Korg Nautilus Review and Comparison to Kronos
Added 2020-11-09 06:30:15 +0000 UTCHi!
The third shoe has dropped, if that's possible. After reviewing MODX (the "lite" Yamaha Montage), Fantom (Roland's flagship workstation) it was only a matter of time before I took a look at the Kronos, Korg's flagship workstation product line, and Nautilus was an excellent opportunity.
Nautilus isn't a new flagship, rather, it has the same internal sound engine as Kronos, refreshed samples, fewer controls, and their generative style arpeggiator KARMA has been replaced with a simpler arpeggiator and drum sequencer.
Kronos was released 9 years ago, and it in turn was based on an even more expensive flagship - OASYS, from 2005, so the core platform has been around for a while.
Is it a justifiable purchase in 2020? Nautilus still has way more synth engines than MODX (sampling and FM) and Fantom (sampling and virtual analog), and I think they sound quite good.
Its main "con" I think isn't the sounds despite the fact that they've been around for a while, but rather the touch screen and user interface: A combination of small controls and a resistive touch screen translates to quite a few missed taps and lag, and the sampling and sequencing workflow doesn't fair well compared to more the user-friendly approaches in the Maschine and MPC ecosystems.
That said, if you're looking for broad range of sounds in a computer-less environment, Nautilus now gets you into the Korg flagship eco-system at a much lower price.
More in-depth information in the video of course!
All my best,
Ziv (sailing the flagship seas on youtube as "Loopop"...)
