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.

 

Micke

Posted 401 days ago

The Mini-korg 700 has also been used by Didier Marouani/Space, Tony Mansfield/New Musik and Roland Romanelli/Mc Lane Explosion.

Avery G.

Posted 415 days ago

Man you better put Gino Vannelli (Joe) on that list, before I slap you!
And put him first.

jesparza

Posted 420 days ago

I own this model and it IS a really COOl synth! I bought one because Greg Hawkes of the CARS played one all through the seventies and eighties and made some Really cool sounds with it. Then AFTER I bought it I found out that Daniel Miller of Depeach Mode used one EXCLUSIVELY on his FIRST record by the NORMAL (Warm Leatherrette/TVOD). The FIRST 700 model only has ONE oscillator, the 700s has TWO! Very important when shopping for synths!

Mikael Lindgren

Posted 423 days ago

The Korg 700S has also been used by Nick Magnus (Steve Hackett band) and New Musik.

knobexploit

Posted 437 days ago

Both the 700 and the 700s sound great, nasty filter (in a good way) very obvious sound character, can be picked out of a mix at any time.
The 700s has a lovely ringmodulator and is favoured above the 700 but do not feel disappointed when you find a 700..
Both perform A+ and will be a great addition to any analog studio.
Praise Korg for their enginering skills, most 700 synthis are still in great technical condition.
No interfacing, only audio out...2bad
Beware the VCO module is encased in resin and it is very very very hard to find a replacement module when it breaks down.

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