Trend price : 100€
A buget half-rack module from the nineties from English society Cheetah, most known for their rack MS-6- a kind of Oberheim Matrix 1000 clone
Company: Cheetah
Model: MS-800
Class: Synth Module
Dates: 199X
Price: 100€
Synthesis: PCM rompler with wavesequence
N. samples: 21 PCM
Resolution: 8 bits
Polyphony: 15 voices
Filter: none
LFO: none
Envelope: 1
Memory: 49 slots
Demo: 1
Video: 1
Review: 1
DOWNLOAD : user Manual
Overview
MODULE half rack module. The main panel is pretty poor: a basic segment display and 10 buttons for whole edit and worst of all there are not known editors.
Rear panel terminal connectors:
-
main signal out (mono + stereo)s
- Midi interface
Voice
the unit manages up to 15 voices polyphony.A basic
sound patch is composed by up to 4 PCM voice in layer or TONES, and each tone has a few editable parameters:
- detune amount
- transpose
- velocity curve response
- volume gain.
Wavetable
internal ROM features 21 compressed waveforms at 8 bits (?).
Most of wavetable contains basic waves (e.g.: sine, triangle) or noises and harmonics
Wavesequence
special wave cycling mode for sweeping sequences a bit like Korg Wavestation or Commodore 64 wavetable. The wavesquence allows some harsh digital sequences but it badly lacks a filter structure: Heres' roughly the typic edit structure, but the interface is way too complicated with quite no clue about your programming steps:
STEP 1- volume
STEP 2- waveform
STEP 3- crossfade time
STEP 4- go to next wave or [LOOP] or [END]
Envelope
no EG generator but a simple "attenuation" parameter, a kind of attack.
Midi
unit is multitimbral and manages some basic parameters: velocity, pitch bend, program change and exclusive system, but no editor/librarian are available.
Memory
-
50 ROM patches
- 49 RAM patches
- 50 ROM tones
- 50 RAM tones.
Sounds can be saved only by exclusives system.
APHEX TWIN CHEETAH in 2016 for some weird and funny reasons, the famous English musician made an album CHEETAH EP with a reference to the cheap module. Some people think the artist has been inspired by Ms800 sonic sound, but it is mainly a joke like he did for the unlucky cousin ORLA DS24/12 another nightmare to edit.
Review
OK: -wavesequence - cheap
NOT : - interface- sound -edit
"Like Evolution EVS-1, the MS800 makes low fidelity digital noises, but even a Commodore 64 SID can do better. Interface sucks and refrain anyone. No editor, no sounds, nothing... for early digital geeks"
Text , review, special demos copyright polynominal.com / Eric Pochesci
