There is a good option - but the current, dumb UX fad, rejects it whoreheartedly. That option is keyboard. Give everything a keyboard shortcut and let the user learn them (if at least by providing a visual overlay listing shortcuts straight on the interface).
If something is a tool - not a shiny cloud SaaS toy intent on getting audience to drive the hockey-stick graph straight into acquihire - users will learn keyboard shortcuts.
Audiomulch has a graphical interface. Signals are processed by constructing a graph where each line represents an audio channel that can be routed between blocks that perform specific functions.
Supercollider is more like a programming language, you can think of it as a DSL for audio generation.
Both of them can interface with hardware, of course.
I think there will always be a strong demand for tactile hardware interfaces, regardless of what people come up with on a laptop application. The kinaesthetics of making sound by manipulating something physical is so satisfying and intimate.
My knobs look like software, I refuse to do screw heads, metal finishes, etc.
I haven't done much touch screen software, so no comments there.