A class-compliant USB-MIDI controller with every unnecessary control removed. All forty-seven of them.
Press them. Or use 1 and 2. Sound is real MIDI notes.
Output format is not a mockup. It is what the firmware actually prints.
01 — Datasheet
The complete specification. There is no second page.
02 — Comparison
We admire the Classic enormously. It is the most complete answer we have seen to a question nobody finished asking.
| Measure | Nano | Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Keys | 2 | 49 |
| Faders | 0 | 12 |
| Knobs | 0 | 8 |
| XY pads | 0 | 1 |
| Controls to learn | 2 | 70 |
| Price | €2.79 | €464 |
| Price per control | €1.40 | €6.63 |
| Availability | In stock | Pre-order |
| Ships | Today | Q4 2026 |
| Enclosure | Injection-moulded ABS | 3D-printed PETG |
| Cosmetic variation | None | “Minor cosmetic variations may exist” |
| Fits in a pocket | Yes | Fits in a car |
| Region selection required | No | Yes |
| Survives a festival toilet | Yes | Financially, no |
| Replacement cost if stolen | €2.79 | A conversation with your insurer |
| Firmware | Open source | Open source |
03 — Position
Forty-nine keys is not a design decision. It is forty-seven deferred ones, handed to you at one in the morning, in the dark, in front of people.
Every control on a surface is a question the designer declined to answer. Which one is the kick. Which one is the strobe. Which fader was the good one last time. A large controller does not give you options; it gives you a subscription to second-guessing, billed live, in front of an audience that came to dance.
The Nano answers both of its questions at the factory. There is a left one and a right one. In eighteen months of field use we have not once observed a performer look down.
We are aware of the counter-argument: that a controller should have a fader for everything. We have read it carefully. It has a lead time of five hundred days.
We considered three buttons. The prototype was returned to the drawer. Three introduces a middle, a middle introduces a preference, and a preference is just a fader that has not admitted it yet.
Two is not a limitation we accepted. It is the only number we could defend.
04 — Firmware
The firmware is not ours. It was written by Christos, who also designed the Classic. He turned a €2.79 macropad into a real class-compliant MIDI device over a weekend, and then published it under a licence that lets anyone do this. Commercially, we consider that his one mistake. Every other decision in it is excellent, and we did not change a line.
No host software. No keystroke-to-MIDI translator. No configurator that only runs on
Windows. The pad enumerates as 1209:0001 “MIDI Pad”
and every operating system made in the last twenty years already knows what to do with it.
One file configures the whole device — pins, channel, note or CC, product name. If you want a two-pedal sustain footswitch instead of two notes, that is two values and a reflash.
Flashing is one-way: the WCH bootloader writes and verifies flash but cannot read it, so the stock firmware is gone for good. The chip itself is unbrickable — its bootloader lives in mask ROM. Worst case, you flash it again.
Read the source→05 — Reception
We have fewer endorsements than the Classic. We have reproduced its ones below, clearly labelled, because we believe in attribution.
“man i just think bitchboy is dope”
Sean BowesQuoted on bitchboy.lol, regarding the Classic. We have chosen to read it generously.
“damn did you put olive oil on the faders”
SPACE LACESAlso regarding the Classic. Regarding faders. Of which we have none.
“wait, which one is left”
Owner, week oneThe only support ticket we have received. It was the left one.
06 — Order
€2.79
Per unit, firmware included, no pre-order, no deposit, no Q4. There is no cart and no checkout. Stock is a drawer in Amsterdam, the drawer is not empty, and acquiring one is a conversation you have in person.