Gargamel314 wrote: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.