Korg announces line of really tiny controllers

Korg announces line of really tiny controllers

18 June, 2008 | 5.00AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Technology
• Written by: francispreve

Continuing this year’s trend in miniature hardware, Korg recently announced the imminent release of three new controllers that are perfect for producing on-the-go.

At the London International Music Show, they introduced the aptly named nanoSeries.

Finally, a set of controllers that can actually fit on an airplane tray-table.

Talk about overdue.

The nanoSeries consists of the nanoKEY MIDI keyboard, nanoPAD, and nanoKONTROL

Available individually, each serves a different aspect of the production process.

The Japanese Korg info page can be found here.

Here’s a quick summary of the initial specs:

nanoKey. The keyboard controller sports 25 keys, octave shift buttons, pitch and mod buttons and even velocity sensitivity (What? No aftertouch?). There’s also a mode that allows the keys to transmit control change messages, but how this works remains unclear.

nanoPAD. Optimized for drum programming and triggering samples, the nanoPAD includes 12 pads and what appears to be a Kaoss-like controller pad that can be used for rolls and flams. Topping it off is a chord-trigger function for old school rave effects.

nanoKONTROL. This looks like a laptopper’s wet dream, with 9 knobs, 9 faders, 18 switches and even transport controls. In addition to standard continuous controller messages, these can purportedly fire off MIDI notes as well. The most interesting feature is a pair of attack and decay setting for the switches, so they fade parameters up and down. This expands their usefulness considerably and makes us wonder what took them so long.

I spoke directly with Korg last week and the nanoSeries should hit the States in another few months.

You can count on a full review the nanoSECOND that happens.

(Tip of the hat to musicradar.com and Create Digital Music for their initial coverage.)

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