So, I finally traded a whole bunch of my free time against this money stuff (albeit at a poor ratio, but I'm working on that...), so I couldn't resist spending some of it on some new "gear". I started small, of course. At nano level, actually: I bought myself a Korg nanoKontrol and a nanoPad.

Now, the nanoKontrol is spot-on. There's loads of knobs and sliders, times four with the "Scene" button, and the buttons are way better than the numpad on my old midi keyboard, and actually good enough to try some percussive stuff on them. Sure, it's all a bit small and plasticky, but trust me, if you're looking for a Korg Nano controller to buy, get the Kontrol and forget about the rest.

Why? 'cause the nanoKey is nothing more than a specially arranged laptop keyboard, and you can get twice the octaves in proper, playable size for just 6 euros more.

And the nanoPad is quite a sham. Let me go into detail on this:

So... I played around with the pad, set it up for a pentatonic scale, which worked great 'cause you have six pads per row, so you've got two pads for controlling effects like filter and vibrato. Well, at least that's what I thought until I noticed that the extra pads were only sending values of either 0 or 127. Just on or off. No dynamics, no matter what sensitivity curve I tell the nanoPad to use. Turns out that Korg used some very cheap technology on this device: These pads are actually keys. There's no pressure sensor underneath, just two switches that close slightly delayed, and based on how fast you're triggering them, you get different velocity values. The pad doesn't even send aftertouch data. Which would make the nanoPad a nanoKey if we didn't have that one already. And speaking of 'having it already', I already have a proper keyboard for this type of input.

Mind you, though. As a routine-breaker, this pad will do nicely. You can have lots of fun with the X/Y-Pad and the roll feature, even though the X/Y-Pad isn't capable of multitouch, and doesn't measure pressure either. But the missing pressure-dynamic pads will take out most of the fun. That's why I've turned my nanoPad in for an Akai MPD18. Which is 50% more expensive and will probably suck with pentatonic scales, but is still less than 100 euros, and still cheap in comparison to a full-grown Akai sampler. ;)

EDIT: The MPD18 finally arrived, and I had a couple weeks to "get in touch" with it.

The downsides:

- The pads are much more "massive", and you need to apply a lot more pressure to get it to send notes.
- The MPD18 is mainly a velocity-sensitive device, too. Although it actually can send 7-bit pressure data as either channel or poly aftertouch, it does that only after it's been sending velocity data first. Which means you can get it to trigger notes twice if you really want it to. And you won't get any CC data out of it other than that of the fader. But with a bit of creativity and the right tools, this isn't actually that much of a worry.

On the upside:

- Pentatonic scales work pretty well. You get three octaves plus one extra note out of it, and the bank select switch can be abused as an octave select switch for additional note coverage. Also, having the notes layed out with a one-note offset per octave is surprisingly fun to play.
- You really do get Akai's MPC knowledge with the MPD18. Despite the small size, the whole device feels massive and probably has a metal frame inside. The option buttons click nicely and all the options (tap tempo, shuffle, time divide, presets, MIDI channel, note repeat) are instantly accessible. Plus, the fader has a heavy feel to it. Good for slow fades, not so good for quick changes, but for the latter, I still have faders on the nanoKontrol and the MK-449C. And with the MPD's pad aftertouch data being quick and dirty and unfiltered, you really want an "analog" input that doesn't jump around when you use it. ;)