What replaces the Kronos?

[nitecrawler]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the PA5X strictly a sample playback synth? There's no CX3 or any of the other engines in the Kronos/Nautilus. I fear the Nautilus IS the Korg flagship, which for me simply does not cut it for live performance. They chopped way too many RT controls.

Well, yes and no.
Check out Gear News article by Robin Vincent dated June 30th to give you a better idea of the PA5X capabilities and potential. THINK outside of the box.

[mrgl]

Pa5X is a step back from Kronos because it has only EDS-X synthesis, which is PCM based (a rompler).

[chelsea4023]

Hi,
As a Nautilus 88 owner who normally purchases the Korg arrangers, it has been a pretty steep learning curve. It amazes me when people say how easy it is to navigate. Thank you Youtube for all the tutorials.

Is it a given (as with many of Korgs flagship keyboards) that the Nautilus will get a Major upgrade ? Having never played or owned a Kronos I'm pretty much 'blown away' by what's onboard.
Chris

[Rob Sherratt]

The choir I sing in has just purchased a Nautilus and are very pleased with it. I know it doesn't have aftertouch but the other facilities it does have such as multi track recording and editing were just what our leaders wanted. The sound library and quality of sounds is amazing.

[fomalhaut]

The sound library and quality of sounds is amazing.

That's a testament to the Oasys/Kronos platform prowess. Since I got my Kronos I have purchased lots of sample libraries and software synths for my computer, and the Kronos still holds itself up.

[bpoodoo]

Hi,
As a Nautilus 88 owner who normally purchases the Korg arrangers, it has been a pretty steep learning curve. It amazes me when people say how easy it is to navigate. Thank you Youtube for all the tutorials.

Is it a given (as with many of Korgs flagship keyboards) that the Nautilus will get a Major upgrade ? Having never played or owned a Kronos I'm pretty much 'blown away' by what's onboard.
Chris

It's a significant investment of one's time to completely understand of all the features and how-to's to become proficient in the use of the Kronos / Nautilus / Krome / Kross / Triton workstations.

And while the manuals do have the detailed information you need, they don't always provide the 10,000 ft view of the specific use cases for what you're trying to do (hence YouTube and topics in this forum to supplement). But there is reward for that investment as there is likely a pathway to do just about anything you want musically.

I can't think of any Korg workstation that underwent a major software upgrade to provide new features and functionality after initial release (OASYS adding sound engines perhaps the exception). Most Korg workstation software releases are bug fixes with the occasional minor tweak to some functions.

Using past Korg workstation development timelines as a reference for how Nautilus may evolve, hardware updates in the form of more memory, disk space, CPU speed, and additional/updated preload sounds are possibilities in product updates (Nautilus 2, +, X, EX, Red, Titanium, Crystal, or other marketing moniker), which may or may not be supported by or upgradable in the current Nautilus.

But you know, there's something to be said for a stable product that doesn't have frequent updates - you get to know the features, functions, quirks, and bugs and the workarounds - without the risk of a software update introducing new bugs or requiring you to learn different steps to do what you already knew how to do.

[Mike Conway]

I can't think of any Korg workstation that underwent a major software upgrade to provide new features and functionality after initial release (OASYS adding sound engines perhaps the exception).

Korg Trinity V3 introduced the ability to install a MOSS card (Prophecy/Z1 Physical Modelling)

OASYS, as you pointed out had several synth engines added. It started out with just 3, HD-1, CX-3 and AL-1. Over time, STR-1, Poly6, MS-20, and MOD-7 were added.

Kronos version 2.0 added user sample banks, which allowed you to add your own sample KSCs to be auto-loaded at startup. It doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge deal due to the disk streaming ability. You may have seen THIS picture of all the banks I have at start up.

[bpoodoo]

I
Kronos version 2.0 added user sample banks, which allowed you to add your own sample KSCs to be auto-loaded at startup. It doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge deal due to the disk streaming ability. You may have seen THIS picture of all the banks I have at start up.

That is quite a sample library! I can see how auto startup load of user sample banks is a big deal - and a great example of how the Kronos can be extensively tailor-fit to each owner.

[Scott]

One thing to note is I've heard there is a massive disconnect between Korg Japan and Korg USA and that's causing some issues. Korg USA and Korg Japan develop products, sometimes together and sometimes independently.

Korg Italy also does product development. Which brings me to my thought that, if you want an arguably lightweight performance board with aftertouch now that the Kronos 61 is gone, Korg's option here would be the PA1000.

That reminds me, does anybody know how JerryTheK is doing? I haven't seen nor heard from him in a few years.

He posts over at the musicplayer forum... https://forums.musicplayer.com/profile/ ... k/content/

PA5X is interesting with its Nautilus sounds, 21 ossilators, extensive effects and sound design capabilities. Maybe indicating a blending of workstation and professional arrangers is their direction?

Bingo! The seemingly absurd but possibliy correct answer to the question "What replaces Kronos?" is the Pa5x.

As others have said, while there is some Nautilus-derived content there, the PA5X still only has one sound engine, EDS-XP, which is closest to the Kronos/Nautilus HD-1 engine. It has no equivalent to the other 8 Kronos/Nautilus engines. (Well, it does have the "digital drawbars" implementation, which provides some CX-3-like functionality, but it is far from the CX3 engine.) Apart from the aftertouch and number of real-time controls, Nautilus is closer to Kronos than PA5X is, and the real-time controls can be addressed to a large extent with something like a Korg NanoKontrol. But yeah, if you're used to using it, lack of aftertouch can be a killer.

Hi,
As a Nautilus 88 owner who normally purchases the Korg arrangers, it has been a pretty steep learning curve. It amazes me when people say how easy it is to navigate. Thank you Youtube for all the tutorials.

Well I guess at least some aspects of it are easy to navigate. Really, I think both environments can seem even more complicated if you're coming from the other. I did that from the other direction, having bought a Korg arranger after having had some experience with their workstations. There are sometimes very different approaches and different terminology for doing the same things.

[SeedyLee]

I can't think of any Korg workstation that underwent a major software upgrade to provide new features and functionality after initial release (OASYS adding sound engines perhaps the exception).

Korg Trinity V3 introduced the ability to install a MOSS card (Prophecy/Z1 Physical Modelling)

OASYS, as you pointed out had several synth engines added. It started out with just 3, HD-1, CX-3 and AL-1. Over time, STR-1, Poly6, MS-20, and MOD-7 were added.

Kronos version 2.0 added user sample banks, which allowed you to add your own sample KSCs to be auto-loaded at startup. It doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge deal due to the disk streaming ability. You may have seen THIS picture of all the banks I have at start up.

Fun fact: The Kronos (and I assume, by extension, the Nautilus) contains code to allow the loading and authorisation of additional sound engines AND effects engines. I guess there was a plan at some stage to have a store of new engines and effects, but looks like it never came to fruition.

(No, I haven't reverse engineered the binaries for the Kronos at all).