Cheetah MS-6

Back in 1988, this Welsh gem emerged as Cheetah's crowning achievement—a 6-voice analog rackmount synth that packed multitimbral magic into a single 1U space, sharing the beloved CEM3396 chips with Oberheim's Matrix series for that signature warm, musical tone.

At its core, it delivers subtractive synthesis via 12 DCOs (two per voice) offering sawtooth, triangle, square (with PWM), and noise on the second osc, complete with sync, octave switching, fine detuning up to 93 cents, and envelope mix control between them. A resonant 24dB/oct low-pass filter pairs with dual ADSR envelopes—one fixed to amp but assignable to filter, pitch, or PWM—and two LFOs for versatile modulation in a flexible mod matrix. Controls are front-panel based with +/- data wheels for editing 59 parameters per patch, though it's tedious without an editor; MIDI In handles velocity, monophonic aftertouch, pitch bend, and up to six channels in Performance mode, with an internal battery backing 320 ROM, 96 RAM, and 64 multitimbral setups.

Owners cherish its creamy strings, punchy basses, and leads—OMD and Rick Wakeman put it on the map—though some note the fiddly editing and occasional battery woes after decades.