The MKS-7 Super Quartet is a multitimbral synth module with dedicated sections. The Melody section: 2 voice polyphony, 100 presets; Chord section: 4 voice polyphony, 100 presets; Bass section: monophonic, 20 presets; Rhythm section: 11 PCM sounds. The sound and architecture of the Melody, Chord and Bass sections are the same as the Juno 106 synthesizer. The Rhythm section offers up a few basic electronic rock drum sounds borrowed from the TR-707.

The beauty of using this sound module is that all 4 sections are available at once. Drums, bass, leads and pads can all play independent parts and patches together making this a very nice all-in one vintage Roland tone module. Just like the Juno 106, the MKS-7 is also controllable via MIDI and System Exclusive messages for editing. Most Juno 106 editors will work for the MKS-7 too. An underrated machine.

m_P

March 5, 2013 @ 1:53 am

Very, very nice bass.
With a more closed filter it will sound tight, round and warm. Everything you want in a bass sound.
Opening up the cutoff will reveal that classic Roland DCO sound, punchy but with soft edges. It's a beautiful machine to my ears.
Very, very stable, easy to program once you learn the numbers.
All in all a beautiful little package which will be highly sought after for years to come.
It would be nice to be able to store possibly 1 patch (I know a librarian can kinda do this) but part of this machine's charm is that it forces you to commit to a sound during composition.

Sam H

March 15, 2012 @ 8:46 pm

Iv used one of these for over 10 years and managed to buy one very very cheap at a carboot.
Iv never every felt like this is a bad synth in anyway.. And the Bass is really fat! I produce mainly Trance, House & Electro and a little MKS-7 goes along way for adding a bit of depth and warmth.
I Would certainly get another but I find them quite rare to find. Very underrated synth. I know many UK 90's Dance producers who said they used this as their staple for bass and fattening it up!

Some quirky sounds too with the Chord and Melody sections too iv used a few times to give a little lift.

Smoinync

November 14, 2011 @ 6:31 pm

Great machine, simple to operate, it speaks j106s language with different accent + basic kits from tr 707 equipped. I got them both in black & ivory.

Henrik

November 8, 2010 @ 6:22 am

Voice architecture:
Bass part: CPU-clocked Square, IR3R01 envelope, 80017 VCA/VCF
Chord & Melody: same as J106; CPU-programmed dividers, Roland waveshaper and 80017 VCA/VCF. No noise gen on chord section

AGL

March 4, 2010 @ 6:05 pm

For clarity's sake, yes, the engine is essentially identical to the Juno-106, and I've traded parts between MKS-7's and Juno's plenty of times (the blasted unreliable filter chips especially, which were rare until someone finally managed to copy them). The little monosynth (bass part) also has the same analogue filter and oscillator chips.

In my opinion, the MKS sounds better than the Juno, thanks to velocity sensitivity, but on the other hand, is completely useless due to lack of patch memory.

Thankfully, the drum kit can be played from the front panel, making this little box way cooler than an MPC.

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