Korg Nanos Turn Any School Computer Lab into a Music Lab

Nearly every school in the United States has some type of computer lab, often available for any teacher to use while teaching their classes.  I know that in the three school districts that I taught in during my career, the school computer lab was a largely untapped resource that I used occasionally to allow my students to do some basic website building and to create PowerPoint presentations.  Once I was able to purchase a dedicated music technology lab in my classroom, I never returned to the school computer lab.  While the computers in the lab all had the capability of doing some great things, including GarageBand and iMovie, the fact that there were no USB keyboards or headphones made it impractical to try to do any projects that required my students to compose.  At a minimum of $200 per controller, I would rather use those funds to finance a full lab than outfit a public computer lab.  Enter an incredible and affordable solution.  The Korg Nano Series.

There are three new controllers from Korg: the NanoKEY, a two-octave keyboard (with mini keys of course) that is a perfect companion to a laptop or a desktop computer in a school computer lab.  The other controllers include NanoPAD: an pad controller with twelve pads and an X/Y touch pad - perfect for creating expressive drum patterns, and the NanoKONTROL: a mappable control surface with a transport controls, sliders and knobs that are a perfect compliment to all DAW software packages.  From a pedagogical standpoint, the NanoKEY is the perfect solution for any software that uses a keyboard – everything from Finale and Sibelius to ProTools and Sonar.  The NanoPAD is a great way to allow students to create human sounding drum beats as well as providing students who do not have keyboard skills to interact with music software.  The NanoKONTROL makes interacting with software such as GarageBand, Reason, and Logic a snap.

The NanoKEY is incredibly priced at $49.99, and the other controllers are both priced at $59.99.  These sturdy little controllers can easily be transported by the teacher from a classroom up to the computer lab.  They do not require any special drivers and are powered solely by the miniUSB cable that comes with each controller. Even better – they work on both Mac and PC.

To give you an example of just how affordable this can be, a typical 24-station school computer lab outfitted with a NanoKEY at each station would cost just under $1,200.  Add the NanoPADs for another $1,440 and you’ve got a functional and portable music technology lab.  Add headphones for another $40 per station and you’ll spend another $940.  For a grand total of just over $2,500, you’ve got yourself a basic lab.  Factor in some software packages, and you’ll spend another $1,000.  That’s $3,500 for a lab with software and hardware.  Not bad.  While certainly not as practical as a full music technology lab using keyboards with full-sized keys, it can certainly get you started with music technology and provide your administrators with a chance to see the potential in taking the next step towards implementing a full lab in your classroom.  I have heard so many times in the past that the only thing standing in the way of teachers using technology in their classroom is the money necessary to purchase the equipment.

Call a SoundTree Account Manager today at (800) 973-8733 to get more information about installing a Nano Lab in your school.