The Really old korg Synthesizer Site

The Really old Korg Synthesizer site

Comments about the really old Korg synthhesizers from people around the world

James says about MaxiKorg 800DV:

I owned a Korg 800DV as my first synth back in the late '70's. I composed on it and played it live in our "new wave" band. I remember it got chuckles from the Minimoog keyboardist in a rival band. (It was better than a Mini). It had a metal or plastic badge that said "MaxiKorg" below the front panel and also possibly on the back, I can't remember for sure. It made the most amazing noises and I'm still kicking myself for letting it go to trade in on a new drumset. (Not many competent drummers were around in Cincinnati during 1979). It was dead easy to use. It had many sliders and knobs and they were all different colors. It almost looked like a toy but it was far from it. If I ever come across another.....IT'S MINE!!!!

Andrew C. Crowell says about MiniKorg 700:

The MiniKorg is something of a performance device, really; it's the monophonic synth that has all of its controls _under_ the keyboard, which shows that it dates from the days when people would pile up keyboard stacks to perform. It's a very simple, one-VCO monophonic synth, nothing overtly fancy, but it does have some good sounds that can be got out of it.The most notable use of it was by Greg Hawkes in The Cars...most of those really cool synth leads were out of this thingy. Have a look at a Cars keyboard setup from c. 1978-80, and you'll see one, perhaps two MiniKorgs. The MS-series is very different, they're the semi-modular devices from a couple of years later.

NemesiS says about MiniKorg 700s:

A real speciality from the mid 70´s Japan. Korg´s answer to MiniMoog. The panel lay-out and the whole sound architecture has a very unique flavour, almost freaky. Sounds are original too. The ring modulator is awesome and easy to use creatively. Not so wide selection of parametres as in Moog, but almost all sounds are quite usable. Strange beast that has to be learned to know especially well to make the most of it...

Mike Metlay says about the Traveller knobs:

This is reason enough for me to avoid buying the trashed one here whose panels are covered in shiny paper....I would love to own something with a Travel knob! |->

Dance-Tech says about MiniKorg 700:

Yes!! Here is a right old bargain blast from the past... The Korg S-700. I just got this synth from the classifieds here at Dance-Tech!!, so hey people... the classifieds DO sell! This cost me £ 100 from Sandy up in Nottingham.... Not a well known 'Analog' classic with yer typical 'Classic' price tag, but a real stonkin' little machine !!

The S-700 is a true analog monosynth from the 70's era I guess, but if anyone knows more on that score let me know. The sound is very distinctive. Like most older analog synths, it's not in any way a general all round synth, but rather has a particular sound.... You like that sound or you dont. The unit is an original made in Japan job, and is constructed of matal sheet & wood !!

So...... The controls....... Well, it's all real simple..... Starting from the left, you've got a main Volume slider, followed by two sliders marked 'Traveller'...... These two are in fact the Resonance & Filter controls.

Next comes 'Attack & Pecussion', which is Korg-speak for Attack & Decay !! ...followed by those two big silver knobs... (see the piccie!!) Now these look to me like they were grafted on from an old black & white TV set.....but hey, they are actually brilliant to handle... Nice & chunky !!...... Probably these are as I say, not the original knobs.....correct me if wrong here !...

Anyhow.... These two rotary knobs control the transpose for the oscillator, and the other switches between Saw, Square & I think some type of reduced sawtooth wave.... It's too harsh for a sine wave, and too soft for a saw wave..... so your guess is as good as mine for that one !......... The other selections are for two different chorus modes.....one narrow, & one VERY wide........Awesome as they say out west !!...... This analog chorus section beefs up the sound massively, giving a huge de-tuned twin oscillator type of sound... Massive.....Brilliant harsh lead or bass type sound !!

Ok.....After the sound select, you've got a further selection of sliders & switches, covering Portamento On/Off & Speed.......Vibrato On/Off & Vibrato Speed & Depth..........Sustain....Pitch.....and a couple of real cryptic ones entitled 'Repeat, Bender, Bright & Expand !!.......Of these, the 'Bright' switch seems to add some treble & top mid....The 'Expand' switch seems to add more bass-end funnily enuff, and the 'Bender' switch causes a struck note to bend up to pitch a little.............But the 'Repeat' switch is knackered I reckon, cos it doesn't seem to do anything....No worries......as it is....dead tatty, and lovingly re-painted at some point in best enamel black, I'm WELL pleased with this baby !!!......what a wicked harsh sound it has....really harsh if you want it to be, and as for that chorus.......HUGE !!!.......

Anyhow........Apart from that, its got a mains plug, and an output socket.....well two output sockets actually....so Maybe it's got stereo chorus... I'll have to try that later.....Anyhow.......enuff guff.....I'll get some RA3 files going and paste 'em up so you can hear this beastie !!......... L8ers.

Kilo says about MiniKorg 700:

One of the few wicked CHEAP genuine analog synths !!!

Robert says about Maxi-Korg, Dr. Frankenstein's monster:

Well it came today! A little banged up and very dirty. A couple of broken keys was causing the keyboard tracking to go haywire but after I fixed them, all was well. The thing was noisy so I cleaned the hell out of it and now it hums a sweet tune. It's got the be the ugliest keyboard I've ever seen. The knobs and sliders are not attractive in the least bit. I wonder what the Japanese designers were thinking with this one!It is an interesting sound design. There are two identical sections (upper and lower). Each section consists of two oscs: the first is switchable from triangle to square to saw to pulse to chorus (it doesn't say which waveform) to noise (upper has a pink noise source and the lower white). The first osc can also be set to 2',4',8',16',32',64'. The second osc is permanently on saw and can be set to 2',4',8',16',32' or ring modulation. The VCF section is a high pass and low pass filter but the res is only selectable by a switch with three settings (ugh!). The VCA is split up in very weird ways by several sections including something called bender which allows for very wacky special effects. There is a lot of possibilities with the portamento. There are two LFO's one dedicated to vibrato, and the other is a strange section which applies a pulse to various settings between upper and lower.There are upper and lower output jacks but both sections put out sound on both jacks (wha?). Ther are four other jacks that have me confused. They are labelled "To Accessory" and "From Accessory" and they are for both opper and lower sections. I can't see how these are CV/Gate ins/outs unless they are stereo like the Source. Anybody have a clue? Plus there are din jacks for pedals.The sounds is not at all ballsy or bassy. It keeps up with the strange eerie sound of the other early Korg synths like the MS-20... I'd have to say that four oscs and two ring modulators makes for an awesome sound. Trippy electronic special effects are abundant. Definately Frankenstein's monster as Darwin so wisely put.

Uman uman@mygale.org says about MiniKorg 700s:

Hey, I've got one too (for the equivalent of 60 pounds) coming in a wooden -err... flight case ! I've read that Vangelis still has one in his setup. It's one of the second model which includes MORE effects such as a cross-mod, knobs on the left of the top panel (I have a picture of it). Also called 'Minikorg' I think. Sounds juicy. Play it loud.

Steve peglar@dfw.net says about MiniKorg 700:

One of the coolest one-oscillator synths you can get. Also known as the MiniKorg. It was used extensively by Greg Hawkes of The Cars, especially on the first album and the Candy-O album. Check them out! The synth line solos on "Just What I Needed" and "Bye Bye Love" are done on this machine. Check out its big brother, the MaxiKorg, too......a two-oscillator version of this synth!

JB BENNITJJ@BTLIP51.BT.CO.UK says about MiniKorg 700s:

I used to have a 700S six years ago and used to love the unique sounding filters with those hilarious sliders. How many other synths had a trap-door at the back to hide the mains lead & plug? Korg certainly haven't been as inventive ever since.

John J. Volanski says about the Korg 770:

I used to have one.It is a monophonic, 2-VCO synth, with F ~ C, 32-key keyboard. Here is what it said in their catalog: VCO-1: Scale (64', 32', 16', 8',4', 2'), triangle, square, reverse ramp, pulse, variable pulse, and external signal, pitch control, vibrato switch (normal/off/delay), vibrato depth, vibrato speed, pitch bend switch (up/off/down), delay time, bend speed, portamento switch (fixed/off/control), portamento control. VCF x 2: Traveler (high pass, low pass slider pots), bright selector, expand switches x 2 (LP + HP, off/normal/reverse), FcM switch.VCA + Envelope Generator: attck time, singing level, range selector, sustain selector, envelope mode selector, trigger mode selector.LFO: Speed control (repeat + FcM).VCO-2: Coarse tuning (16' ~ 1'), fine tuning, mode selector (reverse ramp, ring 1 & 2, scale noise, pink noise, white noise). Total: mixing selector, mixing volume, power switch/volume. Dimensions: 560W x 195H x 340D (mm)Weight: 9kg. Nice little lead synth.

It all begun when I heard Chicory Tip 1974. I was stunned. I had never heard something like that before. I couldn´t understand what kind of instrument it could be that sounded so wonderful. Soon I learned that it was something called "a Moog-machine". Later I heard some of Walter Carlos' "Switched-on Bach" and I heard the same, wonderful sound, and I found out that the instrument was a synthesizer. In 1976 my father bought me a MiniKorg 700s. I immediately begun to make music using an old Dynachord tape echo and a Akai tape recorder with sound-on-sound capabilities. I was in heaven...