Sale on Nautilus - Is Something Afoot?

[zxcvbnm098]

And the reverse happens here in the US with Nord. I'd rather have cheaper Nords and cheaper Korgs personally....

[felis]

The 73 key model has the most off.  I prefer a 73 or 76 key model over either a 61 or 88 key.

[conundrum]

4 hours ago, zxcvbnm098 said:

And the reverse happens here in the US with Nord. I'd rather have cheaper Nords and cheaper Korgs personally....

Well at least one of the two is cheaper. In Canada, they’re *both* priced through the stratosphere.

[AnotherScott]

On 3/19/2023 at 2:43 PM, Radagast said:

How long after the original Kronos came out, did Korg replace it with the Kronos X?

Expanding on the earlier reply, this is from wikipedia:

===

2011 Original Kronos - 2GB RAM, 30GB SSD

2012 Kronos X - Doubled the size of the internal memory and SSD. 

2015 Kronos 2 - Major redesign including gold plated sockets, new generation Intel CPU, etc, top of keyboard casing, ventilation mesh, OS V3 (including SGX-2), famous songs library

===

The  X meant only a higher capacity SIMM and a higher capacity SSD (possibly because the low capacity SSDs were getting hard to source). There was no real change until the 2.

 

Even calling that a "major" change is dubious, despite the wiki.They switched to a new PC board, again, I think because the old ones were no longer available. They updated the enclosure, including adding better ventilation. But the capabilities and controls of the Kronos were basically the same from 2011 to 2022. I'd be surprised if we saw a "Nautilus" with a different control surface before, oh, 2026, if then.

 

But getting back to what you're wishing for, it would be interesting if they did something like what I described at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/185225-help-me-find-a-new-keyboard-please/#comment-2940355

 

 

[AnotherScott]

On 3/16/2023 at 6:11 AM, konaboy said:

that cold feeling of the thick metal on the control panel, it means a lot...

is it just me?

 

Well, it's not me. ;-)

 

Somehow, if two boards weigh the same, and one is plastic while the other is metal, the metal one will feel heavier. I don't know why. The amount of give when you grab it? The temperature? Different weight distribution? Pound for pound, it just never seems as comfortable to carry. I suppose it could be coincidence and those boards happened to have been more awkward for other reasons, but it's been surprisingly consistent.

[Radagast]

6 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

But getting back to what you're wishing for, it would be interesting if they did something like what I described at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/185225-help-me-find-a-new-keyboard-please/#comment-2940355

 

 

Yes I thought something like the Korg Nanokontrol or Nanokontrol 2 would be nice, if it had 9 sliders instead of 8, and it was designed to work immediately with the Nautilus.  But after waiting 2 years, I’m not holding my breath.  Korg Japan simply doesn’t care.

[AnotherScott]

6 hours ago, Radagast said:

Yes I thought something like the Korg Nanokontrol or Nanokontrol 2 would be nice, if it had 9 sliders instead of 8

 

I was kind of flabbergasted when they went from 9 sliders in the original NK to just 8 in the NK2.

[jeffincltnc]

48 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

 

I was kind of flabbergasted when they went from 9 sliders in the original NK to just 8 in the NK2.

 

Why would you be flabbergasted?  Hammond organ emulation has been a declining priority for multi-use keyboards and studio production over many decades.  A more common sense approach is to have an even number of controls because of the way that DAWs and workstations work.

 

This particular forum is one that seems to skew towards Hammond emulation being in the top 3 priorities of keyboard requirements, but I think the market research of keyboard buyers, it averages out to be much, much lower of a priority or criteria for most buyers.

[AnotherScott]

41 minutes ago, jeffinpghpa said:

Why would you be flabbergasted?  Hammond organ emulation has been a declining priority for multi-use keyboards and studio production over many decades.  A more common sense approach is to have an even number of controls because of the way that DAWs and workstations work.

 

Even people using control surfaces as mixers benefit from 8 track faders plus a master. There have been plenty of "9 slider" controllers that were not organ oriented (e.g. you can't necessarily even set them to work in "reverse" direction).

[jeffincltnc]

9 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Even people using control surfaces as mixers benefit from 8 track faders plus a master. There have been plenty of "9 slider" controllers that were not organ oriented (e.g. you can't necessarily even set them to work in "reverse" direction).

 

Good point!  True there.  That's how it works on the Fantom as the 9th drawbar.

[jeffincltnc]

My Nauilus 73 landed here on Thursday and I've now had a few days to get acquainted with it.   All in all, it is what I expected for the price point I was able to get one at which was an offer I couldn't refuse price.

 

I do like the build quality, aluminum, internal power supply.  The keys are as I expected, playable and expressive enough for a price point in the mid-to-upper-1000's and probably in line with FA-07 and Fantom-O7 comparisons.  That means a nice step up from the Krome/Kross/FA-06 boards that have been in that space and not as rich and glorious as a Kronos, Fantom, Jupiter X etc. type of flagship keybed.  No aftertouch.  I do think that is limiting for me.  I use it a lot and it's a big sacrifice.  But it feels substantially metal.  Not too heavy to pick up which was a pleasant suprise.

 

The buttons feel a bit cheap to me and the touchscreen is too small to really work on for long periods of time.

 

The setlist feature is cool.  There are some use of the ARP functions to move through different scenes that overcomes some of the limitations of not having all of the Kronos controls.  I think for gigging, between that and using a footswitch I can make it work and I can adjust my methods to work with the tool.

 

I do really like the Korg soundset from Kronos.  It seems like it's pretty much there.  Some of the synths are a little harsh sounding right out of the box and I need to spend time smoothing out some of the saws, brass, sweeps and leads that I use.  I will get there.  I'm really not a fan of the menu diving into the FX on the small screen but I can get it to do what I want eventually.

 

I will probably keep it.  For whatever reason, there are very few really excellent condition Kronos 2 61's for sale on the used market now.  And when I see them the sellers want about $500-$800 more than a used one should be at this point in time.  So if you own one, they are pretty sought after and it might be a good time to sell one if you have your eye on something new to replace it.  The sale price from Korg and the run up in prices on used mint Kronos 2 61s really widen the price difference between Nautilus and Kronos that tick the box for Nautilus in my "bang for the buck" decision.

[AnotherScott]

12 hours ago, jeffinpghpa said:

The keys are as I expected, playable and expressive enough for a price point in the mid-to-upper-1000's and probably in line with FA-07 and Fantom-O7 comparisons.  That means a nice step up from the Krome/Kross/FA-06 boards that have been in that space and not as rich and glorious as a Kronos, Fantom, Jupiter X etc. type of flagship keybed. 

 

I still haven't seen a Nautilus in the flesh. I remember early on people were saying they thought it was the Kronos action except without aftertouch, but I was always skeptical of that, and yours appears to be another report that justifies that skepticism. Quality is often subjective, but hopefully we can find general consensus about two actions feeling different even if people don't necessarily agree about which is better. (Related, I'd say Fantom-07 action is probably not as good as FA-07.)

[Radagast]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:46 AM, AnotherScott said:

The sale goes through 6/30/2023 so you can certainly wait to see if any other interesting alternatives pop out at NAMM (whether from Korg or anyone else).

 

Regardless, that's certainly a lot of board for the money. 

 

Since the sale is going on for a while, I WILL wait to see if something more interesting is announced before 6/30.  There might be a risk, if the Nautilus IS going away and stock empties out before then.  But it’s worth the gamble to wait.