NEED TO KNOWWhat are they? Three wafer-thin USB MIDI controllers: a keyboard, a drum pad set, and a mixing control surface.
Do I get software or sounds with them? All models include
Kontrol Editor and a $50 discount coupon for Ableton Live. The NanoKey
comes with the Korg M1 Le soft synth, while the NanoPad includes
Toontrack EZ Drummer Lite.
Who are they for?Each is so small and inexpensive that
whoever you are — keyboardist, remixer, hip-hop or loopbased producer —
one or all three should just live in your laptop bag.
PROS: Fully configurable MIDI note and CC assignments.
Included software with NanoKey and NanoPad lets you make music right
away. NanoKey plays a lot better than you’d think. Great feeling pads
on NanoPad. MIDI controllers don’t get more portable or affordable than
this.
CONS: No conventional MIDI out — USB only. Traditional keyboardists may not like tiny keys on NanoKey.
INFO: NanoKey: $62 list/approx. $50 street; NanoPad or NanoKontrol: $72 list/approx. $60 street, www.korgnano.com
- Don’t be misled by the size of these keys. They’re velocity sensitive and surprisingly playable.
- A pair of buttons handles pitch bend, and their ramp-up and ramp-down times are programmable via included software.
- Pressing the "CC Mode" button changes the keys from playing notes to being momentary or toggle switches for MIDI continuous control messages.
NANOKEY
The NanoKey shrinks the two-octave keyboard to the size of melodica. Actually a bit smaller, as all of the NanoSeries are almost exactly the width of my Apple MacBook.
It bends pitch with a pair of momentary (active only when held down) buttons, plus a mod “wheel” button you can set to momentary or toggle mode. Sorry, analog geeks, they’re not pressure-sensitive like the pitch buttons on an ARP Odyssey, but you can adjust their transition speed in the Kontrol Editor software.
In fact, this software can do extensive configuration. For starters, you get four velocity curves. What’s more, you can modify each key’s behavior in very useful ways, such as changing their note values independently. In CC mode, each key can send a different MIDI command (in momentary or toggle fashion) and you can set entry and exit values per key.
All of the above would be worth the price of admission, but Korg also included the M1 Le, a software replica of their legendary M1 workstation, right down to the original presets.
NANOKONTROLHooray for nine faders! That’s enough for a full set of organ drawbars or the usual eightplus- master mixer setup. Each fader is topped with a knob and flanked by two backlit buttons, and the NanoKontrol can toggle between four complete control “scenes.” You could make each scene control a different soft synth, or use them for fader-banking to handle a mix of up to 36 channels. You can configure every knob, fader, and button via the editor software, and the backlit transport controls make for a portable alternative to DAW controllers costing a heck of a lot more.
I tried out the NanoKontrol as my primary controller for DJ-ing with Ableton Live. While my current control box has way more knobs, configured in a slightly more ergonomic fashion, it’s about six times the NanoKontrol’s size and weight — a huge consideration in cramped booths designed for CD-based DJs. With a few modifications to my approach, I got 90 percent of the functionality in a fraction of the footprint. While the shorter throw of the faders is a drawback, I’ll likely switch to the NanoKontrol for my 2009 touring. The convenience is far too tempting to disregard.
NANOPADRounding out the series is the aptly named NanoPad. As with the NanoKontrol, four configurable scenes let you control up to 48 triggered sources, if with a bit of fancy footwork.
The 12 rubberized pads have a tactile response that’s sure to please Akai MPC fans. Each pad can be up to eight velocityswitched layers deep, and each layer can send its own note number if you so choose. Alternately, pads can send CC messages, with momentary/toggle behavior and entry/exit values settable per pad. Can some pads trigger sounds while others send CCs? Sure — that’s different from the NanoKey, which is either in note or controller mode as a whole.
The only thing some other machines’ drum pads do that these don’t is aftertouch, so you can’t hit the pad, then affect the triggered sound by pressing harder. A common use for this is rolls and flams, though, and the NanoPad has buttons for those. Want to sonically sculpt triggered loops or hits? Assign controllers to the X-Y touchpad — cutoff and resonance of a filter plug-in are great choices — and it’s on!
The NanoKey Editor lets you determine each key’s behavior individually. You could make keys play non-adjacent note numbers, or switch the whole keyboard to CC mode to send MIDI commands.
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Clicking any button, knob, or fader in the NanoKontrol Editor lets you set range of that control, and you’re free to make some trigger notes while others send MIDI controllers.
CONCLUSIONSFor value and performance, the NanoSeries is a total knockout. The NanoKey plays very fluidly for its size and comes with a soft Korg M1, the NanoKontrol is poised to become an indispensable tool for traveling laptop DJs and producer/mixer types, and the NanoPad makes complex triggering and control of loops and hits accessible in a way I formerly expected only from tools costing hundreds more. Whatever your method of interacting with your music, these babies really deliver. Key Buy, hands down!