New Korg NAUTILUS paving the way to pa5x?

What do u guys think? Its a sister to the kronos. Could pa5x be next?

It does look very attractive. It would make a great arranger.

What keeps to sadden me is that digital keyboards don't seem to catch up with overall technological progress. As mentioned in the video, the touchscreen is not sensitive enough, although $30 phone has no such problem. Keyboards like Roland Juno DS or Korg Kross sound very far from contemporary, even orchestral sounds of Korg Krome are far from realistic, which is not taken kindly by today's music business. A lot of today's pop music is made without any digital workstation. I don't imagine that there's much use in onboard midi or audio sequencer. It's natural that people prefer computer based alternatives, where you can combine everything, you have a large screen or two, and it costs less. But I'm sort of emotionalist when it comes to music, and I'd rather have physical machines than VSTs. But they don't seem to get cheaper, which seems unnatural. PSR-S670 was replaced with PSR-SX600 and it appears that PSR-SX600 costs about $300 more. Heavy!

I don't really see how you can promote digital keyboards, at least, in my country. Things like a washing machine or an air conditioner used to be luxurious here, now it seems that you can get one of them or an entry-level keyboard instead. Like PSR-E463 or Casio CT-X3000 with nothing fancy about them; their screens are not even graphical and most of their sounds, sorry to say, are pretty toyish.

In the same time I must admit that my judgements can be affected by my personal emotional state. Mostly I'm more interested in a guitar right now and I'm probably content with it and Juno DS as a piano. I takes all my available time already. I might miss the old times where a new keyboard provided new horizons and now when I have almost a TOTL arranger I have to look for new horizons some other way.

It's a bit ironic to play with $100 wooden thing while your $1500 keyboards are leaned on the wall.

Sorry for hijacking the topic; it doesn't seem to be much activity here, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

61 key model is $1999. They should make it 1500 so that it can compete with modx6 (1400$).

Great Kronos sounds and engines ( 10 yr old) but hopefully keys won’t suck like Krome. It ‘ll be a shame if it does and will affect the sales due to the price.

Back in the day, Triton le ( mid model) has better keys and have after touch.
Korg ruined the MOTL by using cheap keys starting with M50.

Unfortunately, it is heavy weight with 13 kg for the 61 key version, very different from the MODX. I guess the keybed is high-quality, adding to the weight...

It’s got a few things I think Korg arrangers desperately need, especially those 12 stereo insert effects, but I’m disappointed how small the sample RAM is... 2GB is hardly state of the art, and it shares it with whatever PCM libraries you install (no news yet about how fast those load, always a Korg Achilles heel). And the same 16,000 or so sample location limit, hardly changed from the PA4X’s. For those that want to go all Ketron and use timesliced drum and percussion loops, that limit is quite restrictive.

There’s also no mention that I saw about any radical rewrite of the Hammond section, where I’ve long felt that the Leslie sim needs a serious do over!

All in all, as an engine to power a future PA series arranger, it’s got a lot going for it. But it still feels more like a Kronos with some lipstick than a new engine. Ten years doesn’t get you much progress in Korg-land! And where it counts (arranger users rely a LOT more heavily on sampled traditional instruments than synth engines) it doesn’t really come off as much of a step forward at all. Those sampler section figures, and the PCM ROM totals don’t represent much of a step forward at all.

But the 12 insert effects would be a major game changer alone to Korg’s incredibly archaic insert effects section, which lags decades behind its competition.

My major concern is, do Korg consider the arranger market big enough to do the considerable work it would take to port the arranger software to use the modules of the Nautilus engine that would be of use to the market (most of that synth stuff would fall on deaf ears!)..? That’s going to cost big bucks, for a dwindling market that has already seen one of its major players quit altogether!

A MODX has 12*2 (12 parts with 2 inserts each) + 2 inserts on the external audio in channel + var effect (bus) + reverb (bus) + total effect and EQ. Plus tons of EQ on every part.

And it costs 999€ (61 keys).

Well, a MODX ain’t no arranger! But an SX900 has eight freely assignable inserts, and a Genos has 28!

So yes, Korg got some catching up to do.

Mmmmm...............Nice shape you have there lol.

Not even a Nautilus is an arranger (maybe a submarine?). So, although a Genos can only use a theoretical maximum of 12 inserts in arranger mode (1 for each 8 acmp parts + 1 for each 4 right hand parts), the current Korg arrangers have even more to catch up!

With our software, on the same Yamaha hardware, you can use more Inserts, up to 16, and even 2 per part (16x1 or 8x2). A thing that builtin Yamaha firmware cannot do.

And today i see this news...


KORG unveils the opsix altered FM synthesizer.

Just a matter of time now for pa5

Maybe early next at best, if we are lucky, as it normally works out to about that timing, from previous launches. Maybe be Summer NAMM2021!

Woody Piano Shack videos.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US5jSsSAmpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUYLzOwgFNE

Allan

Playing KORG NAUTILUS and YAMAHA MODX

Unless there’s a radical change in hardware (which I rather doubt as you seldom see the migration from workstation line to arranger line of a new engine until a few years of profit taking from the WS players has occurred), I see little need for a new Korg arranger.

But there’s much that could be done refining NEXT OS, and repackaging some of the NEXT stuff in more elderly-friendly form and better display form (things like stripping styles gradually down and back, or throwing a little swing into a straight style, etc.).

Unless Korg are willing to change a decades old style format and go to styles with four Intros and Endings and more fills, breaks etc., the actual current panel layout will be fine. So what’s the upside to a new model? It will cost a fortune to tool up for, and will be still mired in this decades old hardware, when an upgrade OS could add better workflow to tempt Yamaha, Roland and Ketron users away from their current arrangers.

Until Korg is ready to go full on next gen, Korg aren’t really going to sell many new arrangers to Korg users, unless they are still on a PA1/2/3x. There just isn’t the hardware to tempt a PA4X user, IMHO. But there’s much in the way of simplifying workflow and making data management less complicated that could appeal to current owners of other brands.

A ‘NEXT 2.0’ probably holds the best chance of widespread sales for Korg until they can figure out how to shoehorn the Nautilus engine for arranger use...