Korg Minikorg 700S

As the first Synth I have ever owned, I would say for me it is the most comprehensive introduction into the forray of odds sounds capable in the Analogue World. Turn it on, easy to tweak switches, plenty of combinations to get into - You can make any sound from helicopters to wiffle ball curves with airy vibratons at each springy, flexible keystroke.

I power up.
Then I strike any one of the 37 keys.
Boom! Thunderous noises from a previous jam session, my presets most likely set to an off-balanced pitch, lots of brightened, blended, singing notes with delay vibrato travelling back and forth, portamento scaling up to down, the repeat set to drone, the Mini-Korg 700s has enuff static to over-produce any track. I make a different sound everytime I sit down with the thing.

This lil' joint has a lot of character. It can squeal, then harmonize, into a full on repacious fart, blasting a full range of emotions thru the wave existence. You can adjust the 'attack' so each keystroke suits your finger - depress the keys and tweak the rotary oscillation, this unit has a lot of flavor! The extent of it's capabilities have never been breached in all of recorded history. The potential far exceeds the musician.

You know what? I WAS worried about this thing. Dunno why, really...
I thought this baby would eventually crap out or something, but 1,000 stickers later, a few liquid encounters, extreme cold and heat - the only external blemishes are on the wood corners, and the piece sounds as good as the day I discovered it.

Being sponsored by Korg, I am sure I could get some replacement parts - but maybe not (might not be any)! Now you got me worried. Well, my pops restores Tube Amplifiers for hobby, so even if Korg would treat me a bitch, I am sure some tinkering (though the devise directly expresses not to do such) and hot soldering would fashion brand nu quality. TLC is my customer support.
Korg hooks it up though. I would take it straight to Bobby the Demo-Man - he would know exactly how to fix the situation - or let me borrow his!

This is my favourite. I fly on this thing. I have used Moog Voyagers more in production, but the Mini-Korg 700s is my heart. I am very biased I suppose - but it gets packed for gigs and only gets used for fun. I wouldn't trade it for a GX-1.

OK, maybe I would.

Plug and play. Nothing hidden, its all there in front of you.

This is a monophonic synth from 1974. It has its main controlls (all for 1st VCO) under the keyboard. The keyboard is not expressive (no velocity or aftertouch) but does not feel bad.

There are 2 VCO's. The 1st VCO is the main one and has all the standard synth controlls dedicated to it. The 2nd VCO has several modes like ring mod and noise or can generate the same waveform as the 1st VCO to really thicken the sound.

The Envelopes are way too basic. They just have attack and decay (named 'percusion' and 'singing') and there just a swith for release. The attack time is nice and punchy for those wonderful vintage bass sounds.

The filter sounds good. Its Korg's trademark 'Traveller' which is full of character. LPF and HPF which can be combined together.

This synth is limited.

Ignor the this synths annoying limitations because it sounds great. Really warm analogue sounds. Very hard to emulate this machine on other synths so yes its definatly unique. The waveforms are really nice. Classic Korg 'chorus' waveforms.

I have never gigged one of these old dinosaws as i do not own one. The one i Played belongs to a friend.

Not a clue. Parts are probebly hard to replace.

This is a lovely little synth that sounds fantastic. If you are after the classic early korg sound go out and buy one of these little gems. Like i said they are limited but the sound is stunning.
Korgs really early synths are totally unique,

At first sight, you'll might be confused, because of parameter-names like "Travellers", "Bright" and "Bender", but when you try them faders and switches out it makes sence. "Travellers" is a Highpass and lowpass Cut off frequency, "Bright" is a preset state of filter resonance, and "Bender" is a preset Autobend function. A the birth of Korg MS-10,20 and 50, they changed the names to the common synth language. But then again Korg have their own way of saying LFO, which is MG(modulation generator). On many synths a LFO is actually a Low frequency oscillator, but on some expressive synths(Korg PS-3100, Yamaha AN1x and EMS Synthi-A) the LFO will go wide frequencies and therefore I prefer the korg-name MG. But then again on this early Korg they called it Vibrato.
But when this is said its "a walk in the park" to program Korg 700s. Very easy to use.

The (mini-)Korg 700s is an expanded model of the Korg 700. In fact I always use the extra features, which means that these features are really useful(I couldn't live without them). The main-700-oscillator will pitch from 32' to 2'(five octaves) and has Triangle, Saw, Square, Chorus 1 and 2 waveforms. Chorus 1 and 2 is PWM with two MG-(LFO) rates(mid and fast) This means that the 700/700s doesn't have to use its real MG for PWM(same thing with Korg Polysix). The extra Oscillator is only a Saw-waveform, but a very useful one. This Saw has a free range pitch-fader and the waveform itself is inverted from the main-oscillator(strange but cool). This extra Saw-oscillator can be ringmodulated with the Main-OSC in four different mode(RING MOD. keyfollow, RING MOD. octav keyfollow, RING MOD no keyfollow and RING MOD. keyfollow plus noise Mod OSC) Now thats cool!! and it sounds so great and metallic, awesome! One more thing - the extra Saw will not pitch modulate with the main vibrato. That gives you a unique animation with detuned vibrato sounds - very 700s very very useful!!
The "Travellers" are a High- and Low-pass parallel filter constellation which makes a dirty (slightly overdrived) sound. The sound of two detuned oscillators with this filter reminds me of moog-mono-synths. Travellars set in the same position will go Band-pass. Turn on the "Bright"-switch and you got even more drive. As said before, this is resonance and with two cutoff-points you can get a "PS-3100-resonator" kind of sound ("Wooaaauu" and "Yoy"). Bliss.
The VCF envelope is a two-fader(Attack-to-slow / Percussion-to-Singing) which means Attack, Decay with time control. For sustain there is a on/off switch and the 700s has an expanded "long sustain" mode. For even more filtersweep activate the "Expand" switch(ENV expand) The 700s Envelope is one of Korgs many innovative moments.
At last there is: Trigger Repeat(with rate), Portamento(with rate), Vibrato(with rate and depth) for modulation pitch and VCF, and AutoBend. Pretty good for a synth of this size. Every parameter counts on the 700s.

That little "s" behind the 700 means power. The two oscillators and the multimode Ring Modulator makes the 700s kick like a wild horse, but you don't need to be riding rodeo to tame this creature. In seconds you got: Crasy Vocal Leads, Rumbling Fat-Basses and squeaking tonal noises to mension a few. And something not many old mono-synths is capable of. Its very expressive. This machine suits all kinds of modern music in my opinion.

A minikorg 700s is a minikorg 700s.

Built in the solid way - wood and metal - no plastic.
No problems, yet!

I my opinion the old Korg synths has always provided the synth-market with innovation - they always thought of things in a different way, and thats cool. Think of Korg PS-series, The Sigma, MS-series and the Korg 700s is no exception. 1973-1985 the golden age of Korg.
I think it's hard to compare 700s with other synths because of its distinctive personality. For around 7 years it has given me that special sounds I needed for a track, every time.

I love it.

Ease of Use: Once you get used to some of the odd names for things you find that all the controls are musically useful

Features: For it's age there are a useful number of things it can do with a few fairly unique things along the way such as separate high pass and low pass filters. Top note priority which is useful for 'playing' sequences when used with the repeat function and a suitable delay. Missing some performance controls but you get over it. The 700S is a 700 with additions (2nd oscillator, ring mod, noise and other bits) Strangely there is a switch that turns the additional features off turning it back into a 700. Explains the odd layout though...

A source of a unique family of sounds based around using both filters as a bandpass filter. Sawtooth plus narrow pass band plus autobend and delayed vibrato can sound quite vocal like. Capable of most analogue favourite sounds once you work out how some of the controls work...

Built like a tank, which is good as there are some parts of the circuit sealed in potted modules that would be hard to replace.

No need yet, so cannot give a score

Even though I have other classier synths this is still a useful instument - I would miss it but that is partly because a 700 was the first commercial synth I ever used so I have a soft spot for the 700/700s

this synth is perfect for learning the basics of analog synthesis.granted you have to write down your patches,but when you've owned one as long as i have you just know where to start each time.in my opinion this is the best way to learn,with just the basic building blocks.

features might seem a little skimpy,but also consider when it came out!in reality though the fact it has two oscillators,2 types of ring modulation,and a input on the rear for the filter,you can do so much to any source sound,to call it skimpy would be an injustice.

as with all old analog ,you just cant beat grabbing knobs or flipping switches.to turn or flip in time with the beat or using the traveller(filter cutoff,korg style)creativly is just the best.joysticks and ribbons are fun,but this is the real deal.expression:way high.

this was my first instrument ever,my mom bought it for me from the want ads for $100.this was still in high school(im 36).to this day the only thing that ever died was the little light bulb under green plastic to let you know the synths on.

never had to.

This little gem was new in 1973, so forget softwared versions or presets, and it didn't come to me with a manual.

Editing is fairly straightforward though some of the controls are oddly labelled, eg the high and low pass filter cutoffs are labelled 'traveller', and the release control goes from 'percussive' to 'singing'!

Stranger still, all of the controls for oscillator 1 are on the actual front of the unit below the keyboard. The 700S differes from the 700 both in having a 2nd oscillator, and in the controls for this which are to the left of the keyboard.

The 700S is monophonic, thoughit does have 2 oscillators for a thicker sound. There is a section labelled 'effects' which actually gives limited control over the 2nd oscillator, bizarrely you can't change it's octave range, but you do have 3 choices of modulation as well as the options for pink or white noise.

Obviously there's no velocity or aftertouch.

It's very good for thick twangy bass sounds, so I'd recommend it for rock music, the darker the better. Like a lot of monosynths, it can get a little whiney in the higher frequencies.

Well it's still working 29 years on from it's manufacture, so I figure that's reliability for you. Korg always had a bad habit of building synths like tanks.

N/A

Overall a fun little synth. The main drawback is lack of cv/gate sockets to allow it to be controlled from MIDI, though Analogue Solutions say that they can retrofit these.

I much prefer this to the sound of the old Roland SH-101 that I used to have, it's a lot thicker and the crossmodulation option allows more character into the sound.

it`s so easy. You have to tune it for every new sound though!
It's not heavy at all for carrying around.

no midi, no presets, no nonsense

you can create deep basses, organ like sounds, string like sounds.
But it`s really great for sci-fi effects .
and it `s got its own sound for sure, what is does it does really good

always works, no problems

never used it

if I lost it I wouldn`t go mad.
I guess I`d miss it and buy what else came up