Some machines are written into the history of electronic music long before their name is. The Korg Mini Pops 7 is one of them: it’s the little analog rhythm box Jean-Michel Jarre ran throughout Oxygène. Behringer has been working on a clone since 2024, and things just took a decisive step — the Behringer Mini Pops 7 has surfaced in the latest Syntribe software (version 3.2.2). In Behringer land, that appearance means one thing: development is done and a launch is close.
From fixed presets to a programmable step sequencer
The original, built by Keio (Korg’s forerunner) in the late ’60s, was a preset rhythm box: you picked a style, you composed nothing. That’s where the Behringer version changes character. Expected in the RD-78 format (the same compact footprint as the RD-6 and TD-3), it promises around fifteen drum sounds and twenty patterns, but above all fully programmable operation: instrument selection and a step sequencer, Roland-style. Add a distortion unit and a tone control, probably a filter.
In other words, Behringer isn’t just photocopying a vintage circuit: it takes the analog grit of the original and grafts on the modern workflow the Mini Pops sorely lacked. To my mind that’s how you do a clone right — capture what makes the object desirable (the sound) and fix what made it impractical (no programming).
A legacy bigger than Jarre
Pinning the Mini Pops 7 to Oxygène alone would be unfair. It resurfaced decades later on Aphex Twin’s Syro, proof that this little rhythm generator aged as a character piece rather than a precision tool. That patina is exactly what Behringer wants back in circulation at an accessible price — the company hasn’t announced a price or date yet, but its usual positioning leaves little doubt about the ballpark.
My take
I’m not dogmatic about Behringer: when a product is well designed and makes an otherwise unaffordable sound accessible, I’m in. A genuine Mini Pops 7 in decent shape fetches unreasonable money on the used market for something fragile and rigid to use. If Behringer delivers the grit plus a real sequencer, the math gets very favorable for anyone making old-school electronic music. Caution is still warranted until the machine is in users’ hands — a Syntribe listing isn’t a release date — but the evidence is genuinely solid this time. While we wait for the hardware, here’s the sound of the original, the one Behringer is chasing:
Worth lining up with the brand’s other recent releases: the Behringer CS Mini inspired by the Yamaha CS-80, the Behringer AKS Mini pocket synth, and the Jupiter-8-style Behringer JT-2 module.
