Are touchpads the worst form of user input invented by man? Answer: yes

[vomitHatSteve]

For the last few weeks, I've been trying to mix an album using a laptop. It's a small screen and a touchpad instead of a mouse.

It turns out, Reaper is kind of a nightmare under these conditions.

Positioning the cursor so you can scroll instead of zooming is awful. Adding an envelope point without changing the value of it immediately is awful. Trying to do minute adjustments is awful.

What happened to the nub mouse? Why don't all laptops have that instead?

[Greg_L]

Can you use a USB mouse?

[WhiskeyJack]

Or a Bluetooth mouse? that sounds miserable. I remember when they tried to get me to do my drafting on touch screens. I gave it two solids days before i demanded my mouse back. It's dumb.

Touchscreens are great for some stuff but honestly poppycock for anything requiring any kind of precision.

[vomitHatSteve]

Can you use a USB mouse?

Possibly, but my fiance's couch doesn't have a great surface to put one one.

[Tadpui]

My life got both better and worse when smart phones went from having physical tactile keyboards to the touchscreen soft keyboard. They're better because screen real estate got large enough to actually be able to do most things on a phone. But they're worse because I apparently have giant fat thumbs that cannot discern the difference in the location of one key versus another. I spend more time correcting typos on my phone than anything else that I use it for!

I've got a Surface Pro 6 laptop/tablet/all-in-one that I actually really like. But I've gotta agree, when in tablet mode I struggle to do anything useful with the touch screen beyond opening and closing applications. And even then, it usually takes more than one try to tap the correct place on the screen.

[musicturtle]

For the last few weeks, I've been trying to mix an album using a laptop. It's a small screen and a touchpad instead of a mouse.

It turns out, Reaper is kind of a nightmare under these conditions.

Positioning the cursor so you can scroll instead of zooming is awful. Adding an envelope point without changing the value of it immediately is awful. Trying to do minute adjustments is awful.

What happened to the nub mouse? Why don't all laptops have that instead?

Doesn't it scroll with double touch?

And zoom in and out with the pinch type motion?

Maybe I am just used to it as my main home computer and my work computer are both laptops, but I like the touch pad.

You can go into the Touchpad settings and make it more or less sensitive and change most of the settings to make it simpler.

I know it's probably not what you want to spend your time on but it might help it be less frustrating if you made the settings more to your liking.

[vomitHatSteve]

Double touch is interpreted as "scroll wheel", which in most of the reaper window is zoom. Pinch also work (but honestly, I don't use it)

My sensitivity is already about as low as it can be. Problem is, Reaper's mouse controls are all pretty small. If I want a 0.2 DB adjustment, that's just a few pixels.

[JD01]

Steve? Surely you can get a USB mouse delivered for about 5 bucks?

[liv_rong]

I've got a Surface Pro 6 laptop/tablet/all-in-one that I actually really like. But I've gotta agree, when in tablet mode I struggle to do anything useful with the touch screen beyond opening and closing applications. And even then, it usually takes more than one try to tap the correct place on the screen.

I have one for work and got a wireless mouse for it. I cant live my life like that! And I only use the touch pad for one web based application when I am in my truck, and that is very rare now since I got an iPad. I've been asking for a regular laptop for a while now because I have nothing but problems with the docking station and multiple monitors on my desk.

[WhiskeyJack]

Steve? Surely you can get a USB mouse delivered for about 5 bucks?

Yes but you see he noted he has no mousepad and is using his his fiances couch for his mousing.

I mean the man can engineer a teddy bear to be a creepy musical instrument, turn a video game dance pad into a percussion instrument, create one of the most unique basses i have ever personally laid eyes on, write an entire album in a month and program a computer to organize goat and sex noise into a musical pattern, but hasn't yet considered the usefulness of a cutting board as a mouse pad for on his fiances couch.

i love you anyways [mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] <3

[rayc]

I loath touch screens and also avoid touch pads whenever possible - using a mouse when I can. I had a really sensitive laptop that would react when my sleeve cuff touched it lightly...eeeeek.

[Tadpui]

I have one for work and got a wireless mouse for it. I cant live my life like that! And I only use the touch pad for one web based application when I am in my truck, and that is very rare now since I got an iPad. I've been asking for a regular laptop for a while now because I have nothing but problems with the docking station and multiple monitors on my desk.

Oh yeah, I think that my love for this thing is because it's completely a secondary free-standing machine for me. I think that if I were trying to use it as a primary computer or docking it, it'd get kinda frustrating. So far I've used it as a general around-the-house on-the-shitter kind of tablet. It's main function is as a second computer to drive a Motu M4 to record voice and the outputs of other interfaces for videos, and it's stellar at that. And I use it as a remote control for Reaper as well, which makes things so much easier when I'm across the room recording drums, or if I'm making a video where my back is to my main computer.

I've gotta say, that thing is a little monster though. It's got some serious horsepower for something that's basically a tablet!

[vomitHatSteve]

Steve? Surely you can get a USB mouse delivered for about 5 bucks?

Yes but you see he noted he has no mousepad and is using his his fiances couch for his mousing.

I mean the man can engineer a teddy bear to be a creepy musical instrument, turn a video game dance pad into a percussion instrument, create one of the most unique basses i have ever personally laid eyes on, write an entire album in a month and program a computer to organize goat and sex noise into a musical pattern, but hasn't yet considered the usefulness of a cutting board as a mouse pad for on his fiances couch.

i love you anyways @vomitHatSteve <3

Ha ha! I feel so attacked!

I'm at my house right now, so I might snag a spare mouse.

[Armistice]

Can you use a USB mouse?

Possibly, but my fiance's couch doesn't have a great surface to put one one.

My couch makes a perfectly acceptable mouse pad - but it's fabric. Don't know about other surfaces. I don't do any fine work on it, however...

Take over the kitchen table man!!!

[Armistice]

Also, if you have RSI at all, or intend getting it, touchpads are the devil.

[JD01]

Next recording challenge... touchpads only... watch everyone switch from midi drums to hand percussion.

[vomitHatSteve]

Next recording challenge... touchpads only... watch everyone switch from midi drums to hand percussion.

Hah! I love it!

Even when I have a mouse, I prefer sequencing my drums using some kind of hand input.