With so many opportunities for inspiration to strike, there’s never been a more important time to have the right gear at the ready. This is where the Korg nanoKEY Fold saunters into your sonic domain. A permutation of Korg’s nano-line of pliable, portable, pintsized powerhouses, this foldable MIDI keyboard packs a rugged mobility-minded profile with a versatile suite of ideation, composition, and performance controls, impressing on-the-go producers with its fully foldable aluminum chassis — it’s no bigger than carrying a smartphone! Plus, its 25-note keybed not only offers an array of velocity modes, but it’s totally silent. Across arpeggiation, modulation, pitch-bending, scale, key, and chord modes, the nanoKEY Fold MIDI keyboard is so much more than just a controller, thanks to its 3.5-millimeter TRS MIDI output and included TRS to 5-pin MIDI converter cable. Just plug in, play, and bring your ideas to life anywhere and at any time.
Before we get to the nanoKEY Fold’s smorgasbord of sound-shaping tools, Korg spared no effort to differentiate this MIDI keyboard from the portability-focused competition by starting with the most essential part of any instrument: the foundation. Despite its size, the nanoKEY Fold is deceptively adaptable. Its silent 25-note keybed is already a boon for those of us who need full creative support in less-than-ideal sound spaces, but it’s the customization of its playability that elevates the nanoKEY Fold to a distinct dimension of portable power. A total of 13 levels of velocity sensitivity and response can be selected as needed, letting you tailor your time to make the most of your musicality. What’s more, its 8-octave — four up, four down — spread gives you immense range for use with any compatible MIDI instrument, from software to hardware. And with the ultra-detailed touch-sensitive strips to control pitch bends and modulation, the nanoKEY Fold pulls no punches to excavate evocative expression from your wildest ambitions.
Contrasting its lightweight housing, the Korg nanoKEY Fold punches far above its weight class as a truly standalone MIDI keyboard. Its Scale Guide gives you a total of 15 onboard scales; you can utilize its Easy Scale capabilities to ensure every note is always in key, with further support garnered from the in-key LED lights. You can even assign the scale to the touch slider to get imaginative and inventive with your playing, regardless of the key. Similarly, the included Chord Mode enables complete chords to be assigned to a given key within the selected scale, and because you can combine this function with additional performance modes, a slew of polyphonic possibilities await. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, the nanoKEY Fold includes a dedicated Split mode, which assigns distinct functions to each side of the keyboard’s fold. When you’re looking to ride the rhythm, you can activate the Arpeggiator, which includes six distinct modes, tempo-synced speed adjustments, and variable note-length options.
For all the onboard opportunities for customizable control, Korg’s outfitted the nanoKEY Fold with 15 Scene slots. These let you save and instantly recall full-system configurations, including deep-dive customization of the nanoKEY Fold that can be achieved with the free-to-download Korg Kontrol Editor software. And considering the MIDI keyboard’s massively malleable connectivity capabilities, these are sure to come in handy, as virtually all the nanoKEY Fold’s Scale, Chord, Arpeggiator, pitch-bend, modulation, and Split functions can be utilized as MIDI CC/PC signals. This means that software running on your iPad, iPhone, or computer can be fully harnessed by the nanoKEY Fold with only a USB-C cable, thanks to USB-MIDI compatibility. Conversely, external hardware like drum machines, sequencers, samplers, and other synthesizers are yours to wield.
