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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null object

Posted 42 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 84 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..

Bob Crain

Posted 91 days ago

Also used by XTC on their earlier albums, referenced in this interview:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ction=blog.view&friendId=34883466&am p;blogId=503566011

hakan

Posted 166 days ago

this was used on the 2023 album by Baris Manco in 1975. there are some great examples of what this keyboard can achieve on the album.

pugface

Posted 252 days ago

demoed one like crazy and bought a EDP wasp instead. hought the knobs were quirky. But vangelis used one. wish i had bought it now as the wasp packed up and later the company.

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