Korg - nanoKONTROL - USB and Bluetooth Studio Mobile MIDI Controller

Delivery - Excellent. Build quality - better than expected. Performance ? Read on....I have a Korg nanoKontrol 2. Great product. Slightly short faders but fits on the bottom of a Macbook real sweet. Also works with several KORG apps on iOS - iMS20, iElectribe and Gadget. Best is iMS20 by far. One button switches between mixer and synth. If the app had Link it would be the total business. Only drawback is the USB lead. Not good on an old school 32 pin iPad with a camera adapter, better on a Lightning equipped model.So the wireless version should provide all of the functionality of the USB only model right ? Maybe a bit more ? Wrong. All my KORG iOS apps recognise it and flag it as connected. So let's try some of them....iDS10 ? No. Well I could hope.... iMS20 ? No. iElectribe ? No !Gadget ???? After all, there is a button on the front panel labelled "SCENE" - maybe you could cycle between scenes ??? Very limited mixer control only. Jog wheel, scene buttons and FF/FR buttons are redundant. The track buttons are duplicated by the Select buttons above the faders and don't illuminate.... Leave them alone. And why is there a label with Wireless on it painted out ????I will keep it. In a few years time, secondhand iPAD Pro's will be within my grasp and a Link locked 8 track version of Gadget will run like clockwork.Oh dear KORG it could have been so much more..... How about some downloadable profiles for the editor ???TIP - If you connect this unit to the editor on Mac, the SCENE lights will come on and the unit will no longer talk via Bluetooth. If you can find a factory reset mentioned anywhere on the net, you are well clever. I used the same routine as described for the wired version ? Hold down CYCLE and the two TRACK buttons and power up using USB. Worked for me.UPDATE 20/5/22I HAVE UPGRADED TO IPAD AIR. WITH KORG ELECTRIBE WAVE, THIS UNIT PROVIDES FULL CONTROL. 2 BANKS OF 8 FADERS INSTANTLY. WELL DONE KORG FOR IMPLEMENTING. INCREASED RATING TO 5 STARS

My nanoPAD2 arrived this morning and I must admit I was intially caught out by the packaging. The USB lead is tucked neatly at one end under a cardboard flap so it appears the box is empty, hopefully that tip will save you a couple of minutes.Installation was swift, the drivers seemed to install well on Win7-64 even though the site suggests a fix would be needed for Win7 32/64. My tool of choice is Propellerheads Reason 6. Adding the nano2 to the Reason set up was simple and I was tapping away drums and messing about with synths in no time.The construction seems solid and the device itself is bigger than I expected which makes it very comfortable to play (for scale purposes the touchpad is similar in size to that of a notebook's). The 'Kaos' pad can be used in a number of modes which will be fun to play with even though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet... The note-pads themselves have a decent - velocity sensitive - response and I had a lot of fun tapping out beats with it and I'm no drummer.One thing that seems to be a bit of a gripe is the apparant inability to change the octave of the pads themselves. While the touchpad is in 'touch scale mode' it is affected by octave shifts. This may be a limitation of my understanding of how to use this but I thought it was worth mentioning as I didn't even think of this when I bought it. I is perhaps possible to do this within the Korg Kontrol Editor but my brief experience with this software wasn't plesant. I will endeavour to flesh this part of my review when I have more experience.All in all though my 4* is based on the fact that this seems a quality bit of hardware for a very reasonable price.

This is a great little keyboard. I hoped that it would be set up in Windows 7 without drivers needing installing (as a USB composite device) but the Korg software needed installing before my DAW (Reaper) would recognise it.After that it was just a case of letting the DAW know what it was and I was entering MIDI note data into the program literally in minutes. It's obviously nowhere near as lush as a proper controller keyboard, and there's no niceties like aftertouch available, although there is rudimentary velocity sensing, and the small keybed needs careful playing if you're after any kind of subtlety or nuance - but it does try.For me, its a way of entering melodies into the DAW as a kind of MIDI notepad, and it does a grand job of that. It's small enough to slot into your laptop case, probably along with the other Korg nano controllers.So long as you're not expecting to emulate Chopin using this keyboard you'll not be dissappointed. It will be pretty good for entering basic synth elements into club music and electronica - it just won't offer you the expressive capabilities that aftertouch can provide. If you're good with that limitation and need a go-anywhere keybord this is certainly worth a look.Korg also offer a download code for various software components to get you going, together with introductory versions of DAWs like Ableton Live Lite. This bundle isn't quite as good as the one I received with a NanoPad a year or two ago. If you buy this you might want to check what the bundle presently is. It's possible that Korg changes it from time to time, or perhaps there's a different bundle depending on whether you buy the NanoKey, NanoPad or NanoController.I already have a Samson Graphite full-function controller keyboard, and also use a Yamaha digital grand piano (88-key) for playing, but realised I have a need for something that is as portable as possible for a mobile setup. This is that keyboard - basic, useable, sometimes even fun!