RE: Korg NanoKontrol / NanoPad impressions

[Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

I just bought a NanoKontrol and NanoKey.  As expected they work fine
with Mobius, but the lighted buttons on the NanoKontrol can't be
controlled by Mobius.  The button lights are used when the button is
configured in toggle mode, it lights up when "down" (sends note on or
CC > 0) and turns off when "up" (sends note off or CC 0).

I like the Kontrol a lot.  It has four "scenes" which are patches
of assignments for all the knobs and switches.  Typical Mobius use
would be:

  Scene 1
    sliders - track output levels
    knobs - track pan
    button 1 - focus lock
    button 2 - mute
  Scene 2
    sliders - feedback
    knobs - alt feedback
    button 1 - reset

Most of the things I would do with the transport buttons I would
want on a footswitch, but some possibilities are:

  Rewind - Prev Loop
  Forward - Next Loop
  Stop - Reset
  Play - Play
  Record - Overdub

The NanoKey is kind of cheesy, but hey it's $50.  The keys are similar
to those on a laptop with a very short range of movement.  They wiggle
a bit and look like they would pop off if you stuck a toothpick under
them.  They are velocity sensitive but not very expressive.  You can
pick three sensitivity curves.  It's fine for triggering loops or
setting pitch/speed shifts in Mobius, but you're not going to be
playing any Rachmaninov on it.

You can set the keys to transmit notes or control changes.  There are
"pitch up" and "pitch down" buttons that will simulate the action of a
pitch bend control.  Pitch change messages are sent over a programmable
range at a programmable rate as long as you hold down the button.  They
worked surprisingly well for little scoops and doits.

You can program the NanoKey to send on any MIDI channel, but there are no
patches so it can only send on that one channel until you reprogram
it.  This would be a limitation if you had several synth plugins that
receive on different channels, but again if you're playing synths this
is probably not for you.

Both the Key and Kontrol are programmed with KorgKontrol software you
have to download from the Korg web site.  It's easy to use.

The combination of the Key and Kontrol do just about everything I was
doing with a Novation Remote 25 in a MUCH smaller package.  I mostly love
them but really wish the NanoKey had "scenes" like the Kontrol so you could
switch channels on the fly.

Jeff