Korg nanoKEY
A USB-connected MIDI controller, Korg's nanoKEY looks much like a mutated computer keyboard. It weighs less than a pound and takes up less room in one's bag than a paperback book. At first blush, it seems impossibly thin and a bit cheaply made, but after a few minutes, I found it to be playable just like any other keyboard. It has a trio of buttons that approximate a full-sized keyboard's pitch and modulation wheels (albeit in a binary fashion, no nuance available). There are also buttons that shift the keyboard's range up or down several octaves, and a special CC mode that makes each key output a MIDI continuous controller value when struck (instead of a MIDI note) which is handy when trying to get a hold of the dozens of little buttons that festoon modern music software. There are several behavioral options under the hood, too, and the included editor makes tweaking things simple.
So far, I've taken the keyboard with me on several trips and countless public transit rides. It has allowed me to take down ideas -- direct to my laptop -- that I never would have chronicled otherwise. It's also just plain fun.
I've been making music on computers since the early 90s, and the march of miniaturization and affordability in computer music gear has never ceased to astound me. The equivalent of a setup that once cost thousands of dollars to assemble and occupied an entire second bedroom now runs on a laptop which comes with me everywhere. But one of the main things that remained a challenge to small-ify was the MIDI keyboard. M-Audio's Oxygen 8 led the charge, being small enough to throw into a large backpack with one's laptop, but it was still rather heavy and chunky. In time, various other keyboards were created that slimmed things down even further, but the form factor remained that of something you needed to create space for in one's bag, and lugging one around all day was not a fun prospect.
Finally, the nanoKEY seems to have gotten it all right. Now I can always have a keyboard with me, wherever I go, with little weight or space penalty. Lovely.
-- George Cochrane
Korg nanoKEY
$50
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Korg
Favorite (15)
Mathew Toronto
One might at first suppose most people interested enough to read this might be adults, already deeply into computer music, who would understand everything. Actually however, there may be a second curious group who, while interested in the product, need a more exhaustive "For Dummies" approach that they can understand.One has in mind parents, who, though they don't play themselves, are interested to possibly buy the device for young children just starting keyboard lessons. This is my situation.
Is this unit suitable for a five year old to use? In our case, the child has been using computers for years, understands USB ports, and is fairly careful of peripherals, though not yet reliable with anything that is really fragile.
Beside the keyboard itself, what else is needed to actually generate music? I see what appears to be some sort of user interface on the screen of the computer, but don't understand if the software involved comes with the keyboard, or has to be purchased or downloaded separately, and whether a child of five could use it (it has to be as simple as a TV remote, basically).
I am assuming that if speakers were attached to the computer one could actually play music in real time -- but is this really correct?
Finally, just if anyone should happen to know, though I'll know from looking online in a in a couple of minutes, is the device sold in Canada with a Canadian guarantee or not?
Mathew in Toronto
Oh.... and what are those low rectangular things at the right of the photo? Part of the device?
Sorry to be so dumb; I never had anything to do with digital music.....
p s
I have the korg nano pad, really a great device! I would say that the device could take a beating but the thing I would worry about would be the connection. Its a miniUSB and I could see it getting bent and breaking. Other than that the buttons are solid. I I was really worried about that I might take a hot glue gun to the port and make sure the cable stays in.
The thing with these devices is that they are just controllers they cannot generate sound. You will need to get a software synth/sample to do anything. They device comes with some limited software. So Mathew in Toronto, this might not be the best device for a child just learning to play a keyboard. It might be a better fit to a teenager wanting to make beats. If I was going to get a kid something it would be a cheap casio keyboard, they are solid state and will last forever.
That being said I love my Korg Nano. But I would not recommend it for a child.
George Cochrane
To Mathew:
The NanoKEY is bundled with a piece of software that is able to make some sounds- it's called M1 Lite, and it emulates a classic keyboard that Korg made in the eighties. So, one could buy the unit, install the software, plug it in, and have a way to make sounds.
However, I think I'd mirror p s's suggestion here and recommend some sort of cheap standalone keyboard, like a Casio or Yamaha. With full-sized keys and a wider span of keys to play on, they are more applicable to learning piano skills than the Nano would be, and they will take many a hit from a wayward hockey stick before giving up the ghost.
Something like this would work nicely: http://snipurl.com/kidskeyboard
The NanoKEY is mainly useful for folks that most likely have other keyboards at home and just need the smallest thing possible to make music with when traveling or gigging.
The other devices shown to the right of the laptop in the first image are the other models in the Nano lineup- the NanoPAD and NanoCONTROL.
Terry
I saw the Korg nanoKey on Kelly's Cool Tools at
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/003452.php
Right away I went to Sam Ash Music and bought one for $49. When I plugged it in it would not work with Bome's Mouse Keyboard or anything else. I unplugged it -- and my PC crashed with a blue screen! This happened three times!
I searched Korg's website and, with some difficulty, found and installedthe Korg USB-MIDI driver.
http://www.korg.com/uploads/Download/KORG_USB-MIDI_Driver_for_Windows_V1.11_633652151011540000.zip
After telling it to install the nanoKey, no more blue screens. Great. But even though the Korg program recognized the nanoKey, it still wouldn't work with anything else. When I saw on the internet that lots of others were going crazy with with the same problem, and no solutions, I decided to return it.
But then I found the article and the utility below that made it work. The reason it would not work is that XP has a 10 MIDI driver limit, which I had exceeded some time in the past. The cure was to modify the registry and delete old drivers. Not for me. But much better was to use M-Audio's MIDIFIX utility, a one-click fix. The nanoKey is now working perfectly, I love it, and hope this helps others with the same problem!
This article explains the problem:
http://www.eqmag.com/article/fixing-windows-xp/aug-07/30616
M-Audio has this run-once utility that fixes it:
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=84
I called Korg Product Support at (631) 390-8737, and they were perfectly nice. Tech support understood the problem, mentioned the article above, and offered to walk me through the registry change process. But the MIDIFIX program did the job.
Kevin Kelly
Thanks for posting this helpful resources, Terry.
Windz One
Man. . .this is going to be tougher than I expected. . .
I'm also new to this site (great layout btw). . . ., so please bear with me!
I have the nanoKEY and the nanoPAD (I'll be purchasing the nanoKontrol at a later date). . . I'm still trying to figure out how to load it get both to read for Reason on my Vista Laptop. I've been trying to get them responding, and I already have the drivers and the Kontrol editor, but is there a way to get this up and running? I tried through Preferences, and every sort of thing through there to get it to respond, even adding it manually. I'm also using a Cyberpower Powered USB hub, if this will help. (7 port, with all the memory I have connected through a 1T external HD). I'm still getting nothing.
Please hit my up to my email me directly. . .Just in case. . . Windz1mf@hotmail.com. Please let me know if you need specs or stats. I can try to get back as quickly as I can.
Any help is very much appreciated. . .Thank you to ANYONE that can help me
Windz One"
Mathew Toronto
The five-year-old Mozart was off music for a bit, and fanatically into LEGO giant troll and castle stuff, but we're now thinking of the keyboard again so I revisited the Korg review page. Thanks for the advice in reply to my earlier comment which I hadn't seen until now; we'll try the Casio or Yamaha instead.
Something that might be useful in Cool Tools is 1:) a "Reply" button where one comment is in direct response to another and really should appear just beneath it, and 2.) a check-in-the-box system that forwards any response to one's comment, or (a slightly different option) any new comments to one's email with a link to the page. In fact, this would be useful on a lot of comments sites, but I haven't seen it.
The idea ehind this is that I (and presumably almost everyone) often leave comments and would like to know if anyone responds to them, but don't have either the time or mental organization to keep revisiting the page to see if this has occurred.I'd be grateful for a more automated system.