iCON Platform Nano

First of all, the Platform Nano that I received does work, contrary to the negative reviews posted on some other websites. I had no difficulty in downloading the latest firmware and getting it to control Cubase (10.5, running under Windows 10).

Mechanically the unit feels robust and has worked well so far - but I've only had it for two weeks. I bought it because I missed the jog wheel and dedicated buttons on my Roland VS-2000 hard-drive recorder - which gave almost 20 years faultless service. A hard act to follow?

On the Nano, the motorised fader and pan rotary and channel change buttons work fine, as do the transport buttons. The jog/scrub wheel is useful for scrolling and zooming - and also moving between clips and tracks by engaging one of the two buttons to its left, which are not mentioned in the instructions. And there's the problem - apart from installation and a couple of brief videos, there are no instructions on how to use the Nano with Cubase.

The six buttons on the right change the functions of the four rotaries at the top, but not all work as labelled or as shown in iCON's instructional videos. "Page Up" changes the rotaries to alter the outputs for each channel, which I can't see myself needing, and "Page Down" changes them to controlling the Sends - more useful. I find the "EQ" setting to be the most useful, for tweaking Cubase's channel strip EQ: the "Plug-Ins" and "Dyn/FX/Aux" settings are very limited.

Of the eight colour-changing buttons above the transport controls, some sets (red, blue and purple) work as described on the overlay. The green set, labelled with the numbers 1-8, doesn't appear to do anything. The most useful set are the yellow (F1-F8), which can be programmed in Cubase, on the Mackie Control screen, as can the footswitches which can be connected to the two sockets on the back of the Nano (I use a Boss FS-6). I have set these to functions not available in the pre-programmed sets, such as Set Locator to Cursor, Go to Start, Punch-Out etc.

I've found this a useable and cost-effective way of avoiding tedious mouse-clicking. If iCON can tidy up the software, the Nano would be even more useful.

Very quick delivery, wanted a midi controller for my Home Daw using cubase pro 10.5 after sorting out initial minor hiccups within cubase settings works a treat. Good value peice of kit.

The installation was easy enough, but the obligatory firmware update was needed. The unit works fine in PT12 for me, but the fader is a little "jittery" when automating causing the onscreen fader to flutter up and down by a few tenths of a db. It's no big deal but not as smooth in operation as I would like.

Amazing piece of kit. Easy to setup, worked first time, immediate speed up of workflow.

Shipping was quick and the quality is very good. If you are in to production this will make your life easier.