Korg 'nano' laptop MIDI controls 'incredibly small, light, and flimsy'

Tom Whitwell dabbled with the new Korg Nano USB MIDI controllers at a recent music trade show.

They are incredibly small, light and flimsy. Fortunately, they're also absurdly cheap. Even at just £49, the NanoKey is certainly the lamest - obviously built using clicky, rattly laptop keyboard technology. From the way it feels, it seems unlikely to have much velocity sensitivity. You might be better off with something like this £50 Miditech Control 25, unless you're really stuck for space. At £59, the NanoPad is worth considering. The pads are a reasonable size, and the touchpad (from the PadKontrol) will be fun. The £59

NanoKontrol looks great, with a good number of knobs, buttons and sliders, useful (if rubbery) transport controls.
It's hard to overstate how cheap and plasticky these things are. The faders are tiny and toy-like, the cases would need to be taped down to stop them moving across the table.

Cheap and flimsy isn't a bad thing, necessarily, especially when it ups the knobs-per-surface quotient in your life. If nothing else they'll make great fodder for hacking control interfaces.

Korg nanoKEY, nanoKONTROL, nanoPAD: Tiny, cute and crazy cheap [Music Thing]

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by Enochrewt , June 16, 2008 8:27 AM

I saw a preview for these things a bit ago, and I still want them. The reviewer seemed to miss the key point that you could throw it in your laptop bag and go make music under a tree in the park with relative ease. I really was hoping they'd be under $100 though, I guess a guy that reviews music tech for a living has a different definition of "cheap" than I do.

#2 posted by Tombola , June 16, 2008 9:09 AM

"I guess a guy that reviews music tech for a living has a different definition of "cheap" than I do"

It's hardly 'for a living', but yes, I do get sucked into the general expensiveness of music gear.

Compared to anything else on the market, these are crazy cheap, even if they have all the build quality of a $2 pocket calculator.

#3 posted by Simon Greenwood

, June 16, 2008 9:13 AM

The keyboard is something that I have been looking for for a while. However flimsy it is, I want a small cheap input device for Reason. I have a MicroKontroller at home but even it is too big to lug around with a laptop, and this fits the bill for hotel room twiddling perfectly.

#4 posted by Enochrewt , June 16, 2008 9:31 AM

#3's comment is exactly why I want it was well, no painstakingly mousing notes into Reason, or dealing with software keyboards. That and as a stop-gap solution for not having ANY midi keyboard until this silly-complicated deal of trading in a baby grand for some decent equipment happens. I probably should just suck it up and buy one at the music pawn shop...

I would have purchased the keyboard without thought if it was $50, regardless of the quality.

#5 posted by things , June 16, 2008 9:45 PM

WANT. Beats on the go hell yes.