Vintage Synth Explorer

Korg • MiniKorg 700s

miniKorg 700s

The MiniKorg 700s is an old and simple monophonic analog keyboard from Korg. It is a dual-oscillator synth related to Korg's first monosynth, the single oscillator MiniKorg 700. Most of the controls are located in an odd place beneath the keyboard so as to make room above the keyboard for a sheet-music stand. Some controls have bizarre names like Bender, Traveler and Expand for the auto-bend, filter and envelope, respectively.

miniKorg 700

It has three ring modulators for some strange sounds and noises. Sometimes a decent bass sound for techno music can be achieved using the MiniKorg's hi-pass and low-pass filters. The two oscillators can be de-tuned and they offer triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms. There are some strange analog effects built-in as well such as portamento, a rudimentary repeat-delay, auto-bend (bender), vibrato and Chorus and Noise waveforms.

This limited and quirky little synth is a nice collectors item but rarely seen or used anymore. It has relatively no performance controls like pitch/mod, but for ancient analog technology, this synth is quite stable and reliable. It is still quite capable of generating a very analog bass sound, thud, thump, growl or squeal. The wood side-panels and large primary colored knobs and sliders are a sure sign of Vintage status. It has been used by The Cure, ComaTeens, Kitaro, Human League, N-Trance, Vangelis, the Normal, Stevie Wonder, The Cars and Paul Hardcastle.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Simon

Posted 2 days ago

I am doing some recording with this wonderful little synth that belongs to my friend. He does not know much of the history of this particular unit but under the lid the words "Silk Road" is written on a label affixed to one of the ICs on the main board. We suspect this keyboard used to be owned by Kitaro. Fat sound.

Tom

Posted 5 days ago

one awesome little synth for leads and bass

Carlos

Posted 8 days ago

Hi everyone!

i'm thinging buy a minikorg 700, but the voltage is 210v (uk). I can change the voltage to 220v (portugal)? its easy to do?

Thanks for the help

null object

Posted 55 days ago

This synth is super easy to modify. Mine has CV for individual OSC's, Gate, CV for Bender and Bright and ring mod inputs. It also has all the OSC wave shapes out, Audio to filter, Audio to Bright, Audio to Bender.

It's so simple to modify because all the typical mods points are routed to wire wound pins. It almost semi modular in design. It is a total gem of a synth and totally overlooked. It also creates the most relistic storm and wind sounds I have ever heard.

It's been used by me on all my recordings.

Todd rolan

Posted 97 days ago

my first synth I ever owned and god do I miss it Ive tried to buy another one a few times but I always been outbid. true fat sounds also with the portamento that dont come with some of todays workstations realy miss this one .. plus the first one i owned I bought used for 50 bucks , things sure went up after 30 years..

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