How about... Nanohub?

[vEddY]

I've really grown to like Korg's nano series a lot. I have the nanopad which is great for triggering sounds and programming drums in BFD and stuff, and the nanokey, which I always have in my laptop bag. For example, I'm currently sitting in a bar near the IT school where I'm attending some Microsoft certification training and since I finished all the meetings for the day and don't have anything else to do... it's gonna be three and a half hours of testing some VSTi's. I love those situations... can't stand sitting around doing nothing...

Then, when I play around with some stuff live, I notice that something's missing in that picture. It would be _awesome_ if there was a product from Korg that would be essentially a USB hub (hence the name - Nanohub) and have USB connections for Nano series (for example, 2-4 connections) that would power nano(key,pad,kontrol), but in standalone mode, without a computer present. The only three things that would be needed on such a product is a power connector (preferrably micro-USB if possible due to power requirements), MIDI IN and OUT and a USB connector for the computer so you can use it in studio as well in that layout.

This way, it would be possible to use the nano series in more "general" way - triggering sounds, chords, controlling volume, filters, envelopes, whatnot. I see a massive room for development there.

Just an idea.

[mikemolloyuk]

Micro Kontrol and Kontrol 49 was like this...

[vEddY]

Micro Kontrol and Kontrol 49 was like this...

Sorry, Mike, like what? Can't understand what you mean...

[mikemolloyuk]

standalone mode, without a computer present.

[vEddY]

standalone mode, without a computer present.

Agreed But I was thinking about that in a more general way, as I'm sure you noticed It would be insanely cool to be able to use nanopad, nanokey and nanokontrol in standalone mode...

[cbrcase]

hi! funnily, i have pretty much the same wish.

meanwhile there are quite a lot of MIDI controllers, sending out their data only via USB, but lacking actual MIDI socktes.

Unfortunateley, the device you are thinking about is a bit complicated to engineer from the software-side. even though the usb-devices are class-compliant, you will have to implement a complete usb _HOST_ which then has to be equipped with class-compliant drivers. (actually only one for the MIDI-class).

afaik, there is currently only one device which does this quite well, which is the vinculum from FTDI. at the time being, there is support for mass storage, printers and digital cameras available for the vinculum.

if FTI would add a firmware supporting class-compliant MIDI devices, i would sureley buy a testboard and mate it with a ATMEL MEGA (AVR), which could do the MIDI part (some kind of merging would be nice, wouldn't it?).

So, dont expect something to happen too soon, but it could be built.

If somebody working for korg reads this, probably they could supply some info on the nano-series, opening even more opportunies...

best,
case

[cbrcase]

rehi,

i just see that somebody is already working on stuff like this an obviously has some parts already running:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/1 ... cking.html

collin does not use the vinculum, he uses a (cheaper) MAX3421 together with an ardiuno-board. i just ordered the shield (with MAX3421) and will try to use it with my native atmel controller (which is also the core of the arduino).

the project looks very promising, especially because the MAX is a lot cheaper than the FTDI and all the programming stays on the atmel, so no need to bother with programmaing another chip.

let's wait and see how long it takes for the MAX to travel from canada to germany. (and how long it statys at the customs).

best regards,
case