Korg has today unleashed the Nautilus performance synthesizer and workstation, which harnesses the power of its flagship Kronos system, but is presented in a more streamlined packaged designed for musicians, songwriters and producers.
The Nautilus is powered by nine dedicated Kronos sound engines, including an enhanced SGX-2 acoustic piano generator and the EP-1 electric piano module. In fact, Korg says that it has included "the most piano libraries ever put into one product."
Other sound engines of note include the CX-3 classic tonewheel organ sound generator, analog modelers in the shape of the PolysixEX and MS-20EX, the STR-1 modeling engine for stringed instruments, and the HD-1 high-definition PCM synthesizer program.
Controlling all of the available sounds might be a little overwhelming, so Korg has split the overall soundset into three broad categories to make things a little easier.
The classic instruments (like piano, guitar and so on) are contained within the Standard sounds section. Synthesizers, percussion and special effects are gathered in the Current sounds library. The final section is labeled Unique sounds, and includes such things as seldom-heard instruments from around the globe, a collection of percussion sounds made by bashing everyday items, and looped phrases.
There are three Nautilus variations to choose from: an 88-key model with weighted hammer action, and 74-key and 61-key workstations with semi-weighted action. Each variant sports a full color 7-inch (800 x 480-pixel) touch display with support for gestures. Six quick access buttons can also be found up top for instant access to saved settings, there's a dynamics knob (to control the keyboard's response to playing) and a set list feature is included to call up presets or sequences during a performance.
The music production workstation comes with a 16-track MIDI sequencer and 16-track audio recorder section, 16 effects processors, and a three-band EQ for every timbre, every sequencer track and every audio track. External audio sources can be sampled using the system's Open Sampling System, and AIFF, WAV, SoundFont 2.0 and Akai S1000/3000 sample formats can be loaded into the memory over USB.
This mighty music production machine is scheduled for release in early 2021, with pricing starting at the US$2,000 mark. The video below has more.
Product page: Nautilus