The approach to the included sound on NAUTILUS, started with Korg setting aside our preconceptions of what sound should be like on a conventional music workstation, and instead focused on pushing the boundaries of sampling and programming to create a brand-new classifications of programs that we divide into three groups:

“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.

Make intuitive changes to sounds with the Realtime knobs

The six RT (real-time) knobs at the top left of the panel give you direct control over changes to the PROG and COMBI sounds. A variety of functions are assigned to each knob that lets you enjoy making changes to sounds, such as the filter cutoff and effect depth, the gate time, tempo and swing of the arpeggiator or drum track, the type of snare drum and more. In COMBI mode, you can group timbres and control their levels with the knobs. Further, you can press these knobs into the panel to lock them in place, preventing them from being accidentally changed while you’re playing. For instance, you could use this to enable only the knobs you often use onstage and push the ones in that you do not need.

Convenient arpeggiator and drum track functions

Four scenes of arpeggio patterns and drum track sets are made available that perfectly match each PROG and COMBI preset sound. These are useful for switching between scenes while they’re played, for use when improvising during performance, or for expanding your vision when composing music starting from a sound.

Set list mode that demonstrates its power in live performances

NAUTILUS can organize all of the resources you need to get through a song—or a set—using the Set List mode. Using the Set List mode, the TouchView display can host 16 color-coded touch-screen buttons; each one can instantly call up the appropriate Preset, Combination, or Sequence—regardless of mode!

You can also select different button colors, such as when you want to change the colors within a song while playing live. This is a powerful feature for situations that require quick and accurate control. The Set List mode even adds a nine-band graphic EQ, allowing the overall tone to be tweaked to match the venue.