THE KORG MINI-POPS MODEL MP-7/UNIVOX SR-95 DRUM MACHINE
Without a doubt - the most highly sought after rhythm box of all time - well, thats just my opinion
It's well sought after by Jean-Michel Jarre fans, if no one else - which is why i've got one (similar to the one from the piccy above)
No - I don't collect old drum machines, this is just something that because of it's Jarre-relevance, and its unique sound appealed to me!
The fanatical JMJ fan, will know all about this little piece of kit, Ok - it has been used by REM (Everybody Hurts) - and Beck (Most of Odelay and the single Deadweight) - but most notably by one Jean-Michel Jarre - Used on most of Oxygene, Equinoxe and a few others - but samples from this box crop up all the time somewhere.
I was the smart-alec who suggested that an Emulator of this little machine be created - at the time i only had the 'Oxygene and Equinoxe Sample Kit' - thanks to Mirai and co from the JMJ-ML.
Unfortunately this was taken that i would write it - when i attended JarreCon 98 - everyone I spoke to said "oh yeah - you're the guy writing the Mini-Pops emulator....."
Writing????.....Huh ???
i have no plans of writing such an emulator - i don't see that it isn't feasible - just my programming isn't good enough to do such a thing!
I did play with Macromedia Director and tried to paste the rhythms together from the sample kit - it sounded terrible - it was hideous - I have since created an interface in VB, but haven't got around to much else - when i can find out how to program sounds and stuff in VB - fine!
However - i did create a set of plans for how to create such an emulator - they're here - if anyone wants to add/remove or even take the project up - this is how i'd think of doing it!!!!
The main sounds that you'll here from this are the 'Ouijada'etc etc etc
Heres some samples, done by my SR-95/MP7 :)
Oxygene 2 - Sorry for extra Guiro !
Everybody Hurts (REM) - just to prove!
They may not be quite the tempo they should be, i'm not a good judge of tempo
The big thing with this unit is that Korg designed it so as you could only play one rhythm at a time - Many people (inc. JMJ) - discovered that by pressing more than one button at a time - you could combine rhythms - thats how JMJ got most of the rhythms he used !
Oh Yeah - and i have contributed samples from my minipops to MIRAI's new album - yup they're all mine :)
HANG ON ! - I THOUGHT YOU SAID KORG MINI-POPS ???
Aaaahhhh..You know how Tandy/Radio Shack used to sell Casio keyboards with their name on the front ?
Korg sold their kit under the name UNIVOX in certain countries - don't ask why - there's usually a reason - although Korg is a Japanese company, i'd imagine that the word Korg means something offensive in some country (Like 'Sega' apparently means '???' in Italian ? - I know, but GC won't let me print it)
So the Korg MiniPops MP7 - is also sold as the Univox SR-95 - makes sense.....see??? :))
BUT HOW ???
Look on Ebay - thats how i got mine!!
More info when I can think of what to add!