New KORG Nautilus AT

[jerrythek]

Woody: You forgot the CX-3.

 

[konaboy]

2 hours ago, jerrythek said:

Woody: You forgot the CX-3.

 

thanks, yeah! although, it can be good to have the occasional mistake to encourage people to engage in the comments.  or, I just lost count when I ran out of fingers!

[K K]

2 hours ago, konaboy said:

...it can be good to have the occasional mistake to encourage people to engage in the comments...

 

[CowboyNQ]

The original KC Nautilus thread:  “How dare they not include aftertouch!”

 

This thread:  “How dare they add aftertouch!”

 

 

[David Emm]

18 hours ago, CowboyNQ said:

The original KC Nautilus thread:  “How dare they not include aftertouch!”

This thread:  “How dare they add aftertouch!”

 

There's the manufacturer's conundrum in a nutshell. They could include 3 wheels, 2 joysticks, double touch strips and an incense burner, only to hear someone complain because there was no whammy bar under the keys that they could play with their d**k. 🤨 

[sherry]

6 minutes ago, David Emm said:

 

There's the manufacturer's conundrum in a nutshell. They could include 3 wheels, 2 joysticks, double touch strips and an incense burner, only to hear someone complain because there was no whammy bar under the keys that they could play with their d**k. 🤨 

No, I think the conundrum is that Korg's flagship is a huge step backwards from the Kronos.  I certainly get that you're never going to make everyone happy, but this flagship is certainly a disappointment to most Kronos users.

[Radagast]

19 hours ago, CowboyNQ said:

The original KC Nautilus thread:  “How dare they not include aftertouch!”

 

This thread:  “How dare they add aftertouch!”

 

 

I don’t see anyone saying “How dare they add aftertouch”.  I do see frustration that it wasn’t there in the beginning.  I’m glad they added aftertouch but am still disappointed with the omission of 9 sliders for the organ model.

[Dockeys]

I’m sure the Nautilus is a very capable machine but for me the big disappointment is that it was a step backwards in terms of functionality compared to the Kronos. They dropped the sliders and the aftertouch (have no use of it personally) and still charge a hefty premium. Now they add back in some of the original features (AT) and start upping the price? Will the next version of the Nautilus have sliders back in and we’ll be back to where we were with the original Kronos? 
 

If I was in the market for a Korg board nowadays I’d just pick up a second hand Kronos. Much better spec board in my opinion. 

[Radagast]

1 hour ago, Dockeys said:

I’m sure the Nautilus is a very capable machine but for me the big disappointment is that it was a step backwards in terms of functionality compared to the Kronos. They dropped the sliders and the aftertouch (have no use of it personally) and still charge a hefty premium. Now they add back in some of the original features (AT) and start upping the price? Will the next version of the Nautilus have sliders back in and we’ll be back to where we were with the original Kronos? 
 

If I was in the market for a Korg board nowadays I’d just pick up a second hand Kronos. Much better spec board in my opinion. 

I doubt that adding sliders will bring the price of a Nautilus 88 to $4000.00

[Dockeys]

2 hours ago, Radagast said:

I doubt that adding sliders will bring the price of a Nautilus 88 to $4000.00

Well current price for regular Nautilus 88 is €2499, with AT it’s €3222. If KORG hike up the price by over €700 for AT I wouldn’t be surprised if they kicked it again for another Nautilus iteration down the line. Anyway my point is that I can’t see someone being any better off with a Nautilus over a Kronos. It’s pretty much the same guts. 
 

[Keyboardplayer]

Here in the USA the price for the original Nautilus 88 is on sale at Sweetwater for $2,399. The new Nautilus AT 88-key has a pre-order price of $2,899. $500 for after-touch seems a bit steep. I think the reason for the sizeable increase in price is for the added labor costs of retrofitting the original Nautilus with AT which Korg will do for customers if they want. For a price. Korg is finally acknowledging the Nautilus is  Korg's Flagship keyboard. For the time being anyway. The Kronos 2 already had after-touch and nine sliders. If Korg really wanted to make customers happy the AT version should also include nine sliders, IMO. But it's probably too late in the production process to make any drastic change in the design and function of the Nautilus AT. Oh well.

 

I would encourage people to hold their horses until Yamaha releases the new Montage in October. Undoubtedly the new Montage will include nine sliders like the original Montage. Plus, after-touch will also be included no doubt. I think Yamaha will push the envelope again technology-wise on the new Montage which could potentially blow everything else out of the water. Including the Nord Stage 4? Time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy what you play!     

[ProfD]

I'm wondering if the Nautilus AT addresses the issue of noisy black keys found on some of the original Nautilus units and if the retrofit fixes it. 😎

[Radagast]

2 hours ago, Keyboardplayer said:

 

 

I would encourage people to hold their horses until Yamaha releases the new Montage in October. Undoubtedly the new Montage will include nine sliders like the original Montage. Plus, after-touch will also be included no doubt. 

Actually the original Montage had 8 sliders, not 9.  IIRC, the organ model dropped one of the drawbars between the 2’ and 1’ drawbar OR it combined 2 drawbars on one slider. Let’s hope Yamaha gets it right with the new Montage and it has 9 sliders.

[konaboy]

I'm holding out for the Nautilus FURK

with Faders, Upgraded-screen, Ribbon controller & Knobs

[GovernorSilver]

Sounds like Kronos 3  😆

[Synthaholic]

 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Korg says 

 

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche",

 

Or in Aussie

 

"let them eat cake"

[Stokely]

The lack of controls was the main reason I didn't get one of these when they went on sale a while back.  I don't really use aftertouch live but it depends on how well it's implemented to be sure.  My old Virus had the best aftertouch I've used, and a bit surprisingly the AT on my Nord Stage compact is excellent.

I also don't like Korg's rounded chassis designs they use.  Seems like a minor thing but I've had keyboards that were tricky to pick up due to awkward angles/lack of grip and I definitely appreciate a keyboard that thinks of such things.

[Keyboardplayer]

On 7/24/2023 at 1:21 PM, Radagast said:

Actually the original Montage had 8 sliders, not 9.  IIRC, the organ model dropped one of the drawbars between the 2’ and 1’ drawbar OR it combined 2 drawbars on one slider. Let’s hope Yamaha gets it right with the new Montage and it has 9 sliders.

 

I guess the volume slider doesn't count? 😎 You're right. Technically, the Montage has 8 *physical* sliders, with the 7th slider controlling both the 7th and 8th drawbars. All the other drawbars are fully independent. My bad; and my apologies. FWIW, my Yamaha Genos has nine sliders that can also be used as drawbars for the Organs. The Genos was released about a year after the Montage, so Yamaha apparently realized nine dedicated sliders is definitely an advantage for their customers, especially when realizing a lot of its customers come from an organ playing background. Therefore, I would almost guarantee the Montage successor will have 9 sliders, like my almost 6 year-old Genos has.👍 Time will tell.   

[rickzjamm]

Is all this "AT" & library limited time specials an act of a sales marketing "Hail Mary" from Korg?

[Artomas]

Korg has periodic sales on the Kronos (now Nautilus) expansions.

 

I wonder if they heard everyone say that the somewhat affordable Nautilus showed how overpriced the Wavestate SE Platinum really is, and Korg was like, oh yeah? Well... aftertouch is a $500 feature! See? That's what it costs if we add it to Nautilus!

 

It's true that Korg won't fix just the aftertouch on this keybed... but they'll sell a drop-in keybed assembly to your tech. So, they seem to be pricing the aftertouch, on the new Nautilus AT, based on the retail price of the entire keybed assembly. Which doesn't make sense, because the vast majority of that assembly is already price in to the non-aftertouch Nautilus.

 

I certainly hope Korg isn't in financial trouble... and my solace is that they're not having a fire-sale. The sound expansion sale has been a normal occurrence. 

[konaboy]

a whopping 400 bucks to buy the Korg library "KRONOS Sound Pack for NAUTILUS". Is this worth it? Seems to me like all the Kronos sounds could and should have been included in the factory soundset...? 

 

 

https://korg.shop/sound-libraries/kronos-nautilus/promokorg2.html

[Artomas]

19 minutes ago, konaboy said:

a whopping 400 bucks to buy the Korg library "KRONOS Sound Pack for NAUTILUS". Is this worth it? Seems to me like all the Kronos sounds could and should have been included in the factory soundset...? 

 

 

https://korg.shop/sound-libraries/kronos-nautilus/promokorg2.html

It seems to include the 3 big pianos (German, Japanese and Berlin)... those aren't already included in Nautilus? I'd be surprised if none of those are. Then there's the "ambience drums". By which, I assume they mean the kits towards the beginning of the list of the drum kit presets on Kronos (if you browse by category). If you want more "realistic" drum kits, and they're not already on Nautilus, then I they could be worth it... they're pretty run of the mill realistic recorded drum samples, so it's a question of if you want/need those (there are quite a few samples, rock and jazz kits, etc). I can't tell what's in the last EX (320), except for brass.

 

It seems like the pack's value is for compatibility with Kronos programs and combis, with the most likely use case being if you wanted to use someone else's combis (or your own older ones), which were made with a stock Kronos, then this pack is what you'd need in order to guarantee that they would port over successfully and sound the same.

 

If you just want new sounds, and aren't concerned about those specific pianos that take up 3/5 of the pack, then it might not be the best value... though I like the brass and strings and extras on Kronos. I'm still surprised Nautilus doesn't come with all the old sounds and then some.

 

Whichever is the piano that loads default in a Kronos after 3.0 (Is it Berlin or German, I forget?!)... the D note that's an octave and a tone above middle C... at a nice playing velocity, I hate that note. It gives a dead metallic thud in one velocity zone. I think the B that's 2 notes below it had some issue too. Probably most people would be like, what? But I'd say, for the most part, those are very nice pianos. Though, TBH, I think I prefer to play the piano on the Yamaha CK you just reviewed, even though it's probably less detailed. That's just my personal opinion, obviously.

[K K]

The three pianos mentioned in that EXs require 635 MB of RAM, so make sure you have plenty of memory available or you will have to edit what you selected in the KSC auto-load tab.

[zephonic]

Are there any Korg reps lurking here? I would like to know if a Nautilus 73 AT is planned for later, or will aftertouch be restricted to the 61 and 88?

 

I really hope for the 73AT, it would be a perfect single-board solution for me.

[sherry]

I have AT on my Kronos, never use it.  In my opinion -- and just my opinion -- it's far too hard to control.  Also I find whenever I used AT, it left my hands and fingers sore.  Not good.  For the life of me I don't get the big deal of AT on the Nautilus.  And while the Nautilus sounds awesome, I find the lack of RT controls and the goofy case design, I'm pretty sure I may have to look at Nord or the new Montage.  My Kronos is 10 years old and I don't want to buy a used one.  Of course, if Korg decides to release a Kronos 3 sometime in the near future, please take my money.

[zephonic]

Everybody is different. I used AT extensively on my old XP80 and FantomX7. It was second nature.

[K K]

14 hours ago, sherry said:

In my opinion -- and just my opinion -- it's far too hard to control.  Also I find whenever I used AT, it left my hands and fingers sore.  Not good.

 

Your opinion is actually shared by quite a few people.

 

That's why earlier in this thread I mentioned for potential Nautilus buyers to wait and see new owners' input about their Nautilus AT. If the AT parts they will add in the Nautilus AT 88 are identical to what is in the Kronos 88 (after all, the RH3 action is still the same), it might not be fun to pay for a feature that is very hard to trigger.

[CyberGene]

As much as I like the aftertouch on my Hydrasynth, which was made specifically to glorify a controllable poly AT, I still find it tiring to play for more than 10 minutes and then I have sore fingers and wrists. And then there are the rest of the AT implementations on almost all keyboards which are considerably heavier to engage. I doubt the Nautilus would be an exception but who knows. 

[AnotherScott]

On 7/24/2023 at 4:21 PM, Radagast said:

Actually the original Montage had 8 sliders, not 9.  IIRC, the organ model dropped one of the drawbars between the 2’ and 1’ drawbar OR it combined 2 drawbars on one slider. Let’s hope Yamaha gets it right with the new Montage and it has 9 sliders.

On 8/5/2023 at 3:18 PM, Keyboardplayer said:

 

I guess the volume slider doesn't count? 😎 You're right. Technically, the Montage has 8 *physical* sliders, with the 7th slider controlling both the 7th and 8th drawbars. All the other drawbars are fully independent. 

 

On the MODX (so I assume similar on the Montage), with the "all 9 bars" performance, you get individual slider control of all 9 bars, there are no 2-drawbar-combined sliders. (There are also sliders for other things, e.g. key click and leakage). You only have the 4 MODX (or 8 Montage) sliders, but you can  toggle them (or select the appropriate part) to control the different elements.