Overview midi-controller for $ 60

Of course, big things have their advantages, but when space is limited, compactness and portability come out on top. A series of miniature MIDI controllers from Korg called Nano was developed for musicians who travel a lot, although it’s not to say that these controllers will be completely useless in a large studio.

The series includes three controllers: Nano Key , Nano Kontrol and Nano Pad . Imagine a big MIDI keyboard that you took and cut into three separate parts — keys, knobs and faders, and percussion pads. The result is a Nano, which is very small and neat, you can even say cute.

Each controller is 320x83 mm in size and not more than 15 mm thick. By the way, the width exactly matches the width of the MacBook. The controllers can be used both separately and all together, if you have enough USB ports. No additional power supply is required, which reduces the number of cables that you need to carry with you to a minimum.
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Today I will tell you more about the Korg Nano Pad!


To begin with, Korg NanoPad is probably the cheapest midi controller available and has the following characteristics:


12 pads without backlighting
touch panel XY;
4 Custom Scenes
Buttons: ROLL, FLAM, HOLD

The dimensions of the device are 320 x 82 x 16.5 mm, which makes it easy to put the controller in any bag.

Impressions:

The controller's build is a bit cheap, but it does not scare away, for $ 60 I did not expect anything else. On the bottom of the controller are small rubber feet that dampen the vibration and prevent it from staggering. Comes with a long mini-usb cable.

When connected to Windows, the device itself is defined and installed as a USB Audio Device, drivers are not required, although the instructions indicate that the Korg Kontrol Editor and Korg USB-MIDI Driver programs are required. As far as I understand, the program is required if you have several Audio Devices, as well as to fine-tune the device, for example, you can adjust for each scene for which notes or groups of notes one or another pad, turn off Roll / Flam for a specific pads, specify the MIDI channel to which the command from the given pad will fall. Interestingly, all the settings that are installed in the Korg Kontrol Editor are stored in the device itself, that is, by changing the settings, I can safely use the controller with another computer without losing my changes.

The pads, surprisingly, respond very well. True, problems with triggering the wrong pads can start on an uneven surface. Unfortunately, the pads do not have the backlight, which is so necessary for the visual perception of the controller.

Many electronic musicians have become accustomed to programming drums on pads sensitive to the force - this method was first used on the infamous drum machine Linn 9000, and then was popularized by a series of Akai MPC devices, and then became widespread. The pads at Korg Nano are amazingly sensitive. You can choose from 3 press sensitivity curves or linear sensitivity, which is used simultaneously on all pads. Each pad can send a MIDI message with 8 notes or control parameters. Each of the parameters separately may contain the value “on” or “off”. And each pad transmits its own messages either in the global MIDI channel or in a separate MIDI channel. All these complexity settings will be useful to professionals in MIDI, and for beginners there are built-in factory settings, which are sufficient for most applications.
In addition to the pads, there is an additional XY surface in the controller, for each axis of which you can assign any CC parameter. XY can be used with pads to create drum effects.

X-Touchpad's responsiveness is pretty good, but I didn’t like the touchpad itself, it’s very painfully “cheap” that is sometimes hard to cope with, as the upper part of it wobbles, so I try to use it only in extreme cases, which would not spoil something at the most inopportune moment.

Another disadvantage that I noticed during use is that the controller only works normally at room temperature. After lying a little at the metal-plastic window, random responses and glitches begin, at +5 (it was necessary to use it so cruelly) it generally turns on the intellect and does everything

Demonstration

And a couple more links:
Golden Kang Nano Pad
Korg nanoPAD Demo

Pros:

- small price (~ $ 60)
- compactness
- easy to set up and use

Minuses:

- not very good body
- lack of backlight pads
- poor quality XY panel
- under certain conditions random triggers are possible.

I want to note that for this money - the controller performs its functions just fine and its shortcomings are immediately forgotten.

In the preparation of the review were used some materials from soundonsound.com