Originally posted by ianmcnll:
So...you're saying the G70's screen clicks under your finger in a physical manner like a button? You can feel the part of the screen under the virtual button move and click into place?
No, I have not said that. The feedback is you feeling that you've touched something. You CAN feel when you've touched the screen, can't you?
No nerve damage, or anything like that?
You see, unlike a button, which you CAN touch without activating it (and which is why it IS important that there be a noticeable 'click' as it's is depressed), a touch screen only needs you to touch it. Didn't feel yourself touch it? Then you haven't. Feel your fingers touch the screen? Then you activated it. No need for a click...
Listen, I was as dubious as you when I first got it. Now I virtually NEVER mis-hit anything on the screen. Certainly no more than mis-hitting buttons. But the main advantage over the Yamaha button system is the sheer amount of controls that can be packed onto one screen... ONE screen has every single control for Vol., Pan, Reverb and Chorus for ALL the keyboard Parts (all nine of them) that you can see at a single glance. No paging through a bunch of screens, just to even FIND what you need to adjust.
We all know that multi-function screens are a necessary part of today's very complex arranger. They help keep prices down (because buttons and sliders - and the associated electronics to read them - are VERY expensive). Imagine an arranger with a button or a slider for EVERY function the screen does... It would be a MAZE of buttons hat would be harder to play live that using a screen! And cost as much as a Wersi
For the blind or visually impaired, well, there's always the option of staying on older gear with no screen, or, as I usually recommend, actually USING the registration features rather than trying to go old school and use these technical marvels as a 'free panel' relic. If you prepare your show at home, with some sighted assistance, and store everything in dedicated registrations, there is little need for the screen AT ALL on a gig.
Registration (UPG) navigation can bee done without sight as the list does not wrap around. You can hit the bottom left of the screen and page back to Page 1 by simply tapping it a bunch of times, then hit the bottom right a specific number (to get to a specific page), then touch the screen in one of ten areas (there ARE little notches in the side and bottom of the surround, to help guide you) and you have activated your Registration..! For songs that need multiple settings, you can either use the OTS (all programmable) or use footswitches or FC-7 switches to page up or down through the UPG list (UPS).
Were I visually challenged, I might also consider getting a raised overlay for the touch screen with raised areas to guide my fingers, so my hand knew where it was BEFORE I press anything...
But yes, I can see how, in todays world where almost everything from food dispensing machines to program guides on the television are multi function displays, things have got MUCH harder for the visually impaired. And sadly, as arrangers have grown from the simple things they were into today's do anything machines, things are no different in arrangerland.
[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 01-29-2009).]