Korg - nanoKONTROL - USB and Bluetooth Studio Mobile MIDI Controller

Delivery - Excellent. Build quality - better than expected. Performance ? Read on.... I have a Korg nanoKontrol 2. Great product. Slightly short faders but fits on the bottom of a Macbook real sweet. Also works with several KORG apps on iOS - iMS20, iElectribe and Gadget. Best is iMS20 by far. One button switches between mixer and synth. If the app had Link it would be the total business. Only drawback is the USB lead. Not good on an old school 32 pin iPad with a camera adapter, better on a Lightning equipped model. So the wireless version should provide all of the functionality of the USB only model right ? Maybe a bit more ? Wrong. All my KORG iOS apps recognise it and flag it as connected. So let's try some of them.... iDS10 ? No. Well I could hope.... iMS20 ? No. iElectribe ? No ! Gadget ???? After all, there is a button on the front panel labelled "SCENE" - maybe you could cycle between scenes ??? Very limited mixer control only. Jog wheel, scene buttons and FF/FR buttons are redundant. The track buttons are duplicated by the Select buttons above the faders and don't illuminate.... Leave them alone. And why is there a label with Wireless on it painted out ???? I will keep it. In a few years time, secondhand iPAD Pro's will be within my grasp and a Link locked 8 track version of Gadget will run like clockwork. Oh dear KORG it could have been so much more..... How about some downloadable profiles for the editor ??? TIP - If you connect this unit to the editor on Mac, the SCENE lights will come on and the unit will no longer talk via Bluetooth. If you can find a factory reset mentioned anywhere on the net, you are well clever. I used the same routine as described for the wired version ? Hold down CYCLE and the two TRACK buttons and power up using USB. Worked for me. UPDATE 20/5/22 I HAVE UPGRADED TO IPAD AIR. WITH KORG ELECTRIBE WAVE, THIS UNIT PROVIDES FULL CONTROL. 2 BANKS OF 8 FADERS INSTANTLY. WELL DONE KORG FOR IMPLEMENTING. INCREASED RATING TO 5 STARS

Why did you choose this product over others?: I have had the nano series for several years and they have been fairly reliable and convenient when travelling. I'm not too impressed with this new version as it will only connect to a few DAWs with a bit of extra programming via the control editor and even then not all the functions it supposedly has. It's sturdy hard plastic but way too expensive for what it is. When I have more money I'll buy something better.

Excellent controller, but could not get it to work with Logic Pro X until after contacting Korg support and finding out the Korg Logic plug-in requires you to start up Logic in Rosetta mode on an M1 Mac. It does not state this anywhere in the literature. I am told Korg will be updating their Logic Plug-in but no idea when. All working great now thanks to the great support but also slightly disappointed by the aforementioned and also that the scenes only work if you use it without the plug-in as an assignable midi CC controller. Hence only 4 stars.

Firstly, I am blind so please excuse any errors due to dictation. Anyway, I saw several reviews of this product on the main Amazon website and noted that quite a few were bad reviews. I really can't see why. The main reason why I purchased this item is because it has a jog wheel which is very handy for me. That being said, the installation was absolutely no problem at all. Are you Sonar cakewalk and the instructions on their website to get it up and running properly was spot-on perfect. If a blind person can do it, I don't see what the issue is. Okay, so the build is not rocket, but what do you expect for the price. Anyway, are you likely to throw it down the stairs or treated in any other way than it was designed for? As long as it sits on your desk there is no problem. The buttons are great, easy to navigate around by touch and the LED light which is something that I can just about notice it's very handy for me. I have three mixing desks and this particular one is just purely for track management. It does the job, it does it well and for the price, it's very acceptable.

Doesn’t work with 2025 MacBook Air .

I think this a fabulous piece of kit. Truly. But I supposed you need the right use for it. If you use a DAW at home (I use Logic Pro btw) then this gives you a physical mixer/looper and jog wheel. It works a treat. The Bluetooth never cuts out and it leaves your USB ports free. No latency either! NOW, I bought it to use in a live rig and it’s brill for that too. I run Logic for live performance of drums and backing and play along on MainStage. This Korg ‘sticks’ to Logic, lets me control it while MainStage dominates the screen. For that purpose it is an absolute boon. Well done Korg! It fits neatly in any iPad holder too! Only gripe? I’d like a case for it - it’s designed to be portable, so what do I carry it in....? But buy, buy, buy!

This thing is a game changer for mixing live shows on iPad. I mapped it for mixing station to control my XR18 and it is almost perfect. The only function it is lacking is motorised faders but that is a fair trade off for completely wireless mixing and I’m not sure motorised faders would be possible without a mains power cable tying you down. The only other issue I found was when I attempted to map the backlight function to latch rather than momentary. For some reason the functions assigned to buttons don’t respond the same using while using the latch function. I’m not sure why and to be honest I’m not bothered if the buttons are lit or not as long as the assigned functions work as expected.

Only discovered after purchasing that this is not fully compatible with Apple silicon Macs or the latest version of Logic Pro. It is possible get it working as a generic MIDI device, but this involves a very laborious setup process to manually assign every single function, as none of the included drivers or software works. Although the unit itself feels well made, I was not impressed with the faders, which feel a bit cheap and scratchy. The USB connection is also positioned in an awkward place where it could easily be damaged.