At this price point and at the time I got it there was nothing else in its category. I got it as a companion for my Akai Lpk25 Mini keys as it is exactly the same size which is also the size of a 13 inch Mac Book Pro. On paper this look perfect, the right size, the right price and with the right functions, or at least the was the idea.
Sadly things turned out to be quite different. It is a bit confusing to set up and you have to weave your way to it's own editor (available from the KORG website) and the control editors of your DAW of choice. I have used mine with Logic 9 and X and with Live 9 and I have to admit that I have never been able to get it to do what I am pretty sure it should be capable of doing. I have also noticed that it keeps interfering with my other usb hardware and the volume and pan knobs jump and fiddle around every thine I have it plugged in, and nothing seems to be able to solve this issue.
I have however recently found a use for it that seems to work very well and I can start to use it at its full potential. I got a hold of an interesting mapping from a welll known Dj Tech website and now use my Nano Kontrol to control my effects in Traktor. It seems that Traktor and the Nano Kontrol have no issues and can co exist happily.
The build quality is nothing special, but not too bad either, for the price I cannot really complain and nothing has come apart yet, with no indication of things coming apart in the near future either. I enjoyed the plug-in bundle that comes with it, that bundle alone to me is worth the money I paid, so overall I would say that this is a good value product, that could be very useful?just don't expect too much from it.