Akai LPK25 review
New review up on the site and I’m following on after the Akai LPD8 review by reviewing the Akai LPK25.
The Akai LPK25 is a nano midi keyboard with 25 velocity sensitive keys and a built arpeggiator. It’s also the main contender to Korg’s nanoKey which was, quite frankly, rubbish.
Click here to read the review.
Akai LPD8 review
I’ve just put up a review of Akai’s LPD8 nano midi controller. Certainly some competition for Korg’s nanopad but you lose some pads and gain some knobs. Interesting how these two will face up to each other. Same price by the way, well korg lowered their price to match the LPD8′d. Let the battke begin.
Price = £49.99 /58.86 euros
The akai LPD8 is a drum/trigger controller with 8 velocity sensitive backlit pads and 8 Q link knobs. The pads have 4 banks of memory, similar to the nanopads. The price, size and wieght seems to be similar to the nanopads too, making it a viable choice for live performances. The knobs on the LPD8 and backlit pads might just make it more popular than the nanopad though, thats if you don’t care about losing two pads and an XY pad.
Akai LPK25
Price = £49.99 / 58.86 euros
The LPK25 is a midi controller keyboard featuring 25 mini velocity sensitive keys capable of sending note and on/off/trigger messages. The LPK25 also boasts an arpeggiator, sustain button, octave up and down, and tap tempo controls. With the LPK25 Akai seem to have taken Korgs nanoKey and vastly improving it with proper mini keys and improving the versitility with octave up and down functions. Overall the Akai LPK25 seems to be a winner and would suit any laptop performer wanting a portable function packed mini controller.
The LPD8 and LPK25 have not been released yet so we’ll have to wait and see what the response is and hopefully i’ll review them and probably do a comparaison test with Korgs nano series.
Zander
Korg nano controllers
Korg have released a series of nano controllers the nanoPAD, nanoKEY and nanoKONTROL. The controllers are designed to be small and compact for use in live performance.
Korg nanoPAD
The nanopad is a drum pad controller similar to an Akai MPD or korg padkontrol. it has 12 drum pads and an X Y touch pad. I must admit it looks like this could be very useful, especially the X Y pad for Ableton live.
Korg nanoKEY
The nanoKEY is a 25 note, velocity sensitive, 2 octave midi keyboard with mini, button like, keys. Not sure about this one although it could be useful in some situations but i would even attempt to play it.
Korg nanoKONTROL
The nanoKONTROL is a control surface with nine faders, nine knobs, 18 switches and a full transport section. this could be very useful for a lightweight control surface whether it’s for live work or in the studio.
All the nano series come with bundled software, with the nanoKEY you get korgs M1 LE synth, with the nanoPAD you get Toontrack’s EZDrummer Lite and with the nanoKONTROL you get a discount coupon for Ableton live LE software. All the nano series come with a parameter and midi CC editor/libary which would be useful for custom control setups.
Perhaps the most attractive thing about these products is the price, the nanoPAD retails at about £40 ($60), the nanoKEY about £35 ($55) and the nanoKONTROL £40 ($60). In comparison with other midi controllers on the market these are very cheap, which makes me worry about the quality but i’ll find out very soon as at £40 for a lightweight drum pad controller, i couldn’t resist and ordered one.
The nano series looks to be a promising product due to the size and weight of it making it ideal for live performance. The price is also very attractive but i’ll wait and see whether Korg have skipped out on the quality of the product. I’ll be reviewing the nanoPAD very soon and probably the nanoKONTROL too. In the meantime heres a video review of the nanoPAD.
Merry Christmas
