KORGnanoKONTROL - 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

It's ok as a basic note input device, only if you don't have any midi keyboard with proper keys available.It's compact at (32.5 x 8.3 x 1.6 cm), fairly robust device, weighing in at 247 grams (not including cable). The keys are hard plastic and have the feel of a laptop keyboard. The six rubberized keys on the far left control Octave up & down, Pitch up & down, Modulation, and Sustain. A white LED in the top left corner confirms that your device is receiving power from the USB port.With Windows XP/Vista/7, the standard USB-MIDI driver will be installed automatically. You can download the Korg USB-MIDI driver from the Korg website to provide more functionality. The Korg Kontrol Editor software (also available from the Korg website) allows you to edit MIDI messages transmitted via each controller on the nanoKEY2.What really makes this product stand out is the free Korg M1 LE software emulator, which does sound like the real thing! Further more you can obtain an upgrade to the complete Korg Legacy collection for $99 (about £65 as the crow flies) which is great value!Box contents:KeyboardUSB cable (1 metre)InstructionsVoucher to claim your free Korg M1 software emulator (LE version, i.e. cut down version)

I'm really impressed with this. I wanted a portable controller with knobs, pads, and keys (and the XY pad was a very alluring bonus). I got so much more. Korg squeeze every bit of functionality out of their beautiful backlighting array. I didn't expect to find things like scales useful, but combined with a highly customisable arpeggiator (for which you can tap tempo on the fly) and note bending/XY parameter control, things really take off. The backlighting is also used to great effect as visual feedback for various settings and options, from selecting pattern banks to transposing.People mention the toy-like construction of the keyboard, so I wasn't expecting much but also didn't require much. Actually, I really like the feel of the keys. A full keyboard it ain't but they have a pleasing bounce to them and their velocity response is pretty nice. The pads (which I use mainly for launching clips) require a bit too heavy a touch to trigger for my tastes, but then most drum pads do. The whole thing is compact, thin, and extremely light, without feeling too flimsy. The bluetooth functionality is great - anything to take the strain off my limited USB ports.My main quibble is the responsiveness of the XY pad. It takes a bit of pressure to register touch, which also makes it prone to error about position some of the time. Now that we're all used to incredible capacitive touch screens, this feels like a bit of a step backwards. (Perhaps if it was super-sensitive we'd be moaning about accidental touches though.) I've also found that sometimes there is simply some noise in its transmission. Finally - it's in the wrong place! It should really be in the top left corner, where you can get at it with the left hand in an instant without craning over the knobs. But despite all that, it is really promising for what I can accomplish with it, especially given all the XY parameter controls Live offers.My secondary small quibble is that the bluetooth connect software Korg offers isn't available for Yosemite, and in lieu of that I have to manually reconnect it every time I turn it on. But hey, I guess they did their best...The customisation software is a whole other portal that I haven't had time to wade into yet. I can't wait.