Korg Announce Nautilus Synthesizer Workstation

NAUTILUS pushes the boundaries of what a performance synth and workstation is capable of. With the power of nine engines to drive a new approach to sounds, plentiful sampling, audio recording, effects, and processing power, there is simply no other synth that delivers more to explore sonically, with the workflow to get you there faster than ever.

Korg spent years refining all our digital, analog, processing, and hardware technologies and delivering them in a way that helps the musician connect with their instrument. The result is the incredibly powerful, one-of-a-kind NAUTILUS.

To start, the enhanced SGX-2 piano sound generator offers delicate expressiveness to capture all the nuances of the acoustic piano, and NAUTILUS features the most piano libraries ever put into one product; with 12-step velocity-switched sound, string resonance and more. The EP-1 electric piano sound generator realistically reproduces seven different famous electric piano sounds. The CX-3 engine – the heart of our sought-after CX-3 reissue -covers the distinct sound of classic tonewheel organs.

Add to that MOD-7 VPM/FM synthesis, the PolysixEX and MS-20EX for analog modeling, and the STR-1 for physical modeling, and you have essentially an engine for any type of sound you’re looking to get. Used together in Program or Combination mode, these distinctive engines create completely new timbres.

“Unique” sounds:
The NAUTILUS brings you distinctive sounds including phrase loops, prepared pianos, found percussion and more. Many seldom heard-of musical instruments found in different regions around the world can be difficult to play, but distinctive phrases played on these instruments are featured on the NAUTILUS. Use these phrases as-is in your songs—let your imagination be your guide. The NAUTILUS features sounds that were sampled for the first time just for this instrument, including prepared piano sounds created by placing different objects between piano strings and recording samples, or “found percussion” sounds made by turning ordinary items into instruments to be struck. Not only do these novel and mysterious sounds provide an unexpected flavor to your songs, they offer broad possibilities for sound effects used in film and TV music as well.

“Current” sounds:
The NAUTILUS also offers the freshest sounds that blend in well with today's music scene, including synths, drum kits, special effects and more. For synths, be sure to check out the EDM, electro and chiptune sounds for starters. Also, the NAUTILUS features more than 50 kinds of drum kits—sounds that most strongly reflect the changes in music over time. The special effect sounds offer useful material like drums added to dance music to create beats—sounds that you can put to use right away.

Standard sounds:
We’ve brought together all of the most important sounds a workstation needs including piano, electric piano, guitar, bass guitar and more, covering all genres. For the newly sampled piano sound, we’ve also recorded the lovely sonic ambience of the studio, and you can mix the piano and ambience sound as you like with the new ambience sound. A new electric piano model with a characteristic thick sound has been added, which works great for funky playing styles. We’ve also added many phrases that let you play back actual performances of guitar and bass parts that keyboardists will find useful.

The nerve center of the NAUTILUS is KORG’s enormous eight-inch (800 x 480 pixel) WVGA color TouchView display.

In addition to simply selecting a sound or choosing a parameter with the touch of a finger, the enhanced Touch-Drag ability allows more detailed control of parameter values. Interactive instruments and panel graphics provide the ability to do everything from adjusting the lid of a grand piano to connecting patch cable on a semi-modular synthesizer model.

The TouchView display also hosts a convenient new Search Function, allowing you to search for (and preview) sounds based on their titles.

NAUTILUS features a sequencer/recording section that offers both 16 MIDI tracks plus 16 audio tracks; a great resource for putting together a dazzling performance or a brilliant production. MIDI sequencing makes it easy to capture ideas, inspiration, and pro-quality phrases using the Drum Track, or RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) functions.

The 16-track audio recorder simultaneously captures up to four tracks of 16-bit/24-bit uncompressed data at a sampling rate of 48 kHz. Play along with recorded tracks, add effects, and then resample the NAUTILUS itself and place the resampled WAV files directly in a track. When polishing your tracks, feel free to use mixer automation and editing functions such as copy, paste, and normalize to get the results you want.