nanoPAD or nanoKEY?

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dodgersandstorm

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I've been trying to get my brother interested in music production. He's been messing around with Reaper some and I was thinking I'd get him a MIDI controller for his birthday. Which would be better a nanoPAD or a nanoKEY?

He only has Reaper. Will both of these work with it? I had read about some people having issues getting the nanoPAD running on Reaper.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
nanoPad is a keeper. I would get a full sized keyboard first.
nanoKey is a portable solution and doesn't really make a great first controller. The nanoPad is great since it fits on any desktop and to add some quick hits; it does the job.
 
^
Agreed. I picked up a nanopad just for triggering loops and samples when DJ'ing, but I have started to use it for some drum programming as well.

It's well worth the $60, but it is very light so unless u got a real stable surface, its gonna bounce around on you if you're really bangin those drums out. But for being as light as it is, I think it's still fairly durable. I was letting a small child hit the pads at a recent gig, and she dropped it onto concrete from about 3 feet up. Little scratched now, but it still works fine.

Also, I don't know if its just an issue with mine, but if I'm trying to trigger samples in quick succession, it tends to not play the sample on every hit. Could be a latency problem, or just me not hitting the pad hard enough, but I thought I'd add that.

Haven't messed with a nanokey, but like griffin said, I see it as a on-the-go controller.

Hope that helps you a bit.

Peace!

Edit: Haven't messed with reaper a whole lot. I did get the nanopad to work with reaper, but I had serious latency issues to the point it was unplayable. However I believe that is mostly due to my new PC having the stock sound card in it and therefore no ASIO drivers.
 
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Thanks, that's really helpful. I was leaning towards the keyboard, I see I'll have to give it further thought. Can the pads be used to program basslines or melodies? He does more than just sample, I don't want to leave him high and try when it comes to programming other things.

Maybe I should spend $40-50 more and get something a little better. I'd really hate to have him deal with a lot of lag, I'm sure his soundcard is probably pretty low end.

Thanks again.
 
I would not recommend the nanoKeys. Their keys are the same as laptop keys, and the feel is awful. the Pads on the other hand, are fantastic. They can program melodic ideas, with the 12 pads, it is really easy to set up the scenes chromatically and get a full 4 octave range. Not exactly the most seamless play, but just as useful as the range of the nanoKeys, plus you get sweet drum programming, sample triggering, and effects control. Its just a matter of learning how to utilize them. And for someone just start out, it would provide for a great learning experience/introduction into MIDI mapping and whatnot.
 
Sounds like the nanoPad wins when stacked up against the nanoKeys. I'm worried about the latency issues with Reaper though. And it only comes with EZ Drummer.

I'm thinking maybe something like the Behringer UMX25 or the M-Audio KeyRig 25 might be better because I'm assuming they won't lag with Reaper, and if they do they come with software he can use instead (both come with Ableton Live Lite).

Any thoughts?

Thanks for all the help so far.
 
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