Is there likely to be a major update with the Nautilus.

[chelsea4023]

Hi,
If I'm being honest, I'm pretty happy with my Nautilus 88. Although I moved to it from a Roland RD2000 I find the RH3 keyboard a pleasure to play. The wealth of sounds and features inside is a joy, (many thanks to the Kronos technology evolving through the years).

Most of the 'Flagship' keyboards tend to get a major update (Version2.0, etc) during their lifetime. I appreciate the Nautilus is not a flagship (I say that so as not to offend Kronos owners) but does anybody foresee any major O/S update in line for the Nautilus ? It's always nice when owners are 'gifted' a new piano sound or feature.
Chris

p.s. I have read some criticism of the Nautilus, but get yourself a PA5X and then you'll have real issues.

[Gargamel314]

By all intents and purposes, the Nautilus is absolutely a flagship. It's not brimming with all the bells and whistles of the Kronos, but they did give it all the basics. It's got a full fledged sequencer, fully featured sampler, it's got all the polyphony, synth engines, touch screen, it's meant to give the user the premium Korg experience. It's essentially on par with the M3, which *was* considered a flag ship because the OASYS was just so high end and expensive.

I would not put much faith in Korg to follow through with tradition on the 2.0 version. They may still release something, but for the most part Korg seems to be in a downward spiral. They're not really releasing big advances in music technology, they mostly seem to be producing updated renditions of their greatest hits. What's the Nautilus lacking that people are not happy about? The pianos get the job done. KARMA? no way are we getting that again. Nautilus AT may be the only 2.0 version we see at this point. That was the answer to the big criticism that they dropped AT. They will probably give us a version 2, but there's not a lot of glaringly obvious improvements to make at this point (except giving us back some Kronos features they took away from us). I'd love the PRV editor in the sequencer like in the M3, but considering Korg is the only manufacturer giving users a full sequencer, I don't see that happening.

We'll probably never get a new piano sound for free like with the M3. I think that was more because the OG M3 had a pretty terrible piano sound, and was lacking in its sample ROM quality. Also provided was the Brass&Woodwinds libraries, which were significantly better than what came standard. I remember when the M3 came out, I wasn't really impressed, i had a Triton Extreme and didn't see any reason to replace it. UNTIL they dropped the M3 Xpanded patch, and that was a game changer. It was probably motivated by disappointing sales, and the fact that they were giving us not just 1, but 2 fantastic piano multisamples, and 2 huge sample libraries was plenty of reason to cough up $1800 for an M3-61.

Korg could still surprise us, but I feel like they're just phoning it in with the Nautilus. Even in their marketing, Korg doesn't even seem that excited about the Nautilus.

[Mike Conway]

The wealth of sounds and features inside is a joy, (many thanks to the Kronos technology evolving through the years).

Most of the 'Flagship' keyboards tend to get a major update (Version2.0, etc) during their lifetime. I appreciate the Nautilus is not a flagship (I say that so as not to offend Kronos owners) but does anybody foresee any major O/S update in line for the Nautilus ?

I hope it gets an update. I bought my Nautilus, recently. I want to see it developed for a while.

It is not a Kronos 2, but rather an M1 style spartan interface, with the same engines (minus KARMA). The sound set has quite a few differences. The pickle for Korg is that many Kronos people want to use their same programs on it. There is a path for that, but it costs, and I understand the ire over it. As for myself, I like that it offers new material.

By all intents and purposes, the Nautilus is absolutely a flagship. It's not brimming with all the bells and whistles of the Kronos, but they did give it all the basics. It's got a full fledged sequencer, fully featured sampler, it's got all the polyphony, synth engines, touch screen, it's meant to give the user the premium Korg experience. It's essentially on par with the M3, which *was* considered a flag ship because the OASYS was just so high end and expensive.

I've never understood the "Nautilus is on par with the M3" comments. A lot of people, including Sharp, have said that. Physical interface-wise, the OASYS is amazing, but the OS is so lacking in comparison. Sample-wise, it could load about 1.8 gigs worth, while the Nautilus preload file is 23 gigs, with room to load more. The Nautilus is a program collector's dream. Look how much of a difference there is:

Korg could still surprise us, but I feel like they're just phoning it in with the Nautilus. Even in their marketing, Korg doesn't even seem that excited about the Nautilus.

I agree. They need to hug the Nautilus and continue to update it. It doesn't have the elaborate hardware surfaces of the Montage M or Fantom, but it costs A LOT less, and it does a lot more when it somes to synth, sequence, disk, and sample power.

One example of more power, is that you can freely unload EXs libraries to make room for quite a few of your own samples.

Fantom - 2 gigs of user samples
Montage M - 3.7 gigs of user samples
Nautilus - over 20 gigs of user samples

I use a lot of orchestral libraries, so that is important to me.

[Gargamel314]

I've never understood the "Nautilus is on par with the M3" comments. A lot of people, including Sharp, have said that. Physical interface-wise, the OASYS is amazing, but the OS is so lacking in comparison. Sample-wise, it could load about 1.8 gigs worth, while the Nautilus preload file is 23 gigs, with room to load more. The Nautilus is a program collector's dream. Look how much of a difference there is:

I would not put this thing on par with Kronos or OASYS. They dropped a lot of features that are substantial downgrades. The interface of the Nautilus is a nightmare compared to the OASYS and the Kronos. The touch screen is smaller, but is still as unresponsive as the touchscreens from the 2000s. The pad functionality is completely gone. Even on the Kronos you could plug in a NanoPad2 and get full pad functionality. That's completely gone. Removing Aftertouch is a pretty major downgrade. Compared to what we know Korg *CAN* do, the Nautilus shoots quite a bit below that. I'd still compare it to an M3 because of the fully featured Synth engines, effects processors, sequencer, and sampler. It's better than the Krome which actually was intended to be the M3 replacement.

[Mike Conway]

They dropped a lot of features that are substantial downgrades. The interface of the Nautilus is a nightmare compared to the OASYS and the Kronos.

I'm getting used to it. I actually like some of the screen layouts. Pages and Modes are nicely organized. I like the pop up screens, when you turn a knob. My biggest gripe is the lack of a Data Slider. Yes, the physical controls have been pared down, but so has the price. Nautilus is just over half the price of a new Kronos.

The touch screen is smaller, but is still as unresponsive as the touchscreens from the 2000s.

You probably saw THIS picture of my Nautilus, Kronos, OASYS, stacked atop of each other, for comparison. The Nautilus screen is smaller, but the dark mode look is attractive, and it is nicely organized. IMO, it is better than any non-touchscreen workstation, like the Kurzweils, but a downstep from size of the Kronos. Against my expectations (from what I read), I thought it was quite responsive.

The pad functionality is completely gone.

Yeah, that blows.

I'd still compare it to an M3 because of the fully featured Synth engines, effects processors, sequencer, and sampler.

The M3 doesn't have Wavesequencing. It is more like a Triton, where you have only 5 Insert FX, compared to 12 on the N, K, and O. The M3 has no disk drive, nor disk streaming. Max sample capacity (64meg factory) is just 320mb with an M256 expansion board (sold seperately). You can add the Radias synth, but there are no Kronos/OASYS engines, such as MOD-7, PolySix, MS20, STR-1, AL-1, SGX 1,2, CX-3 Nautilus has all of these.


For those who are confused, here are some key features the Nautilus has over the M3.

Removing Aftertouch is a pretty major downgrade.

It took a moment for Korg to realize the importance of that. They now sell an aftertouch version of Nautilus. But, I saved $500 and bought the non-aftertouch version. I already have keyboards that send aftertouch to the Nautilus. I still use my 76 key OASYS as the master board., hence my Nautilus responds to aftertouch, poly-aftertouch, Ribbon, Vector Joystick, etc.


The bottom line for me, is that I can load all my 3rd party libraries into Nautilus. Aside from KARMA, it functions like my Kronos does, even the sequencer is the same. Unlike Kronos, the sequences don't disappear at power off, which I like.


Sidenote:

I've had an interesting journey with Korg. I had a couple of Tritons, then bought the OASYS for 8 grand. It was absolutely wonderful (and still is my main controller). When the Kronos was introduced, it had quality control issues (mainly VJS and rotary encoder issues). Korg eventually sorted it out.

I posted about how the Kronos paled next to the OASYS, especially that "small screen." Then OS 2.0 arrived, allowing for Disk Streamed User Samples. I changed my tune, right there! I bought a Kronos X for around 3K. Now, it is the centerpiece of my compositions. I'm currently scoring one of Tom Sizemore's last movies. I did the traller music with just the Kronos.

Enter Nautilus. Why would I even look at that? The whole debacle with no aftertouch, then the AT model introduced, allowed me to afford a board I didn't know I needed. I bought it as a back up for all my sound libraries.

I finally got around to updating to OS 1.33 and voila! This thing has 6,400 program slots! (including GM). Us Kronos guys never had enough program memory. I started getting used to the screen layouts, the arps, and the new sounds. Then I started to really appreciate my Nautilus. I went from basher to defender in a short time. If I put myself in the shoes of someone who never played a Korg workstation, I could imagine how amazing it would be exploring the all the sounds and parameters for the first few months. I've been on this platform for 19 years, and I still feel like a kid in a candy store.

[Gargamel314]

So just to clarify. When I compare the Nautilus to the M3, I'm talking about their role within Korg's Workstation lineup.

Korg always had their flagships - the T-series, 01/W, Trinity, Triton, etc. Then they had their budget-workstations - the X-series, the Triton Le, TR, etc. I would have even put the Korg Karma in there. I'd totally put the M50 in there too.

I would have never considered the OASYS to be a flagship... because it was like $7,000 USD and definitely not in that class of workstations. It would be in a tier above that, whatever that is. But the Kronos comes along at it's $3,000 USD price tag for the 61-key, and I figure, okay, that's what we're doing now, that's the Korg Flagship Workstation.

I consider the M3 to be a flagship workstation because it fit in that role. It brought all the premium features, it was in that price bracket, it had expansion capability (which traditionally Korg has *never* offered to budget workstations). the 5 insert effects was standard to the Triton line, and even though the OASYS had more than twice that, I feel like the OASYS was in that overkill role back in 2007 so you couldn't really compare it. So when I compare the Nautilus to the M3, I consider the Nautilus to be a flagship workstation as much as the M3 was. We know Korg can provide us more, but they didn't, and right now it's the best thing they've given us and it checks all the boxes. I'm also saying it in contrast to those who have compared it to the M50. It's not a just a budget-workstation.

[fomalhaut]

So when I compare the Nautilus to the M3, I consider the Nautilus to be a flagship workstation as much as the M3 was. (...) I'm also saying it in contrast to those who have compared it to the M50. It's not a just a budget-workstation.

The M50 is much further away of the M3 than the Nautilus is of the Kronos, obviously they cut a lot of corners in the M50 to lower the price point (damn capacitors!) For me the Nautilus is just a rebadged Kronos and IMHO the only things I would miss from the Kronos 2 are the control surface and the wooden cheeks. Karma is cool but I don't think it's the most used Kronos feature due to it's complexity, the dual arpeggiator of the Nautilius is much more accessible.

Korg is just milking the last hurrah of the OASYS platform and I'm pretty sure their R&D should be working on a true flagship successor.

[nitecrawler]

The Nautilus may be touted as a full replacement flagship workstation but, my opinion is the Kronos and the Nautilus are lower priced versions of the original Qasys. With some added upgrades here and there but basically just versions of the original Oasys. Sounds and storage capacities have definitely been expanded as the instruments progressed but some key options were left out to get to a price point that was more comfortable to more potential customers. A simple move to maximize profits and sales. Korg is in business to make money so things are added or left out to that end.

[Deadkeys]

I have a MODX6, Nord D5, Roland FA06, and a Yamaha CK61 and was missing classic Korg sounds and bought a Nautilus..Problem is I play live and am never in the studio to use its advanced features and its heavy and more complicated which is why I bought a CK61 to take the place of the MODX as the trend is easy & light. Im thinking of selling but theres nothing with cool Kork sounds...May Kross 2?
I may regret selling it.