Korg nanoKey Review

As you might have seen in my "nanoRack" posts, I recently picked up a Korg nanoKey, and after a couple of weeks of using it, I thought I'd pass along some thoughts regarding its use.

The nanoPad, which I reviewed several months ago, had 12 pads which was more than enough to cover Redrum's 10 channels. Given that the nanoKey is just a portable two octave keyboard, there are no Reason-specific advantages or limitations to using the nanoKey. It "fits" all of Reason's instruments just fine, so its effectiveness really comes down to how it works as a keyboard, so this review will concern itself primarily with that, rather than any specific issues with regards to using it with Reason.

While the nanoSeries saw a lot of positive buzz when it was first announced, the nanoKey was largely seen as a disappointment when it was released. The keys are responsive and pressure-sensitive, but as you probably already know, have more in common with laptop keys than any musical keyboard, making them a little awkward. If you're used to hammering out a few notes using a "virtual keyboard" like the one in Logic (and now Record, Propellerhead Software's newest app), the nanoKey will probably feel comfortable, even spacious, but if you're more used to a traditional keyboard, or possibly even a mini-keyboard like an Oxygen 8, you'll find the nanoKey a bit lacking.

The the left of the keyboard are six buttons which control Pitch Bend (up and down), Mod Wheel, CC Mode, and two buttons to toggle up and down in Octave. These keys feel like the keyboard keys, so again you have that laptop keyboard feel, but don't appear to be pressure or velocity sensitive. The Mod Wheel button, for example, is either on or off, with no variations between, making its use rather limited. The same thing is true of Pitch Up and Pitch Down, so while its nice to have those options, they're not very practical in "real world" use. Using Korg's Kontrol Editor you could certainly shorten the range of these keys, so that your Mod Wheel goes from 0% to only 40%, instead of 0% to 100%, for example, but because you seem to be limited to either on or off, your "performance range" will be limited to whatever presets you design for your gear.

Of course, having said all of that, even with access to a few other keyboards at home, I tend to use the nanoKey quite a bit, as its simply more convenient. I think I've mentioned it before, but my "studio" is also my home office, so there's usually a bit of setup time involved with getting out gear for music making, especially if I've moved away from the office to the kitchen table or patio. The nanoKey effectively removes that barrier for me, as its small enough to just pull out and use, without hunting for the wall warts and USB cables needed to get my Oxygen 8 or Yamaha keyboard setup and ready to go. No, it's not as nice as even my first generation Oxygen 8, especially if I'm hoping to add a little more human performance to my playing via the mod or pitch bend wheels, but its immediate, which tends to suit my needs when getting down an idea quickly.

One point of interest is that the nanoKey is by far the thinnest piece in the nano series of controllers, about half of the thickness of the nanoKontrol, and slightly thinner than the nanoPad. The differences don't seem like much when you look at them, but even as slight as they are, the nanoKey feels like the most portable of the three units. I packed my nanoKey in my bag today, along with my laptop and my usual work stuff, while out running errands and it took up very little room, so little, in fact, that it might find a permanent place in my bag during my long commutes.

So, do I recommend the nanoKey? I do, but with some caveats. If you want something portable and fast to set up, the nanoKey can't be beat. Korg is marketing the entire nanoSeries for use on the train or bus, in-between classes, or wherever else their cartoon spokesman needs to make music, and it suits that grab-and-go mentality very well. Its the very definition of "quick and dirty." What you get in exchange for that portability and size is unnatural key action and almost useless pitch and mod capabilities. If that's a deal-breaker for you, and I would guess that for a great number of you it is, you should look elsewhere.

Note: The nanoKey uses the same USB driver as the nanoPad and nanoKontrol, so if you already own one of the nanoSeries devices, your drivers will already be installed and you should only be required to add it as a new device in Reason.

Korg nanoPad Review... Sort of

I'm not shy about admitting that I am, when it all comes down to it, a mouse-slinger. The notes I "play" are usually just the notes I've painted on to the piano roll view and while I do know a few chords and could likely play them if someone held a gun to my head, I just don't feel comfortable sitting in front of a keyboard. As much as I'd like to say otherwise, I'm just not a musician.

When I first got Reason, all those years ago, I immediately bought a Oxygen 8, which was the hot midi-controller at the time, but I never really used it much. I did most of my composition "on the road," sitting in a coffee shop before work, so nearly everything I did happened in Edit Mode with a mouse or trackpad.

New controllers came out since Reason 1, of course, and I've looked at them with varying degrees of interest, but ultimately knew they'd be joining my Oxygen 8 in the closet, rather than becoming a daily composition tool. Getting another controller would just be a waste of money, once the initial thrill of having a new toy wore off, so there wasn't much reason to get a new controller or keyboard.

Then, I saw the announcement for the Korg nano line, three USB controllers designed to be paired with laptops, small and portable enough that they were perfect for on the go work. The nanoPad immediately jumped out at me, as I had been looking at getting a drum pad style controller for a while now, so I kept a look-out for them during my occasional trips to Guitar Center. I wasn't doing much composition in coffee shops anymore, but these controllers looked to fill a need for me.

You've probably seen the announcements and reviews yourself, so I'll skip the basic descriptions of the nanoPad and get right to how the nanoPad works with Propellerheads Software's Reason 4. In a word: great. I did have some minor issues with it out of the box, which I'll explain, but it's a great little piece of hardware and I cannot recommend it enough.

Check out Sonic State's review, Stray411's review and AudioMidi's review if you're in the dark about this device and want a good introduction.

The nanoPad is essentially plug-and-play in Mac OS X, so you can immediately start using it just by plugging its included USB cable into your computer. However, if you want to use the Korg Kontrol Editor to modify its controls (and you likely will as I'll explain below), you'll need to load its drivers, a painless process, but not immediately obvious considering that it seems to work perfectly without them until you try to communicate with it via the Kontrol Editor. The Kontrol Editor and the nanoPad drivers are all found on Korg's website and are not included in the box.

Why was it necessary to modify the plug-and-play settings? The Korg has four Scene settings that you can toggle through by pressing the Scene key. At its most basic level, the various Scenes serve as octaves, letting you move higher up the octave range with each press. I bought the nanoPad specifically for use with Reason's Redrum, so it was the first instrument I tried, and found the nanoPad sent strange midi messages into Reason. Pad 7 would trigger the first channel in Redrum, Pad 8 would trigger the second channel, and Pad 9 would mute channel 3. Pads 1 and 2 didn't seem to do anything and while these settings might have made sense to someone already experienced with using pad controllers with their Software, I found it confusing. It seemed to work fine with Logic, which was even more odd, but wasn't keyed up the way I wanted in Reason.

Using the Korg Kontrol Editor software, I went back and reprogrammed it so that Pad 1 would trigger Redrum's Channel 1 sample (C2), Pad 2 would trigger Channel 2 (C#2), and so on. I also modified the nanoPad's Scenes 2-4 to build on the new settings on Scene 1, as its Chromatic scale in its factory settings started at C4 in Scene 2, rather than C3, skipping an entire octave.

The rest of the nanoPad's controls, such as its X/Y pad and Hold, Flam, and Roll buttons, all work perfectly in Reason without needing any further tweaking. The X/Y pad, for example, will give you some expression in the Bend and Mod wheels of synthesizers, and is used to help control the Hold, Flam and Roll buttons when using it with Redrum or a sample device like NN19 or NN-XT.

Download my basic nanoPad setup here.

Of course, what's really exciting is that you have quite a bit of flexibility with the nanoPad's control settings. While I have mine set up to be used as a basic midi controller, someone a bit more clever could find a number of interesting possibilities in configuring its "Pad Behavior" settings and modify its Off/On values. For example, by changing the nanoPad's "Assign Type" to "Control Change" you could change the nanoPad into a real-time remixing tool, allowing you to mute and solo tracks on the fly by sending midi messages to Remix or triggering passages in NN-XT.

Interestingly, I find myself "playing" the nanoPad using Reason's synthesizers quite a bit. There is something very pleasant about its rubber pads and I find them really comfortable for triggering long, droning synths, like the Saturn's Rings patches I've been posting. The nanoPad is polyphonic, of course, so you can easily play chords over its twelve pads, assuming you're playing out simple key combinations.

When I picked up the nanoPad, I was trying to decide between it and the M-Audio Trigger Finger controller. I had used the Trigger Finger a few times in stores and really liked it, but I think I made the right decision in getting the nanoPad. First, Reason's Redrum only has 10 channels, which is still two below nanoPad's 12 pad controllers, making the Trigger Finger's 16 pads a bit overkill with Reason. And, the Trigger Finger has a number of sliders and pots I just didn't need for hammering out quick beats and notes. The smaller size of the nanoPad fits my needs a bit better and I actually like the feel of the nanoPad's pads better than the Trigger Finger's harder plastic. At more than one-third the price, it's a great little device.

My experience with the nanoPad has been so good that I'm already looking at picking up the nanoKontrol and the nanoKey units. The nanoKey has a bit of a reputation as being kind of cheesy, but it might be fun, especially on the go.