My Lemur, TouchOSC & touchAble Experiences

Having tested the iPad controller options, here are my opinions on each of them. Keep in mind that I'm an Ableton user which puts the apps on different footing. I've been using each app without reading the manuals, just as a regular user. I'll get to it, someday! [/end sarcasm]

Creating controls in Lemur and TouchOSC is pretty straightforward with their editor softwares. TouchAble doesn't provide this option, and you are pretty limited on what you can change with it. The update timetable has been pretty good, though, and the new features have been quite significant, providing more than Ableton can achieve with regular midi controllers.

Lemur is basically TouchOSC on steroids. You get more eye-candy, scripts, and stuff like multiball controls. On the other hand, you should expect this with the huge price difference.* Some things seem to be lacking with the Lemur, though. It caters to creation of pretty complicated stuff, but seems to forget that some ideas, such as centralized faders* (which you can choose by simply ticking a box on TouchOSC), should be easily available. Something ultimately cool in Lemur is the possibility of creating containers. You can create a box and make it tabbed to easily switch between different control sets such as cues, mutes etc.

 * You can't create centralized faders, but you can, in fact, create bipolar multisliders which is pretty much the same thing. Thanks to Axel for pointing this out.

Something I can't understand with touchscreen controls is knobs. They are, IMHO, the worst option for controlling anything critical, such as EQ when playing live. I guess it is a nice option to have just for the sake of having them in feature list, but the error rate is way too high to actually use them.

Lemur and TouchOSC could benefit from ready-made templates for different programs. There are some available, but touchAble's out-of-the-box features like fader lock (where the fader returns to starting point when released), and clip names make it a winner in my books. I don't want to spend days (basic template creation is done in an hour) creating controls for the software, especially when I like to switch things around every once and awhile.

It is obvious that if you want to control any other program via midi or OSC, touchAble isn't an option there. If you really are broke, TouchOSC caters well enough, but if you have money (you just spent few hundred euros/dollars on the iPad and can't afford some more on serious app!) then the money in Lemur is well spent. The fact that both work on similar footing, and are software, means that you should be able to see the improvements in one soon in the other one as well.

*I've noticed that for me, 3.99 sounds expensive for an iPad app. Just consider that Lemur itself is cheaper than any proper midi controller.