Kristian

I am rather eager to get myself a Wacom Tablet to control my Max/MSP patches, but I was thrown off by the number of different tablets available.

What is the difference (other than size and aesthetics) between, say, the Intuos3 and Graphire 4 series? I mean, from the point of view of an MSP user.

I looked around the forum to see if any one product seemed to prevail, but preferences seem to vary.

Does anyone care to share their thoughts or experiences?

wacom-tablet-question

AFAIK it depends on which versions are supported by the Wacom object, 

because this is what allows you to interface it to your patch. I just 

checked my version (MacOSX), and the help file doesn't say which 

types of tablet are supported - I know it works with Intuos 2 because 

that is what I have - I think it works with Graphire, but I'm not 

sure - it might need a newer version than I have. Can someone else 

On 2 Jan 2007, at 14:36, Kristian Holmgren wrote:

> I am rather eager to get myself a Wacom Tablet to control my Max/ 

> MSP patches, but I was thrown off by the number of different 

> What is the difference (other than size and aesthetics) between, 

> say, the Intuos3 and Graphire 4 series? I mean, from the point of 

> I looked around the forum to see if any one product seemed to 

> Does anyone care to share their thoughts or experiences?

Lawrence Casserley - lawrence@lcasserley.co.uk

Lawrence Electronic Operations - www.lcasserley.co.uk

Colourscape Music Festivals - www.colourscape.org.uk

AFAIK it depends on which versions are supported by the Wacom object,  
because this is what allows you to interface it to your patch. I just  
checked my version (MacOSX), and the help file doesn't say which  
types of tablet are supported - I know it works with Intuos 2 because  
that is what I have - I think it works with Graphire, but I'm not  
sure - it might need a newer version than I have. Can someone else  
answer that?

>
> Hi there,
>
> I am rather eager to get myself a Wacom Tablet to control my Max/ 
> MSP patches, but I was thrown off by the number of different  
> tablets available.
>
> What is the difference (other than size and aesthetics) between,  
> say, the Intuos3 and Graphire 4 series? I mean, from the point of  
> view of an MSP user.
>
> I looked around the forum to see if any one product seemed to  
> prevail, but preferences seem to vary.
>
> Does anyone care to share their thoughts or experiences?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kristian

Lawrence Casserley - lawrence@lcasserley.co.uk
Lawrence Electronic Operations - www.lcasserley.co.uk
Colourscape Music Festivals - www.colourscape.org.uk

> What is the difference (other than size and aesthetics) between, say, the Intuos3 and Graphire 4 series? I mean, from the point of view of an MSP user.

As you've noticed, Intuos3 are more expensive than the Graphire. But they offer more buttons, higher resolution, pen tilt, tool ID, etc.

For my last piece, I used a 9x12 Intuos3 -- probably overkill. I do like the tool ID feature. It means that your patch can be aware of which pen you are using (I mean, the exact pen, not just the type). I used it to change performance modes by swapping pens. I would say that tilt is nice, but it's really hard to change the tilt and pressure at the same time. I don't really use tilt very much, for that reason. However, I have a 6D art pen which passes rotation data, instead of tilt. That's pretty nice. Also, I use all the buttons on the tablet (Intuos3 has more). The touch strips are essentially extra buttons, they don't pass continuous data.

I think the Graphire is great, especially if you are experimenting or using it for one piece. It's a good starting place. If you have extra money, or are committed to using a tablet as a big part of your music practice, then I'd go for the Intuos.

> What is the difference (other than size and aesthetics) between, say, the Intuos3 and Graphire 4 series? I mean, from the point of view of an MSP user.
>

As you've noticed, Intuos3 are more expensive than the Graphire.  But they offer more buttons, higher resolution, pen tilt, tool ID, etc.

For my last piece, I used a 9x12 Intuos3 -- probably overkill. I do like the tool ID feature.  It means that your patch can be aware of which pen you are using (I mean, the exact pen, not just the type).  I used it to change performance modes by swapping pens.  I would say that tilt is nice, but it's really hard to change the tilt and pressure at the same time.  I don't really use tilt very much, for that reason.  However, I have a 6D art pen which passes rotation data, instead of tilt.  That's pretty nice.  Also, I use all the buttons on the tablet (Intuos3 has more).  The touch strips are essentially extra buttons, they don't pass continuous data.

I think the Graphire is great, especially if you are experimenting or using it for one piece.  It's a good starting place.  If you have extra money, or are committed to using a tablet as a big part of your music practice, then I'd go for the Intuos.

for me the wacom object (OS X) works both with wacom intuos 2 and 3 

versions, i haven't tested any of graphires, though.

AFAIK only the intuos supports pressure and inclinatioon data and 

anyway, these are the ones i use. they're well worth the money!

for me the wacom object (OS X) works both with wacom intuos 2 and 3  
versions, i haven't tested any of graphires, though.

AFAIK only the intuos supports pressure and inclinatioon data and  
multiple tools at the same time.

Wacom Tablet Question