Cheetah MS-6

Hmm. Editing via the front panel its a pain - you have to access parameters by keying in numbers (in octal, if you please...) - not difficult, I guess, but time consuming. With the editor on the PC its quick and easy. Multi setup is a little odd and has fixed voice allocation.

1 unit rack-mount real analog synthesiser. 6 note polyphonic. 6 part multi-timbral. 1 mono output. single 4 pole low-pass Curtis filter, two DCOs, two envelopes (VCA + assignable) and one VCA per voice. Pulse (with dedicated PWM LFO, or envelope modulation), triangle, saw and noise waveforms (although noise seems broken on my unit) plus oscilator sync.

Can do basses respectably although the DCOs don't go very low and it makes a passible stab at pads. It can't do convincing impressions of actual instruments, but you wouldn't expect it to, would you? Velocity and aftertouch can be routed to a few different destinations including filter frequency for a bit of expressiveness. It can't do portamento, which is a shame.

I have to calibrate the DCOs every few months and the noise waveform seems broken but otherwise it hasn't (touching wood anxiously) failed me in the several years I've owned it.

Cheetah went out of business many years ago.

I like the sound on the whole and now I have a PC editor for it I use it frequently. Its a bit limited but if you can live with its limitations its pretty useful. I'd probably buy one again - they're fairly cheap because the interface puts people off but there's a decent synth lurking in there somewhere.

Presets sound OK and there's plenty of them, although there is limited space for user-saved presets. Editing is as intuitive as any single rack can be, I find it pretty easy though a software editor would be great.

6 notes poly (as per the name) and multi-timbral, though with a mono out I rarely take advantage of the multi-timbral aspect. There are no built in effects and no real expansion, although like the Oberheim Matrix 6R you can connect several to virtually add voices. It has standard midi capabilities, pressure sensative, sysex, etc.

This is analog, most comparable to a Matrix-6R without the matrix modulation. The sounds are thick and the filter is great, sharper than a moog at high res settings, though not quite as smooth. The filter is really the best part of this little beast. The modulation effects are great and it sees a lot of work for bass and leads. I love this quirky little box and wish I could have afforded the keyboard version which I understand has a full set of controllers

utterly dependable in every way. This one's never let me down.

I'm not even sure the company still exists, but I've never needed support, the manual is pretty complete (enough info that if I had time I could code an editor)

As long as I could find it I'd always get it.