Published 2025-03-11.
Time to read: 5 minutes.

This page is part of the av_studio collection.

This article is a work in progress.

TouchOSC is a GPU-powered software control surface with native support for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. TouchOSC supports MIDI and OSC messaging over many simultaneous connections, including Wi-Fi and USB. Multiple TouchOSC devices can control the same DAW simultaneously. While not listed as a supported DAW, Tim Corpus has published a video showing how to control Pro Tools from TouchOSC.

The manufacturer of TouchOSC, Hexler, also provides Protokol, a free console for troubleshooting control protocols. This is a welcome tool for debugging remote control surfaces. The online manual show that Protokol includes support for debugging MIDI, OSC, Gamepad and Art-Net, but not Bonjour.

Thanks to the built-in OSC Host provided by Protokol, it's easy to connect any given OSC Client (software or hardware) and check how all the controls are configured.

 – Protokol Setup Examples · TouchOSC

At $36 CAD for a permanent desktop license, and $14.99 USD for the iOS and Android versions, the price seems reasonable. Licenses are valid for a single user. Mobile versions are licensed separately through the Apple and Android app stores.

• User manual.
• GitHub examples and modules
• Facebook group
• Reddit
• Discord

Bonjour

Like Imaginando’s LK/UBRIDGE and Avid Control, TouchOSC uses Bonjour to communicate between mobile devices and desktops.

TouchOSC Bridge performs the same function as UBRIDGE. Both of those programs run on the DAW computer, and relay messages between the remote control surface and the DAW program.

I am curious to see if the Avid Control bug gives TouchOSC Bridge a problem.

Installation

I downloaded and installed TouchOSC Bridge and the Windows installer for Windows. At the end of the TouchOSC Bridge installation process, I saw:

The optional USB connection feature for iOS devices requires Apple Devices or Apple iTunes to be installed. I already had Apple Devices for Windows and I did not want iTunes for Windows.

Design Your Own Control Surface

I wanted a sample control surface that I could play with right away, with the ability to modify it as required. The Windows download does not provide this.

The online user manual has a section entitled Setup examples. The page has a Getting Started section for Ableton Live and Protokol.

The Facebook TouchOSC Template Makers group moderator, Ken Mitchell, has created many templates. I decided to play with TouchOSC-Editor-Shortcuts. It comes with documentation that provides beginner instructions for programming TouchOSC, but no documentation discussing installation, configuration, modification or usage of the template.

It seems that the Android and iOS programs come with templates, but I have yet to download them.

Tim Corpus

Tim Corpus has published the Ultimate TouchOSC Guide, in which he lists an impressive number of quality articles and templates for TouchOSC.

Tim’s GitHub contains sample projects.

User Reviews

Sorted newest to oldest.

Can’t bust the devs for iOS idiosyncrasies, and the app is, as others have mentioned, almost there. But… I struggled for a couple of afternoons with a 2021 iPad and Windows 11. For whatever reason, USB wired or wireless the app would work, and suddenly stop transmitting. I never got the mirror editing from desktop to work. Which doesn’t matter and the desktop nag screen is a pain. I got fed up, plugged a MIO MIDI interface into the iPad and into the DAW of choice, not a single glitch.

So if you’re cussing this app on iPad or phone, or playing a real gig where wireless and BlueTooth aren’t options and wired maybe works for you, maybe doesn’t, pick up a cheap used iOS MIDI interface.

 – Oldsynthguy 04/12/2023

The addition of the desktop application with the server functionality has really made this a outstanding application. Having more fine grain control with things like osc addressing creates many more possible combinations for creative setups. The fact that you can route to multiple osc hosts from a single device is another really great feature addition.

 – Robert Pannick (b08x) September 19, 2022

Pretty fantastic app once you get it set up.

I just built a custom layout that is sent to my computer, and then back out via midi usb to my modular synthesizer. Super fun having four XY pads sent to filters and envelopes of my hardware synths. It was a bit confusing to get started however. And as far as syncing with logic pro, it seems like 50% of the time, it just won’t work. Could really use explaining the relationship between OSC and logic controller mappings. The manual is very matter of fact and could really benefit from small tutorials/step but step. OSC mappings really don’t make any sense to me, yet.

For my MIDI hardware setup, I just put the time in comparing the preset layout parameters to my custom layout. Soon enough it all started to make sense. The editor is easier to use on the mac, but easy enough on mobile device. I recommend to anyone looking for a solid alternative/companion to your midi controllers. There’s definitely deep potential with this platform. Take it as far as you’re able/comfortable.

 – xDixon 01/12/2022

Great app. Works so much better than earlier version. Horrible documentation. You spend 10 minutes installing it and connecting to your computer, and hours trying to figure out how to create custom layouts. The online help seems to take you in circles, never really answering your questions. I messaged customer support, been 2 days waiting for a reply. With the earlier version, the reverse was true - hard to setup, but once you got it to work, the documentation made it a breeze to get up and running with creating custom layouts quickly. I'm giving 4 stars. Would be 5 if the support was better.

 – No One October 22, 2021

Great app, the panel menus are pretty clunky but eh whatever (It’d be nice to have notes instead of numbers for midi note-on values etc.), and being able to copy and paste messages instead of entire controls would be huuuge (copy/paste parameters from/to different controls) but there’s 2 things that keep it from being truly amazing...

1. Attack and release values for local-data and midi cc’s, as well as the ability to ADD TO and SUBTRACT FROM (not just SET) cc and other values (prefer hermmutt lobby’s beatsurfing app from 2013 for this reason). Ive spent a few hours with the Lua scripts and it’s not worth the effort for time based effects like this (may as well use max for live).
2. The ability for touch to pass through and hit multiple controls at once (not just the on that’s on top). No longer making "capture attention" required was a HUGE improvement (made it possible to make surfable/strummable instrument designs), but it’d be even better if you could hit both controls at once when they overlap.

 – nerd-alert 06/13/2021

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