HW on Mac with a touch screen?

Hello,

I am tired of Windows and I would like to switch to macOS. Could I find compatible 24″ touchscreens, and with which Mac’s model? (Budget is not a problem.) Thanks in advance for your advice.

Hello.

My understanding is that with MacOS you need to use some third party drivers to use two touch screens. I think the popular ones mentioned on the forum are Touch-Base drivers (https://www.touch-base.com/. You need to determine the video interface from the MAC and select an appropriate touch screen monitor that works with the video interface. MacOS, like windows, connects the "touch" interface via USB.

Good luck.

Iain

Apparently you can now get any Mac, the touchbase drivers seem to be compatible with M1 macs. I haven't heard of anyone specifically saying they've used touch screens and touchbase drivers on M1 macs though. Apparently if you do get one, it's important to connect the touch screens to different USB ports, say one USB and another USB through a thunderbolt adapter, you can't say connect them to a USB hub.

I've heard of people using a lot of different screens with their Hauptwerk setups. If you peruse the forum there are a number of different ones mentioned.

As for which Mac to get, it depends on what sample sets you want to run. If you want new, and you want to run Nancy on max, you'd have to get one of the M1 ultra Mac studios. Apple is having an event in less than a week though, where they are expected to release a new Mac Pro, so it probably makes sense to wait for that.

I can't say anything about Touch-Base drivers and Apple Silicon Macs, but I can confirm that it is possible to connect two monitors via a USB hub. This is exactly my configuration.

The company is great! Whenever I needed an update because I updated macOS, the problem was usually solved in less than 24 hours. I strongly recommend a perpetual license.

Best,
Chris

Thank you for this information. Indeed I also own the Nancy organ and I had thought that the Mac Studio would be sufficient with a 64 Gb-RAM like my current PC. Am I wrong? Does a Mac need more?

[mdyde]

Hello Luc,

macOS does generally seem to need a bit more of the memory for itself than Windows. In my experience on macOS you can usually use about 2/3-70% of the physical RAM safely for Hauptwerk.

Very interesting! Many thanks for this information.

I have been using Mac Minis with Touch-base-supplied touch screen drivers for about 15 years. I do not have any M1 (or M2) experience yet, but I have done various upgrades to my system over the years that caused the drivers to stop working. In every case, my email to touch-base was answered quickly and with the appropriate fix. My experience with touch-base is that they are an excellent company, with technically and with respect to customer service.

Les

Technically Nancy would fit on a 64 GB mac, but you would have to cut a lot of corners, because as mentioned, Mac OS seems to need a lot more available RAM than PC's. I have the M1 max 64 GB Mac Studio, and I have to run the PAB gravissimo at 20 bits to get it to fit, which is only about 41 GB. 24 bit is only about the mid 50's GB. It actually worked, but I would have to regenerate the cache each time, which even on a fast machine like this one takes too long. If you want to load all the perspectives for Nancy, and all the sampled trems, then you would definitely need the 128 GB of RAM. The M1 max could probably handle it performance wise, but that isn't an option with 128 GB.

I'm a little bit confused about the prices of the touch-base drivers. Can it be really true, that I have to pay over 100 $ for a Mac driver to use a working touch screen?

Touch base offer discounts for personal use. Their website says:

Significant discounts are available to registered charities, non-profit making organisations, home, personal and academic usage and where the software is used for accessibility purposes.

Have you asked for a discounted price?

Iain

Thank you for that pointer. I'll ask after the trial-session.

Hi
I am using a ViewSonic touchscreen with my Mac Studio - And it works fine... WITHOUT DRIVER!
(But ViewSonic gives a driver for their touchscreens for Mac and Mac M1)

ViewSonic has apparently bought the Touch-Base drivers and is offering them to its customers free of charge.

Best,
Chris

Actually, makers of touchscreen monitors have been bundling Touch-Base drivers for Mac OS for a long time. I received my first Touch-Base driver with an HP monitor many years ago.

Les