monitors. I like the smooth bezel/frame which was downside with a previous Tpuchscreen. Also, it can be mounted in a frame easily on a shallow incline as monitor depth is minimal.





ckett said:


> I had the Acer but now have the Dell. The Dell is just a better screen. Greater color depth, accuracy and contrast. I actually prefer the no "glass" screen that the Acer had. The Dell is smooth and not sticky.


As far as I rember, I read somewhere, that the dell screen has a noticeable input lag. I also thought, the Acer has a glass screen, doesn‘t it?


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## pmountford (Apr 21, 2021)

Yes, smooth glass finish (or is it perspex?...not sure). Not noticed any lag with acer but tbh it's really used for keyboard shortcuts and extended transport controls so I probably wouldn't notice lag if it was there on any screen.

Not used Dell so can't compare I.age quality. But may/may not be an issue depending on what youre going to use it for.


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## Drjay (Apr 21, 2021)

Thanks to all of you for your input. 
By chance,I found another touch screen (Philips 242B9T), which seems interesting. You can put it flat on the desk and you can spill coffee on its surface  I ordered one and give it a try.


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## ed buller (Apr 21, 2021)

Dell is scrumptious 

best

ed


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## Arsenal (Apr 21, 2021)

Hannspree HT273 here - Liking it so far but probably should have gone with a smaller one, eats up far too much space


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## ltmusic (Apr 21, 2021)

I am also in the search for a touch screen monitor. I like the viewsonic TD 2455.
Same price range as the Dell but newer. You can also use a stylus. 
There is also the new Lenovo think vision T 24t which will be out the Q2 and will cost 450 $.


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## Nimrod7 (Apr 21, 2021)

I was looking at this company a couple of weeks back: 








Beetronics - Professional Display Solutions


Beetronics produces monitors and touchscreens for professional use. The assortment consists of high quality display solutions from 7 to 17 inches.




www.beetronics.ie





No idea if they are any good, but hey have whatever size you wish, and they claim mac support out of the box (which is really surprising).


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## stigc56 (Apr 26, 2021)

If I get one of the above monitors, will I need a PC or can it run as a touch controller connected to an old Mac Mini?


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## Nimrod7 (Apr 26, 2021)

stigc56 said:


> If I get one of the above monitors, will I need a PC or can it run as a touch controller connected to an old Mac Mini?



Unfortunately MacOS don't support natively touch monitors. Connecting the USB of a touch monitor to a mac and trying to interact will result on the mouse pointer jumping around. Multitouch support is out of the equation. Basically it treats the touches as a mouse. 

In order to run it on a Mac, you'll need to buy extra drivers for MacOS from here: 





Home







www.touch-base.com





A single MacOS and Windows commercial / business license is USD 150, EUR 120, GBP 95.

I haven't tried any of this, and if any of the monitor above comes with drivers or support for Mac I will be happy to know too.


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## stigc56 (Apr 27, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> Unfortunately MacOS don't support natively touch monitors. Connecting the USB of a touch monitor to a mac and trying to interact will result on the mouse pointer jumping around. Multitouch support is out of the equation. Basically it treats the touches as a mouse.
> 
> In order to run it on a Mac, you'll need to buy extra drivers for MacOS from here:
> 
> ...


I have a pc laptop, that I never use, maybe I can use that?


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## stigc56 (Apr 28, 2021)

ed buller said:


> Dell is scrumptious
> 
> best
> 
> ed


Will you share a little info about your set-up?


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## ed buller (Apr 28, 2021)

stigc56 said:


> Will you share a little info about your set-up?


Sure. I have a Intel i9 10980XE 18 Core 36 Threads 4.6GHz Asus X299-A II with 256GB DDR4 RAM 3200MH and a 500GB SSD System 8 x 1tb SSD Sample Drives Running Cubase 11, Sibelius Ultimate and Pro tools. I monitor through a Multimax Surround sound System, with ADAM A77X's for the mains and a sony ZS-m1 for the smalls with an AVATONE in mono for checking. I have a DELL touch screen that controls RCP Tech software that talks to the CUBASE machine. This was a gift from Hans. 

I also have a Hybrid modular that I designed. This is built from 3 Vintage Moog 3p's ( 1967 ) and Custom Moon Modular modules that I designed and had built by Gert Jalass of Moon Modular in 2009. Most of these are now commercially available. It has a 12 CV and 12 Gate matrix that allows instant patches throughout the system : It is detailed here: .

I divide my time from producing and Mixing bands and Composing for Library and TV.

best

ed


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## stigc56 (Apr 29, 2021)

Thanks!
I must admit it was the touch screen set-up that caught my eyes!! RCP Tech!! I have googled it and got a lot of hits but all misses! I have heard - here at VI control - that it's an exclusive deal and not for all! But it looks like what I want. 
Can you control articulations from it? And does it switch in sync with your track selection?
Regards Stig Christensen MUSICMIND


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## 24dBFS (Apr 29, 2021)

PC.
Under Windows touchscreens are supported natively, no need for extra drivers. 10-point multi-touch of course. It does not mean you will be able to use 10-point touch on any DAW. For example Cubase/Nuendo is not multi-touch ready yet so even with a 10-point touch monitor only one touch point will be registered in the Cubase mixer (a bit like a mouse click). Bitwig is fully multitouch-able for example so it all depends on the DAW. 
There are of course extra drivers available for any giver touch screen from a company called touch-base and those are based on the TUIO framework but cost about 130$ per license. The good news is they offer a free demo for all their drivers so you can test them before you pay. Some manufacturers of touch screens were shipping their screens with drivers for Win and OSX (basically licensed from touch-base). This trend died out for some reason lately since on Windows they are all there already and for OSX we can by them from touch-base if needed.
One issue my clients are always asking about - if they touch on a touch screen the cursor is also jumping to the place of the contact. This is of course very annoying if you are using multiple monitors and after touching on a button on your touchscreen you need to move your mouse back to the other monitor with your session view. Touch-base drivers take care of that by using something they call cursor anchoring. Same can be achieved with little software called Panda that costs 3$ from a developer friend of mine Pablo who helped many of my clients already (only Windows though).

OSX. 
There are 2 options for touch screens on a Mac. Almost ANY touchscreen will be recognized under OSX as an external monitor and if connected with the USB cable it would recognize 1-point touch basically mimicking a behavior of a mouse. There will be again the issue with the cursor jumping to the point of touch. A remedy will be dedicated driver from touch-base again or a friend that knows how to tackle the free TUIO framework and could program/set up something for free. The same TUIO tech is used by all Slate Raven touch screens and many more.
Second option for a touchscreen with a Mac would be an old Windows 10 laptop, old Win 10 PC or even a small barebone PC with an HDMI input. The other piece of a puzzle would be a software like Bome Network Pro (or similar) that is able to send MIDI data over network so the touchscreen on a Win PC after being touched is sending MIDI data over the network to the Mac machine and triggers whatever it should trigger. We have also tested solutions like sidecar, duet and luna display but for now the lag is too big to work comfortable with it so we do not recommend it to our users.
I hope that help you a bit.
Cheers!
Karol Obara - 14bitMIDI


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## ed buller (Apr 29, 2021)

stigc56 said:


> Thanks!
> I must admit it was the touch screen set-up that caught my eyes!! RCP Tech!! I have googled it and got a lot of hits but all misses! I have heard - here at VI control - that it's an exclusive deal and not for all! But it looks like what I want.
> Can you control articulations from it? And does it switch in sync with your track selection?
> Regards Stig Christensen MUSICMIND


Oh sorry...The software was written by Mark Wherry for Hans. It is a customisable surface program with options to make buttons faders joysticks et al that can control midi and send key commands. Very very useful . 

best

ed


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## Nimrod7 (May 8, 2021)

Just bumped into this interesting video. The guy converted a 50 inch TV into a touch screen, he said it's cheap and easy to do (06:00):


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## TBProAudio (May 9, 2021)

Acer here + big Samsung.
It is a dream combi


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