Korg nanoSERIES USB controllers unboxed, previewed

The Korg nanoSERIES line of miniature USB controllers we had a look at a few months back has finally seen the light of day, and much to our chagrin, reviews are mixed. MusicRadar singles the nanoPAD out for praise, saying the twelve drum pads feel good and the X/Y pad is a useful addition, but they seem less impressed with the nanoKONTROL and nanoKEY. The site says the faders on the former feel "short and decidedly plasticky," while they compare the keys on the latter to those of a QWERTY keyboard. If you're still interested, the nanoKey will run you £49 ($90), and the nanoKontrol and nanoPad will be £59 ($109) each. Look for these guys starting in October, and hit the read link for more details and pics.

[stevenfbchi @ Sep 26th 2008 4:17PM]

This looks really nice for my osx86 netbook wind that has logic 8 working flawlessly.

[TMM @ Sep 26th 2008 6:29PM]

I can't wait to get those onto my MacBook Pro.
Match made in heaven.

[zenstylejunglist @ Sep 26th 2008 4:20PM]

I already left 1 comment. Let's hope it shows up in the near future. I thought Josh T. was suppose to get this fucking comment system fixed?

[konshuss @ Sep 26th 2008 5:18PM]

this is awesome. i don't care if some snoot on a webpage thinks it doesn't feel as good as what normally costs thousands. i'm sure it works and if you know what you're doing, these can do some great things for you. these are on the wishlist for sure.

[AC0 @ Sep 26th 2008 4:27PM]

If they had made them into ties they would be far more successful.

[Rollins @ Sep 26th 2008 4:28PM]

According to zZounds, the prices are $50 for the nanoKEY and $60 for the nanoPad and nanoKontrol.

http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?q=korg+nano&button=search/header&form=search

[gunboatdiplomacy @ Sep 26th 2008 4:46PM]

still looks sweet. still will lead to annoying beat makers bothering me at coffee shops with headphone leakage, head bobbing, and overly dramatic hand gestures.

[omegamale @ Sep 26th 2008 5:21PM]

i just peed a wee bit

[Jeff @ Sep 26th 2008 5:21PM]

It's kind of funny that not once is the acronym "MIDI" mentioned in a post that's wholly about MIDI controllers. Not even as a tag!

Do you guys really understand what these things do?

[zenstylejunglist @ Sep 26th 2008 7:24PM]

Yes. But the bloggers over @ Engadget don't seem to know. Bunch of trained monkeys if you ask me. Musical Instrument Digital Interface. See Joseph L. Flatley? You learned something new today.

[Bluegrass Geek @ Sep 27th 2008 7:37AM]

Probably because these are USB. They don't appear to have MIDI inputs, hence, they're not MIDI controllers.

[telepheedian @ Sep 28th 2008 12:13PM]

But they use the MIDI protocol, over USB. The USB is just there to make things easy to connect, when you plug it in, it will show a MIDI device.

[Jonas Dawson @ Sep 26th 2008 5:35PM]

I preordered the NanoKey from Sweetwater a week ago. They told me it should be in mid-October.

I for one am looking forward to it. I expected a plasticky feel- it's not supposed to be a playable controller for heavens sake. It shall make mobile implementations of Finale 2009 very friendly.

[TopaZ @ Sep 26th 2008 6:15PM]

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to be a performance instrument either. I'd just be happy with something good enough to jot down ideas into Reason when I'm on the road.

Thanks, Korg!

Beats the roll-up chinese piece of junk keyboard on ebay!

[Rudiger @ Sep 26th 2008 7:28PM]

Performance instrument or not, your music will still sound terrible.

[allislost @ Sep 26th 2008 7:00PM]

I'd rather get the Evolution eKeys than this monstrosity.

[zenstylejunglist @ Sep 26th 2008 7:26PM]

I was just gonna say. There are better MIDI controllers out there for the money.

[LarryLarryLarry @ Sep 26th 2008 10:50PM]

Yes, not remotely price-competitive.

[allislost @ Sep 26th 2008 11:08PM]

The Evolution or M-Audio E-Keys is 50 bucks.

[TopaZ @ Sep 26th 2008 10:51PM]

@Rudiger:
If inspiration strikes when I'm away from my workstation, I have, in the past, resorted to using a digital voice recorder.

With this I can create a multitrack scratch recording. It doesn't have to sound perfect (or even good), as long as it's a reasonable representation of what I'd like to achieve later. Then I can take this project file back to the studio and make it into something listenable.

For these types of applications, I think these are the perfect peripherals.

[Adam @ Sep 27th 2008 9:00AM]

Why did they have to make the keys so abnormally placed? I'm still waiting for someone to make a 2/3 (kid size) USB midi keyboard with at least 3 octaves.

[Bones3D @ Sep 27th 2008 8:41AM]

Now this is exactly what I need. A MIDI controller to play around with stuff like Garage Band, but small enough to not require any space commitments. As long as I'm not doing live performances, the quality of the controller itself doesn't need to be perfect.

[Winston @ Nov 11th 2008 3:27PM]

I got the NanoKey and this thing is PLASSSTIIICKKYYYYYYYY and CHHHEEEEEAAAPPPPP!

[angelo @ Nov 11th 2008 5:11PM]

I've been waiting to see what's up with the new Korg stuff- they look plasticky too. is there an email address i could use to send some info about an opportunity to work with expotv.com? thx!