Customer Reviews

Korg nanoKEY 25 Key USB Controller Keyboard, White

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The Korg Nano Series is, quite simply, among the most useful sets of tools ever produced for the COMPUTER... Let me say that word again: "COMPUTER."

I write, arrange and orchestrate music for a living. The nanoKey, in particular, is a lifesaver! It's portable, so I can stuff it into my laptop bag when I'm on the road. It works seamlessly with Finale, Encore and - my personal favorite - Sibelius (the "Big 3" of notation programs). It isn't as convenient for real-time sequencing, unless you've developed "the touch." It took me a while to get used to that, but I do play scratch tracks in Logic and Sonar, on occasion.

Anyone considering the purchase of this device should realize up front that it isn't really designed for stage performance, etc. It's best suited for computer entry. In fact, it's PERFECTLY suited for computer entry.

...and for fifty bucks it's WAY ahead of anything else!

This little device is great for my small desktop homestudio. The Nano Key doesn't take away space, i can just put it in front of my typing keyboard or on my lap and start playing and recording. When i'm done with making music, i just put it beside my monitor. Since i am not a serious piano/keyboard player, i don't need the full range of keys, however there are 2 buttons; ocatve up/down with which you can go an octave higher or lower. I mainly use it to play some chord changes, easy melody lines and to trigger drum sounds for midi recording.

The keys feel like laptop keys but with velocity function built in! I like laptop keyboards, so no problem for me.

There is a button called CC mode. If you press that, you can send midi commands to your DAW using any or all of the keys, (very cool!)you can assign any function via an editor which is downloadable. However, the CC button is located too close to the keys, so it is very easy to hit it by accident (not so cool).

If you have a small laptop with music software on it, you can bring it along with nano key and make music on the go! How about a coffee break jam session at Starbucks or at the airport?

The Korg Nanos get their power from one usb port each, i also own the NanoKontrol (which is also amazing btw.) and therefore use a usb hub. I just wished they had 2 usb connectors so i can daisy chain them and save a usb port.
But for the price, the Nano Key is unbeatable right now and if it breaks for some reason, i'd buy one again.

This keyboard is okay, and for the price that okay turns out to be a pretty good. This keyboard is decent for the price, but the poor construction limits the musician to only playing simple melodies. I've seen people give this thing a pounding though, and this keyboard can handle it too. If you are a pro or almost pro, and you are trying to build a small studio, I would recommend a keyboard with keys that actually feel like keys, since these feel like laptop keys, making the velocity input a little difficult. But all in all, this is a decent player, with no compatibility issues (at least not for me, works with Reason, FL Studio, Samplitude, etc.) and I would recommend it for those who have limited budgets or need a lot of space or just make music as a hobby. If you want something good, spend $200-$300 on an m-audio axiom.

Pros: Small, Compatibility, price, about 1/4 of an inch thick, lighter than a small binder

Cons: Maybe too small, keys are too close together so hands start to cramp, hard to play chords, velocity is tricky, laptop keys were a bad idea, keys are hard to play because you have to play at the bottom of the key which is a big obstacle when playing chords

I got this to help me noodle around in Garage Band on my MacBook (typing music is just, well, wrong). For that, it's perfect. As someone that played piano in high school, playing chords and melodies on it's two octaves and small keys is fine. The keys are definitely "laptop keyboard" feeling as people have described them, but velocity sensitive. When I plugged it into my MacBook and brought up Garage Band it worked right out of the box. My 2 year old daughter loves playing the piano on it and watching herself in Photo Booth.

For the price (and size constraint), it's fine. For picking out chords and melodies, it's great. For it's size being able to hide it away or carry it along, just right. To replace a real music keyboard to play Chopin or Ben Folds Five, obviously not.

** Update **
After a few months of light use, keys started to pop off of my Nanokey. I've since replaced it with an Akai LPK25.
** Original Review Below **

The nanoKEY is the best small keyboard ever made. The price is right and Korg has struck a great balance between size and usability. Don't expect it to be like any other keyboard and you won't be disappointed. Perfect for travel or cramped workspaces.

The Korg nanoKEY is not like any keyboard - MIDI or computer - you've ever used. Although the velocity sensitive keys are shaped somewhat like piano keys, the action most closely resembles that of your laptop keyboard. Unlike the very light action of my MacBook keyboard (or the very similar Aluminum Apple Keyboard the nanoKEY offers more resistance. If The Apple keyboards were synth-action keyboards, the nanoKEY would be a semi-weighted keyboard.

The nanoKEY is incredibly compact. If I place it on top of my 15" MacBook's keyboard, the nano is narrower than the MacBook. There is also plenty of room below for my nanoKONTROL. Small size doesn't mean cramped though. The keys are roughly the same width as the letter keys on my MacBook and they are maybe two or three times as "long." No space is wasted, the keys run right up to the edge of the device.

Connectivity is via a Mini-B USB port. Korg includes a USB cable complete with ferrite bead to keep audio interference down. As advertised, I had no trouble plugging both the nanoKey and nanoKontrol into a small unpowered hub and then plugging that into my MacBook. No external power required!

I was able to use the nanoKey without installing Korg's software. Both GarageBand and Reaktor recognized the nanoKey's events immediately. If you want, you can download Korg's USB-MIDI driver and Kontrol editor from the Korg's website. The Kontrol software lets you adjust every parameter of every key. You can change the assigned CC numbers, velocity curves and other parameters individually. I'll probably explore these options more later since the nano worked perfectly out of the box.

I'll start off by saying that I am by no means a pianist, I am a guitarist who fiddles around with the piano from time to time. I purchased the Korg NanoKey as a cheap portable solution. Now I'll say that so far I love it. Any negative reviews I have seen for this product have come from users with huge expectations and/or people who are very used to weighted keys and expensive midi controllers. For an occaisonal user and for someone who really wants something portable this is seriously amazing. I was surprised at how many songs I could play with 2 octaves, but thanks to the octave up and down buttons being so accessible there is not many I can't play. You can overlay octaves in the sense of hitting a key on a lower octave, holding that note, hitting the octave up and playing over top of the lower note. Its been a lot of fun and I would recommend this to anyone who loves music. This paired with the phil harmonik or korg m1(free with nanoKey) and a laptop with some composing software is perfect =).

Sadly, the downloaded M1LE Virtual Synth does not work at all (the sounds are missing), but I have other Sequencer software that works with it (as well as some Java Midi/Sound programs I've written).

The velocity curve choices work well for me, since I will mostly be using this for creating music sequences and I need the ability to vary the velocity in order to have realistic drum sounds.

I use it with Windows XP, but will try it on Linux later to see if it works the open source Music applications I run.

Well I recently started getting into music production, and it quickly became apparent that I needed a midi keyboard. I played Piano for 6-7 years when I was younger, so I already had a pretty good grip on how to use a keyboard. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on what may be a passing phase, so at a price point of $50, I figured I really couldn't go wrong.

Pros:
*It's inexpensive!
*It's small enough to fit in a laptop bag, which is nice since I don't have a lot of desk space.
*It's functional enough to write music with.

Cons:
*I've used this keyboard for a little over a month now, and the middle C key functions beautifully (since I use it the most I'd imagine), but the D and B next to it are still quite stiff. This is really annoying when I'm trying to record something and the key doesn't depress all the way, so I get a soft tone and have to adjust the velocity manually. If I'm trying to play softly anyway, sometimes it doesn't trigger at all. The only other option is to hit the keys HARD every time, but then I still have to adjust the velocity.
*The first day I had it, one of the black keys came unhinged. I pushed hard and it snapped back together, but it's still kind of crooked on the keyboard.
*If you're used to playing a piano, the keys will feel VERY foreign. I was expecting this to feel like a piano, but it's nothing close. You get used to it after a while, but I'd still rather it felt like playing a real piano.

Summary:
It's a good keyboard for the price, and if you absolutely can't afford more than $50 I don't think you'll regret getting it. If you can afford an extra $20 though, check out the Akai Pro LPK25. I haven't purchased it yet, but it's what I plan on buying to replace this, and it's only a little bit more expensive.

Positives:
- small, light-weight, portable, looks cool

Negatives:
- Unfortunately, the negatives outweigh the positives.

1) Built exactly like a laptop keyboard, NOT a piano keyboard. Keys are too small and too thin -- about 1/2 inch wide by 1/8 inch deep. Which means, it feels like you're typing instead of playing music. You can't play chords without feeling cramped.

2) Unreliable construction. Keys get pried and pop out of place when doing rapid glissando slides. Snapping them back in place is an exercise in frustration.

3) Not plug-and-play ready with Windows Vista users. When I downloaded and installed the USB driver, it still did not work right away. I had to run a utility from the program file folder to finally get it operational.

Conclusion:
If the keys did not start falling apart after only less than a week of use, I'd rate this product higher. But as it is, I CANNOT and WOULD NOT recommend this to anybody.

I've bought one of these. I dropped it from 2 feet onto a sofa and it stopped working, and they sent me a new one. With the first use (of my second nanokey), a key popped off. This seems to be a problem that every single user of the nanokey encounters at one point in time. I wasn't being especially vigorous with it either, fairly gentle actually (I'm composing in Sibelius for note-entry). Anyway, I looked underneath the key and was very disappointed by the construction. Each key is held on by four flimsy plastic "dots" - seriously, they're about a 2mm nub. Anyway, one of those nubs broke off. It took me forever to re-attach the 2mm nub back on with super glue. It works fine for a while after that. On about my third use, both the key I had re-attached before and another had popped off in that one time.
Besides these key problems, overall construction is fairly flimsy.
Summary: DON't Buy this when you can buy the AKAI LPK25 (same size and portability but with (GASP!) real keyboard keys!) for the same price.

I'm surprised at Korg, they're a fairly trusted brand yet I doubt they even tested this product before mass producing it.