Korg today introduced the nanoKEY Fold, a foldable MIDI control keyboard that’s designed to be compact enough to fit in your pocket.
The Korg nanoKEY Fold is about the size of a smartphone when closed, but unfolds to offer a two octave range of silent membrane buttons with scalable velocity.
It’s available in 5 colors: Black, Alpine Green, Lava Orange, Sand Beige & White.
Korg nanoKEY Intro Video:
Key Features:
- Silent keybed – The membrane keyboard buttons have been designed to provide a comfortable action, with just the right amount of feel while remaining completely silent, so you can create music anytime, anywhere without disturbing those around you. Velocity can be customized to your feel with 13 different levels.
- Scale Guide – Choose from 15 built-in scales, and let the nanoKEY Fold LEDs guide your playing. “Easy Scale” mode ensures you play the right note with every key press. By assigning a scale to a touch slider you can easily play within the scale in new and creative ways.
- Chord mode – Chords can be automatically assigned to each key, based on the selected scale and key. Use it on its own or in combination with other modes.
- Flexible arpeggiator – The nanoKEY features a powerful built-in arpeggiator with a wide array of arpeggio types and rhythm patterns.
- Two touch sliders for performance and control – The touch sliders that control Pitch and Modulation can be assigned to control specific CC values or directly play notes in the selected scale.
- Split function – This versatile function allows you to assign and play different modes for the left and right parts of nanoKEY Fold, allowing you to play your own combinations of chords, scales, and melody, or Control / Program changes.
Pricing and Availability:
The Korg nanoKEY Fold is available now for $119.99 USD.
I was interested until I saw that it wasn’t velocity sensitive. I’d rather stick to the Korg Nanokey 2 for velocity sensitivity or give up on that and get a Wavy Monkey if I really needed tiny.
13 values of velocity is velocity. You can try to tap your finger in a table precisely at 13 different values from low to high you’ll see by yourself that 13 values is probably enough. Velocity is a midi value between 0 & 127 but most of small midi keyboard can’t have the full range so it’s mostly division of that, like 24 or so. 13 doesn’t seem bad to me for a foldable pocket sized keyboard.
You’ll also be able to adjust the curve of this 13 values in the korg midi editor if you want to be more precise on the soft velo etc..
According to the manual those 13 settings are just fixed velocity settings, the keys themselves are not velocity sensitive. Once you choose a setting, all notes will play at that fixed velocity value. Very different from being able to play different notes with different velocities, as your example seemed to imply.
Page 16 in the manual: https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/manual/0/978/5333/
Allo Peterthepiper, according to Korg UK it’s velocity sensitive (and also plug-n-play). And thank you for tip on Wavy Monkey, I hadn’t seen that one.
from website: “nanoKEY Fold unfolds to reveal 25 keys, complete with silent membrane technology and customisable velocity settings”
It’s not velocity sensitive.
I’ve downloaded and read the manual.
There’s 13 different velocity settings. Basically, you can have it play at full velocity with every tap. Or half velocity with every tap etc etc.
Those 13 different velocity settings are 13 different values of the midi value between 0 & 127.
Once set each tap on the keyboard will play at the set velocity.
The “keyboard” can’t detect how hard or soft you tap and relay that in realtime.
Therefore it’s not velocity sensitive.
If I’m wrong I’m happy to be corrected, but that’s the way I read it.
It’s hard to say what the velocity is like– probably not great.
There are probably some people who would not feel sad playing this.
Hey, Korg. There’s your advertisement tag line.
membrane keyboard? wtf man
and you thought minikeys were bad
wow
I would not mind something like the MicroFreak (capacitive) keyboard in this format!
Damn that’s one piece of expensive plastic crap.
Did Temu buy Korg already?
$119 is definitely not expensive. Definitely will be getting one. Looks like a perfect companion for my iPad and iPhone when on the move
Agree. It’s not the feature set alone that sets the price it’s the portability combined with it. Nothing else out there that does the same things and folds up to the size of a phone that I’m aware of. Perfect for phone, tablet, laptop, synth, etc on the go.
i Definitely agree