Korg Mini Pops

On record

• Jean-Michel Jarre — Oxygène. Jarre recalls using a primitive Korg Mini Pops and combining two presets with tape for Oxygène. Source ↗
• R. Mutt and the Fountains / Hickory McCay — Mutt Is Gay (Mutt is a Genius Cassette I). Hickory McCay’s detailed track credits repeatedly name a Korg Mini-Pops drum machine. Source ↗

Start with the model number

The MP-7 manual shows a low cabinet with a row of rhythm buttons and separate percussion-level sliders. The Mini Pops 120 manual instead covers two enclosures: the portable 120P and wood-finished 120W. They share the 120 control layout, not the MP-7 panel. These are useful starting points for the family: a Mini Pops name on a record credit does not tell us which cabinet, rhythm set or controls were used.

Mini Pops-7 Owner’s Manual ↗ Mini Pops 120 Owner’s Manual ↗

The MP-7: choose, balance and start

On the MP-7, a rhythm-section lever selects the A or B set behind the rhythm buttons. Tempo sets the pace; the balance slider emphasizes cymbal and maracas, while three additional sliders adjust quijada, guiro and tambourine. Start/Stop can be worked from the panel or a foot pedal. Its manual specifies separate output levels for an electronic organ and another amplifier. The accompaniment was selected and adjusted at the machine, with the player's hands free to return to the instrument.

Mini Pops-7 Owner’s Manual ↗

The 120: changes within the accompaniment

The 120P/W adds A/B rhythm changes, five break rhythms, automatic or manual operation, and a fade-out/in button. Its manual expressly permits two or more rhythm buttons together; including Waltz makes the result triple metre. This is not simply a fixed preset with no room to intervene. A player can select a combination, call a break, change between rhythm variants and fade the accompaniment. Those facilities belong to the documented 120 models, not automatically to every Mini Pops.

Mini Pops 120 Owner’s Manual ↗

Jarre's taped combination

In a recollection reproduced by MusicRadar, Jean-Michel Jarre described using tape to hold two Mini Pops presets together for Oxygène. The instrument's model number is not given. The account documents his combined-preset method; it does not prove an MP-7 panel, identify a factory circuit, or establish that combining rhythms was forbidden by the manufacturer. One player's solution remains a family-level story until the model is evidenced.

Jean-Michel Jarre on the instruments of Oxygène ↗

A later credit, still without a model

The release credits for R. Mutt and the Fountains' Mutt Is Gay name Hickory McCay's Korg Mini-Pops on Interzero Zappa, One Hundred Twenty-Six Thousand and Mike Wallace. They identify particular tracks, but not the machine's model or which percussion sounds it supplied. The credit can stay here without making all Mini Pops interchangeable.

R. Mutt and the Fountains — Mutt Is Gay ↗