Vintage Synth Explorer

Cheetah • MS-6

Towards the end of the eighties, the British company Cheetah released their finest, the MS6. It's a 6-voice polyphonic/multitimbral analog synthesizer in a single-unit rack module. It has two digitally controlled oscillators per voice (12 DCOs) to provide better stability, and they sound surprisingly warm and musical. It's got the same sound chips (CEM 3396) as the Oberheim Matrix 6/6R and Matrix 1000 but the MS6 is multitimbral! Get creative with layering patches for ensembles or Trance heaven! Hidden within this little unit are some wonderful string, bass, lead, voice and percussion sounds!

The MS6 is a full-featured analog synth with 12 oscillators with PWM, noise and sync. There are 6 analog 24dB/oct filters which are warm and resonant! Programming from the front panel is possible but quite a bit tedious, so use of an editor is definitely recommended, such as Unisyn or the Knobby. The MS6 has been used by OMD and Rick Wakeman.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Eraser

Posted 20 days ago

If this had been made by Roland, Korg or Yamaha, people would be falling over themselves to pay 3x the price for them. I can't recommend these things enough. If the battery hasn't leaked, I think they are actually very reliable machines if you look after them with the love and attention they deserve.

I sold mine at the dawn of soft synths and spent about 10 years kidding myself that one day a softy would come along that could replace it (and my other analogs).

It hasn't. It won't. I had to re-buy it!

This is hands down the best multitimbral analog synth available for the cash. Perfectly easy to program from the front panel (and actually very quick once learned). If you want knobs, buy a knob box, get the firmware upgrade and stop yer whineing. Simples.

Would love some info on fitting multiple outputs though, if any one is kind enough to help?

moogmodular2004@yahoo.co.uk

duncan

Posted 74 days ago

see one, get one, then get kris maad's o/s update, & find a tech who can fit you 6 outputs. you then have 6 pro-1's in a box.
these are curtis voice-chips with DCO front ends. where cheetah let the thing go cheaply was in the UI & the mono output stage. I read somewhere there was a stereo version, but never seen it. I fitted my first one with 6 outs & the maad mod., now I use a novation keyboard to program it. fat. I've got a pro-1, p600, sources, prodigys.... to go bigger than this, there's only the memorymoog.

wickedman

Posted 138 days ago

Also used by Mat Jarvis on his cult Gas0095 album.

Ian

Posted 145 days ago

These are really nice sounding synths. Basically if it was in keyboard form with loads of knobs on, people would be paying ridiculous prices on ebay for them! The sound is very nice and warm...great basses and excels at pads and fx and all with midi! The only major gripe I have is that they are so unrealiable..mine was bought with 5 voices..fixed back up to 6 voices..now its back down to 4 voices! :)

Francis

Posted 475 days ago

Had one of these up untill recently; a really great synth. A bit of a pain to program at first, but once you know what you're doing its fine. A firmware upgrade giving more waveforms, portamento etc is available from http://www.maad.net/ms6/ and really opens it up to more possibilities.

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