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.

daniel

December 13, 2010 @ 12:17 am

this synth kicks serious @ss. you have to milk it a little bit, but its actually capable of tons of sounds. i still use mine for recording songs all the time. ive played lots of moogs and things like that from that year and this being an affordable synth at the time... it was a freak'n sweet thing!! still is.

Edwin Balzan

November 28, 2010 @ 2:52 pm

Here is how Human League used the 700s in Being Boiled!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdjtAIMZXTs&feature=player_embedded#!

thesauce

November 7, 2010 @ 12:31 am

the overly condescending overview above does not give this nifty synth the credit it deserves. there truly is nothing like the sound of a vintage monosynth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zANtPgP8NLc

George

September 2, 2010 @ 11:21 am

Interesting bit of footage there K Steward :) Love this synth, love the layout, different to many other synths. The sound is very fat too. :)

K Seward

August 12, 2010 @ 12:16 am

Pretty sure the miniKorg 700 is used on Alex Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert.

A video of the recording session, check out around the 23 min mark on "My Rival":

http://vimeo.com/10266927

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