New Microsoft touchscreen DAW. (No, really.)

[alphacat]

Did not expect.

Microsoft Surface 2 & Remix Project

Previously Microsoft has made attempts to court musicians to their Windows 8 and Windows RT platform, but today they announced plans for going all-in to take a piece of Apple's dominance on music apps.



Confusingly referred to varyingly as the Surface Remix or Music Cover, this new pressure sensitive control surface clicks on to the Surface 2 and Surface Pro (1 & 2), to offer a slick music workstation on the Microsoft platform. This thing looks way more impressive than Akai's abortive MPC Fly.

Details are kind of sparse and scattered, as it was just announced a couple of hours ago. Microsoft has launched a SurfaceRemixProject.com site with some flashy videos, but not a lot of specifics such as price or availability. There appear to be plans to do various contests, bringing in some big names like Steve Aoki.

The new Surface 2 models have the requisite CPU and RAM upgrades expected; including an optional 8GB of RAM on the Pro, and storage of up to 512GB on SSD. Prices range from $449/£359 for the Windows RT Surface 2, all the way up to and beyond $899/£719 for the base Pro model running a full version of Windows. Both models of Surface 2 sport a 1920x1080 (Full 1080p HD) display, and will be available on the 22nd of October. Pre-orders start tomorrow, on the 24th.

Here's a little teaser from Linkin Park's Joe Hahn for the Remix Project.

[djbrow2013]

WOW, I really like this.

Where is the best place to buy from in the UK?

[mks]

bringing in some big names like Steve Aoki.

Yeah, like that is gonna entice me to buy it.

[AxeD]

Friend of mine already uses a giant touchscreen to control Cubase I think.
It's not like that's a whole new idea

[test_recordings]

Friend of mine already uses a giant touchscreen to control Cubase I think.
It's not like that's a whole new idea

They're aiming for a slice of the Apple pie, and their customers aren't renowned for being necessarily sensible with their money. Think how many people Apple because 'it's Apple'...

[bennyfroobs]

its so beyond me why anyone would want a touchscreen anything

touchscreen is so fucking shit i hate it

[Eat Bass]

touch screen is good to enhance certain things but not a for a dedicated workhourse. it seems like a decent on the go toy and thats about it.

[chekov]

i like touchscreen phones

duno bout tablets though, i'd rather have a laptop or just a phone. no need for an inbetween imo

[Simulant]

They're just trying really hard to sell Windows 8 and have branched out into making their own hardware. I think they look like crap and hate the new Metro UI, it's a mess. It's just pages of icons, very hard to organise in comparison to the tried and tested Windows 7 start menu. It's flopped really badly, Windows 8 is the new Vista.

These Surface laptops have also had limited storage, I think the new Pro has a maximum of 512Gb which is an improvement over the last one.

[alphacat]

its so beyond me why anyone would want a touchscreen anything

touchscreen is so fucking shit i hate it

That was... articulate.

But srsly - to each their own. I would be the happiest fucker in fuckertown if there was a build of Reaper where I could adjust things like envelopes, clip length, etc. using touchscreen instead of carpal tunnelling it with a mouse.

After looking at it some more I'm a little wary too though.

One of my pet peeves is ig'nant people confusing making music (production) with DJing. And a lot of the hype about this thing uses the two interchangeably; it makes me wonder if they're going to allow 3rd party developers to use the damned thing. And what about qwerty commands? You still need a type interface for a lot of stuff, but I don't see anything about linking the pad peripherals.

If this is just a dumb proprietary "you remix our pre-stocked shit - look - you're a DJ now!" type of thing then yeah, I'm totally disappointed. If this was a velocity/aftertouch sensitive piece of decent MPC-style pads with open everything then I would be the first in line. I don't think it's the latter though.

[Paddy McMurphy]

Touchscreen could be useful on some devices. This MS thing looks like shit though, it's only a 10 incher, fuck that.

[mromgwtf]

horrible

you can quote me on this

[nameless133]

Tablets are for idiots.

[mromgwtf]

Tablets are for idiots.

Why? Tablets are good for web browsing.

[outbound]

Seen this, looks quite interesting. Would be good for on the move or something or to work with your existing DAW maybe

[Paddy McMurphy]

Tablets are for idiots.

Why? Tablets are good for web browsing.

Tablets are more for content consumption, laptops and desktops are better for content creation.

[mromgwtf]

Tablets are for idiots.

Why? Tablets are good for web browsing.

Tablets are more for content consumption, laptops and desktops are better for content creation.

That's what I said.