Korg Kronos is Dead, Long Live The Korg Nautilus WIth After Touch!

NAUTILUS is KORG’s flagship workstation. The successor to the wildly popular KRONOS, the range now includes two new AT models. Available in 61 and 88-key versions, NAUTILUS AT introduces Aftertouch to the lineup, putting new heights of musical expression at your fingertips.
Here is the link to see it in the action
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[@andrewlowe4130]

Great review! I love that you don't even mention the keybed or touch a key until around 17:01! That is quite a rig you have there and it seems like you are in a great position to compare these beasts. I'd love to hear more about relative pros and cons! I am a fan of the Korg weighted keybeds since the old C50 and am in a fight with the Fatar keybeds, that all feel like mud. I was looking at the Nautilus AT 88, but now after your review, I think the Roland Fantom 08 deserves a closer look. There seems to be a tension between what a decent DAW can do vs. any sooped up keyboard / workstation can do, and where to draw the line and what makes sense in a studio or home lab vs. any kind of performance situation. Thanks. Great job!

[@mwmusic29]

Thanks for the review!

[@synth.s]

My pleasure!

[@ottomanbeatsofficial]

Is there a way to export stems of the drum loops on these keyboards like how its possible to do it in DAWs?

[@synth.s]

For that purpose, you may install the software for Nautilus and use it as a plug-in with your DAW. However, the software has too many USB bugs!!

[@ottomanbeatsofficial]

@@synth.s how about for korg pa 5x? i want to get the keyboard stricky for its middle eastern sounds so i can export the drums and use it in my pwn projects, like make melody loops / contruction kits midi kits etc but i have been told that this is not possible for the pa series. Which is really stupid to me. If im paying 5k$ for a keyboard i should be able to export and imprt as i wish

[@synth.s]

@ottomanbeatsofficial pa5x has a very great DAW integration, and you can do pretty much everything.

[@ottomanbeatsofficial]

@@synth.s do you have any vidoes that show such features or know of any tutoraials you can recommend?

[@bewarethedecks]

Is the Nautilus AT 88 key workstation available now? Sweetwater's website still shows "Backordered". Guitar Center's website also shows unavailable. 🤔

[@synth.s]

It is available on pre-order, I did order this 45 days ago.

[@bewarethedecks]

@@synth.s Ah! I wish both dealers would update their websites to indicate that it is available via pre-order. One thing that I noticed while scanning the posts on the unofficial Korg support forum website is that more than a few purchasers of the original Nautilus were reporting that audio was cutting out all by itself with no rhyme or reason. The problem seems to be traced back to faulty SSDs. The resolution is to have the drive replaced. If I shell out almost $3k for the unit, I hope that Korg has resolved that problem with the supplier. The other thing that I didn't catch being addressed in this video is that users report that it takes a whopping three minutes for the original Nautilus to boot up. Does the NT boot up any faster than that, or is it still a slow slog? I'll be using it for live performances in my church. If a power "burp" causes a reboot that takes the unit offline for a full three minutes, I'll consider purchasing a double conversion UPS to keep a rock steady power source for the unit.

[@synth.s]

Boot time is around 2 minutes on Nautilus, and you can hear a fan running inside the keyboard for a few seconds at the start-up!!

[@bewarethedecks]

Not sure why my second comment isn't visible to casual viewers. 🤔

[@WarrenPostma]

It's a shame that Korg has stopped trying to build flagship workstations. The nautilus is a mid tier pro/home unit. It mostly feels like a gimped Kronos. Dropping Karma, dropping the MS20 and the analog emulations in kronos, all feels like Nautlius is a big downgrade. Instead of a nautilus I would just buy a good 88 key controller, one that at least has knobs and faders and costs 1/8th of what Nautilus costs. Montage and its predecessors also worked as great DAW controller and performance master keyboards for Mainstage rigs. The program/combi mode thing may have some utility if you might sometimes need to be sure that your keyboard is only making one sound, with no effects, no patterns, no drums, no arps, and no splits/layers.

[@roderickalbus5818]

Which of these is best for R&B-ish sounds? Piano and EP wise?

[@synth.s]

Nautilus has tons of great EPs

[@janpieternieman5295]

Which of these does emulate analog synths the best? Subbed!

[@synth.s]

Roland Fantom, for sure, you can download model extensions for Juno, Jupiter, JX8P, and SH101 and have most of the Roland iconic nc analog synths, all in one keyboard!

[@BRJHA80]

Now that Nautilus is a flagship, Does that mean that Korg will be coming out with a secondary workstation, as Roland did with Fantom-0 and as Yamaha with ModX?

[@user-pi2qd5zr8b]

Very nice rig you have there. For me the better bargain is the non AT versions which still respond to AT via another keyboard. Bought my 73 key last year with a big discount compared to it's original launch price which I considered very much over-priced seeing it's cut down form factor and repackaging an old formula (less Karma). Maybe the 3 non AT boards will drop even further in price now and unless AT is a show stopper maybe then a fantastic bargain. Love the sounds of the Nautilus but it does have some serious Korg issues. One being the power up time which is ridiculously long. The other is the USB Driver which is massively problematic if your DAW is windows based and have more than 10 midi ports used. I'm sure you may have come across this as well. Of course you can run the driver uninstall facility to ensure Korg gear is listed in your top 10 midi devices, but then causes issues with other gear (SSL gear being one). Korg seem to be rather confused right now and maybe AT should stand for "After Thought" . Will be interesting to see what the new Montage has to offer. Cheers and enjoy your new board. 🙂

[@digitaldiezel5870]

Not the only workstation. MPC KEYS.

[@tgalidaVO]

I’m bummed they got rid of the faders. I use them a lot on my Kronos to control organ drawbars.

[@pdtoons9121]

No drawbars. Will wait. My first version Kronos is still working.

[@synth.s]

It does have draw-bars, it's on the screen.

[@pdtoons9121]

@@synth.s Need physical drawbars for tactical feedback. Not the same at all with a touch screen. Plus if it is the same as Kronos screen than you can't grab more than one drawbar at a time.

[@synth.s]

@pdtoons9121 in that case, Roland Fantom or kurzweil k2700 will be a better choice for you.

[@gabrielirlanda]

I can't believe how lazy is Korg. $650 more for AT? What's the next upgrade for $250? An extra USB port????? Korg, I'm very ashamed of you and very dissapointed.

[@liothomasart]

Kronos is still superior. :)

[@synth.s]

Kronos is definitely the beast. It's just dated.

[@gargamel314]

Just curious. How is it dated? I look at the features the Nautilus brings to the table, and i'm like... but it works better on the Kronos. I do wish Kronos had a dark mode! but that's about it.@@synth.s

[@Vangelismusic1]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion my friend and KRONOS is still the KING for me, and more professional, Nautilus just has more sounds from the factory to me looks more toyish, less control period.

[@user-yu6cm9ey4x]

Montage is scrap metal, please don't compare with Roland Fantom. The new thing has nice graphics on the touch-screen, is that all? In the end, the sounds count and not animation of the grand piano that opens on screen. Maybe other demos of the Nautilus can convince me.

[@synth.s]

Both Fantom and Montage are professional and very powerful synthesizers.

[@WayneMusicianUK]

The Roland Fantom sucks 🤣 layer a few sounds together and bye bye polyphony!! Listen to all them lovely notes cut out! You must be DEAF 🙄🤣

[@ercsey-ravaszferenc6747]

Well... a downgraded Kronos with no Karma, no faders, no ribbon and a smaller touchscreen (which is supposed to be the main control surface since there are no faders). yeah... what's not to like? As for the sounds, this is a personal thing for me, but I always liked Korg's approach to not polish a sound until it becomes unnaturally perfect and sterile. Now it sounds like - judging from the sounds which are not identical to those in Kronos - they went the opposite way and adopted the Roland and Yamaha approach of making everything so perfect and clean that every patch which imitates an acoustic instrument now sounds artificial. Although I risk being left without any meaningful technical support in case anything goes wrong, I still prefer to buy a used Kronos and not this stupidified downgrade. And a personal note: you say that the program and combi mode is "confusing". Really??? Did you ever try to get inside the menu of - say a Kurzweil K2600? Korg's entire menu system is really idiot-proof since they came out with the Trinity at least!