“A stunningly creative and beautiful sounding synthesizer”: Korg miniKORG 700Sm review

What is it?

The musical landscape in the ’70s was pretty unrecognisable when compared to today's heavily produced musical constructs. The DAW du jour was the home organ, being marketed as a more orchestral form of piano, equipped with bossanova rhythms and the original one-finger auto accompaniment. From violins to trombones, it was an orchestra in your lounge!

But what of those newfangled synthesizer sounds? Korg had your back with the initial 1973 release of the miniKorg 700. A single oscillator synth with a basic set of controls, culled from more elaborate synthesizer designs. Many of these controls were along the front, making it an ideal bedfellow for the home organist, inviting a placement on top of an organ console.

One year later, Korg released the similarly styled 700S, adding a second oscillator along with a little more control over sound. For a mere £499, it was far cheaper than anything from America, although its lack of overall control meant that it didn’t trouble professionals too heavily. That is, until the post-punk generation realised its potential, buying them up as secondhand bargains. With users as diverse as Hawkwind and the Human League, it's no surprise that it's on Korg’s hit list for instruments, inviting a revisit.

Performance

In 2021, Korg revived the 700S in a full-sized form. It was universally applauded as a beautiful reincarnation of the original, with hefty controls and a beautiful keybed, along with all the bells and whistles of the modern age that one might expect.

Fast forward a few years, Korg now offers the 700Sm; the ‘m’ denotes the slightly smaller scale of the instrument, which according to Korg, is 86% of its original size. But how does this affect its usability? Before we get to that, let's consider what we have as a package.

The unit itself is a beautifully put-together piece of kit. It is very well built, with some exceptionally chunky switches. Some of the faders offer a degree of wiggle room, but by modern standards still feel at the upper end of quality. The keyboard itself offers three octaves, but with range selection at the oscillator level, there is capacity to embrace a range up to seven octaves. The included keybed is one of Korg’s slim-key designs, which resides somewhere between fully sized and miniature keys. It is certainly playable, but this feels like one of the weaker components of the instrument, particularly when compared to the full-sized keyboard which was included on the previous 700FS, which was excellent. The metal casing is finished with obligatory wooden end cheeks – nice!

The 700Sm does not employ an internal power supply, instead relying on an included external PSU. More noticeably, though, Korg includes a very nice padded case for the synth, which also provides room for the external power supply and a cable or two.

There are also some other notable software additions to the bundle, which not only includes Korg’s software 700S, but also iZotope’s Ozone Elements mastering software. This is a basic-level suite, but it is perfectly usable and acts as a springboard to an upgrade path, should you want to extend to something more capable.

In use

As the 700Sm adopts a strikingly similar layout to the original ’70s design, this includes a multitude of switches and chunky selectors, which are assembled along the very front of the instrument, below the keyboard, and also to the left of the upper panel. This can make the control usage more challenging if you are standing above the keyboard, and it is definitely easier to use while seated in front of it.

However, the moment you press down a key, you can hear the quality of the instrument. Despite its analogue make-up, tuning is incredibly stable, and for such a simplistic synthesizer, the diverse nature of its sonic output is incredibly surprising. With 14 patch memories, Korg supplies an incredibly impressive demonstration of its capabilities to get you going.

There is no doubt that the 700Sm is a quirky beast, and these quirks infiltrate the signal flow considerably. The primary oscillator (VCO1) is mostly controlled from the front panel, where you begin by selecting from three subtractive waveforms (triangle, pulse and saw) or an additional two chorused iterations of the wave. These latter waves provide a thicker texture, with added movement, and sound very nice indeed!

VCO2 is less obvious to locate, in line with the quirkiness of the instrument. Activated by flicking the Effects button on the upper panel, the oscillator is fixed to a saw waveform and is blended with VCO1 through the balance fader, located on the upper panel. A coarse control allows tuning up to a full octave above or below the pitch of VCO1, with a further fine-tuning control, for greater detailing.

Right next door to these controls is a mode selector, which dictates the behaviour of VCO2. In Duet mode, it functions as a standard second oscillator, allowing unison or sub-oscillator style usage, but the fun really starts when you begin to invoke the modulation settings. These are styled upon ring modulation, in three different forms. The tones that can be created at this stage can be beautiful, metallic or gnarly, and highly engaging. You can also select noise generation instead, before the signal heads in the direction of the filter.

Versatile Traveller

When you go hunting for the filter, you need to remember that you're in the land of the quirky! On the one hand, you do have a fantastic filter available, but on the other, it is described as the Traveller.

Located on the lower-front panel, the two faders that make up the Traveller section essentially provide a high and low-pass filter, which work in tandem. This means that you get the best of both worlds, with the added bonus of a form of notch filtering. With both filters wide open, the sound is resoundingly crisp. Move the two cutoff points together and you can create some great wha-style effects. The two controls are prevented from passing each other via the use of a protruding cap, although in a bygone age, users were known to remove the caps and file them down, to allow the cutoff points to pass each other. By way of acknowledgement, Korg also includes two replacement caps with the protrusions removed, so you can swap them out without the need to grind down metal (or plastic, in this case!).

Despite the absence of a resonance control, there is an engaging wispiness to the colour of the filter at the cutoff location. It really does sound incredibly impressive; detailed and with depth to the output, and despite a lack of velocity, there are a few settings that can influence the Traveller’s behaviour. Basic AD envelope control is applied through the Attack and Percussion faders, which do an acceptable job of adding bite or swell to the Traveller’s settings. You can also apply a subtle amount of vibrato, which again helps to add movement.

LFO is described as vibrato, across the instrument, and this extends to a pulsing form of LFO modulation, which can be used to trigger an envelope gate. Perfect for creating repeating bass notes, without needing to continually attack the keyboard.

New guise

In its purist form, the 700Sm is a very faithful reincarnation of the original instrument, albeit with up-to-date circuit technology, but Korg has added a number of new enhancements, some of which are rooted in old-school charm.

The starting point for this is a spring reverb, which is represented via a simple volume/balance control. We shouldn't be surprised by this, particularly as Korg maintained a spring reverb on its miniature 2600, but it still oozes vintage charm and sounds incredibly beautiful. There is no control of the reverb beyond its volume, but this underlines the confidence of its quality, and if you need to be persuaded, a gentle thump to the side of the instrument provides a spring rattle!

Adding to the synth’s performance credentials, a small joystick provides pitch and modulation control, although it is very much a joystick, as opposed to a larger modulation lever. Its size is in keeping with the overall unit, but it does feel a little small, particularly when manoeuvring while playing.

The USB B port provides two-way MIDI communication, or you can use a conventional five-pin MIDI input. The synth is also equipped with Sync in and out, and CV/Gate input, should you wish to play with other vintage equipment, modular or Korg Volcas. There is also an onboard arpeggiator, although you will need to refer to the manual, as engagement and mode selection rely on various secondary button presses. This feels like a little bit of an oversight, as having more immediate and obvious access would invite another layer of creativity, without having to reach for a manual.

The keyboard also reacts to aftertouch (despite the lack of velocity control) which works pretty effectively, albeit within the confines of the slim keyboard.

Verdict

The miniKORG 700Sm is a stunningly creative and beautiful-sounding synthesiser. Being monophonic, its ultimate usage could be regarded as somewhat limited, but with the capacity to tune VCO2, you can create simple two-note chords, albeit without the wonders of the modulation section.

It excels in the bass department, where it can sound thunderous and subdued, in equal amounts. It is also perfect for those Zawinul or Vangelis-style leads, where ring modulation and spring reverberation can sound utterly amazing as a couplet. Even in more common lead settings, it's quite a heavyweight, although riding the crest of a synth solo using the smaller keys could sometimes be a challenge, but then this possibly has more to do with what you are used to.

The new additions to the instrument are incredibly welcome, and as a package, it has the capacity to extend way beyond the more obvious. The modulation section offers a wealth of creative potential, but it is quirky by nature and will definitely require a little bit of homework. The good news is, you’ll be rewarded with some excellent results!

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Hands-on demos

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