After months of procrastination, I finally picked up a Korg nanoPAD on Friday.
When I went to purchase it and told the clerk what I was after, he went off to the store room and came back empty handed, saying, “sorry, we only have it in white.” I do have a penchant for plain black. Looking around me right now I have black speakers, a black computer case, black phone, black notebook computer, black keyboard, black SLR (with added black electrical tape over the logos), black compact camera, black sunglasses and three black tee-shirts drying. How the wily clerk saw my inner black heart after our short exchange I cannot guess, but I soon assured him that white would do just fine, and I was on my way.
On placing the pad next to my keyboard I realised that haste does indeed make waste.
The NanoPAD is a wee small MIDI-over-USB control surface, with 12 pads and a Korg Kaoss Pad-esque surface. There are two other devices in the Nano Series, all with the same footprint: a wee keyboard and a wee mixing/tweaking panel with knobs, buttons and sliders:
When hooked up to a synthesiser, tapping on the pressure-sensitive pads produces notes or chords which can then be mapped to whatever instrument you desire. When hooked up to a sequencer, you can use it to program drum machines and the like.
David ‘Fingers’ Haynes shows what some skilled fingers and keen sense of rhythm can do with it:
I have spent almost the entire weekend fiddling with this dinky little device. Not really getting anywhere interesting, but it’s such a fun thing to play with, especially when you factor in the Kaoss Pad part of it: changing the characteristics of sounds as you play them. None of this is new of course to anyone who has dabbled with anything MIDI-related for the last 15 or so years.
I had two realisations after playing with the pad. First is dissonance of what you think you are playing (and what’s playing in your mind) versus the sound produced. For this reason, my tapping on everyday objects seems to sound better, because it’s just a rhythm and no pesky tuned notes. Several times I caught myself oddly tapping muted pads, or the desk to get a sense for the rhythm without the playback before trying to play it “for real” on the pads. Perhaps it’s like reading a poem versus watching a film. Your endlessly creative brain vastly fills out and expands a sparse poem into a experience beyond words. A good film will of course permit experience broadening, but it is ultimately constricted by the fact that so much of the sensory experience (imagery, sounds, atmosphere etc) is monosemous.
My second realisation is the simple pleasure of basic, natural motor movements when engaging with a technological device. Movements such as altering tapping strength, being able to employ all my fingers, and sliding finger tips around the Kaoss Pad. If I hit a pad hard, I get a response. If my finger tip lingers, I get a response. Material and shape qualities further enhance the experience such as the ridge surrounding the touch pad and the large rubbery pads. These kinds of interactions have long been found in electronic music instruments, but it’s the first time I’ve engaged with something like this to accomplish something. Switching back to a regular keyboard seems like such a stupefying and impoverished experience. Of course, one then can’t help but consider a “real” instrument, such as a piano or drum kit. Playing a drum kit is a whole other dimension to the glimmer of physical engagement that the nanoPAD provides. Not so long ago at a friend’s place I was drawn to their piano and although I do not know what key does what, found it an immensely satisfying experience discovering that out.
Now there’s the APC40 and a host of other thrillingly-acronymed slabs of metal and plastic to consider…
