This is what stopped me in 2026.

Sequential FOURM — The Prophet You Can Actually Afford

I’ve wanted a Prophet for years. I’ve also never been able to justify the price. The FOURM changes that calculation completely.

It’s a four-voice, 100% analog polysynth built on the same voice architecture as the legendary Prophet-5 — two VCOs, a four-pole resonant low-pass filter, two ADSR envelopes, one LFO. Everything you’d want from a classic Sequential instrument. And it costs $999.

What pushed it over the edge for me is the keyboard. Sequential developed a custom 37-key “Tactive” keybed with polyphonic aftertouch — meaning each key responds independently to pressure. This hasn’t been standard on a keyboard this price, ever. You can route poly aftertouch to filter cutoff, oscillator pitch, LFO amount — all from the top panel. Playing it feels like playing a living instrument, not a preset machine.

There’s a “Vintage” parameter that introduces subtle detuning and instability — not just oscillator slop, but a full simulation of aged circuits across oscillators, filter, and envelopes. It sounds beautiful. Warm, imperfect, real.

I want this. I’m going to buy this. For anyone teaching synthesis — or anyone who’s been waiting for an accessible entry point into Sequential’s sound — this is the instrument of 2026.

Zähl PM12 — A Mixing Console Built for Modular Artists

Analog Performance Mixer · ~$15,000

This is the instrument that genuinely fascinated me most at Superbooth 2026. Not because I’ll buy it — the price puts it firmly in studio investment territory — but because of what it represents: a mixing console designed from scratch for how electronic musicians actually work.

Michael Zähl has over 35 years building high-end audio equipment. He made consoles for Conny Plank — one of the legendary producers behind Neu!, Kraftwerk, and Cluster. He built the mixing desk for Can Studio. The PM12 is his first performance-oriented mixer, and it shows that level of knowledge in every design choice.

The PM12 has 12 channels in a modular frame — channels can be configured in three different strip formats depending on your needs. Every channel handles stereo signals natively, with a one-knob EQ switchable between HF, MF, and Tilt modes. There are direct outputs on every channel for multitrack recording.

But what makes it remarkable for anyone working with modular synthesis: every channel has CV inputs. You can send Control Voltage directly to filter frequency, FX parameters, and more — from your modular rack, from a sequencer, from anything that speaks CV. Your mixer becomes part of your instrument. Your mixer responds to your patch.

Zähl kept the PM12 room completely black — just the console, monitors, and silence. He demonstrated with live electronics, and the room sounded incredible. This is what audio craftsmanship looks like when someone spends decades thinking about nothing else.

No pricing announced officially, but the community is already saying ~$15k. In the world of high-end analog mixing desks, that’s not actually shocking. Worth knowing about even if you’re not buying — this is where live electronic music is going.

Dubby by Componental — Open-Platform Effects Brain from Copenhagen

Quadraphonic Multi-Effects · Open Source

Dubby is hard to describe in one sentence, which is usually a good sign. It’s a compact, quadraphonic hardware effects and synthesis platform — open source, fully customizable, built by Componental in Copenhagen. You can load custom algorithms, route audio any way you want, and bridge it into your modular rack with CV and gate I/O.

The concept is simple: take your favourite software effects and patches out of the laptop. Put them in a box you can touch, tweak, and take on stage. Dubby runs algorithms built with Gen~ (Max/MSP’s embeddable C++ environment), which means the developer community is already building and sharing patches. Delays, reverbs, granular processors, synth voices — it’s all there, and you can write your own.

What I loved at Superbooth: the simplicity of the interface. Four knobs, one OLED screen, a rainbow LED strip. You can customise the entire layout and save full setups — switch between entire instrument configurations in a single tap. It connects to your modular rack via CV, and there’s a foot controller option for hands-free parameter control.

For anyone who loves the DIY and modular world but wants something that bridges into software — Dubby is exactly that bridge. The Copenhagen team are building something genuinely open, which is rare in this industry.

Focusrite ISA C8X — The Most Beautiful Piece of Studio Hardware I’ve Ever Seen

8-Channel Preamp · Premium Studio

I stopped dead in front of this. Focusrite displayed the ISA C8X — their new 8-channel ISA transformer-based preamp — with the top panel replaced by glass, the internal circuit board illuminated in amber from below. You can see every component, every solder joint, every capacitor. It looks like a museum installation.

Beyond the aesthetics: the ISA transformer sound is legendary. The original ISA110 was designed by Rupert Neve for the Focusrite console in 1985. That transformer character — musical, warm, with a particular high-frequency air — is one of the most sought-after sounds in professional recording. The C8X brings eight channels of that into a 2U rack unit.

I’m a guitarist and producer, not primarily a recording engineer — but looking at this unit, I understood immediately why people spend years finding the right preamp. It’s not decoration. The circuit board on display was the clearest possible argument for why analog hardware matters.

Maneco Labs Grone 2 — Dark Drone Machine from Argentina

Drone / Effects Unit · Boutique

Maneco Labs is an Argentine boutique builder making some of the most visually distinctive and sonically dark instruments in the pedal world. The Grone 2 is their “dark drone machine” — and walking past the booth, the artwork alone made me stop.

Underneath the striking cyberpunk panel is a serious instrument: oscillators with LFO wave selection, noise, sample rate reduction, delay with tap tempo, reverb with freeze, and a full CV/gate interface — CV in/out, gate in/out, LFO out, trigger, FX in/out. This is not a guitar pedal. It’s a standalone instrument for building textures, drones, and industrial soundscapes.

The gold knobs against the illustrated face panel, the red-lit eyes — this is what happens when boutique builders stop trying to look like everyone else. Maneco Labs has a distinct identity, and the Grone 2 is its most complete expression yet.

Beetronics — The Bee-Themed Pedal Universe That Actually Sounds Incredible

Effects Pedals · Boutique

The Beetronics booth was surrounded by fake fur, toy bees, and yellow foam. It looked ridiculous. And then I played the pedals.

Royal Jelly is a dual fuzz/overdrive with a continuous blend between two circuits — a Queen (fuzz) and a King (overdrive), mixed via the central Honey knob. It’s flexible in a way that most fuzz pedals aren’t: you can dial in pure velvet overdrive, pure splatting fuzz, or anything between.

Pollinator Hazee Delay has a central 8-position rotary selector choosing between filter and tremolo delay types, with time, feedback, mix, and mod controls. Simple on the surface, genuinely deep in use.

Tropical Fuzz wins the visual award of the entire show — a dramatic sculpted faceplate with glowing purple LEDs in the eyes, a red indicator light at the top, and an intricate illustrated design that looks more like album art than electronics. The fuzz circuit itself is serious: high and low gain controls, a nectar tone stack, and a dual-tap footswitch for mode selection.

Beetronics reminds me that boutique pedal makers can have a full visual universe, not just a product range. The bee theme is maximalist and committed, and it works because the sounds back it up completely.

Leaf Audio Piezo Preamp — Field Recording Gets Serious

Piezo / Contact Mic Preamp · Boutique

Anyone who works with contact microphones, hydrophones, or piezo transducers knows the problem: they need a very specific high-impedance preamp to sound right. Most solutions are either too clinical or too coloured. Leaf Audio, a boutique Czech builder, makes dedicated piezo preamps that are becoming a serious reference in the field recording and sound art world.

The Piezo Preamp at Superbooth had an etched spiral waveform pattern on the top panel that made it feel more like a sculpture than electronics. Small, black, illuminated blue, with a gain control and clean output. For anyone who uses contact mics — in instrument building, field recording, or sound installation — this is worth knowing about.

Electronic Audio Experiments — Three Pedals Worth Playing

Effects Pedals · Boutique USA

Electronic Audio Experiments (EAE) is a Chicago-based boutique builder that’s been making a name for itself with high-quality reverb and modulation pedals. At Superbooth they showed three units that are each worth a closer look.

Big Time Automation was the showstopper — a reverb and automation unit in a beautiful wooden-framed chassis, with faders that automate reverb parameter movements over time. The designer held it up proudly. It looked handbuilt, because it was.

Sending is a reverb with filter, feedback, rate, depth, color, and mix controls — versatile and warm, built for swell effects. Prismatic Wall (pink) is a reverb/drive combination. Halberd (terracotta) handles tremolo and reverb together with pre/post placement control.

What I appreciate about EAE is that each pedal has a specific personality — they’re not versions of each other. For guitarists and electronic musicians who want serious ambient and texture capabilities without going modular, these are the kind of tools worth investigating.

But here’s the thing I didn’t fully register until after Superbooth: the man holding the Big Time Automation in that photo — the founder of EAE — is John Snyder, a guitarist and electrical engineer from Boston who is, quietly, one of the most respected analog circuit designers in the pedal world.

The Big Time Automation he showed at Superbooth is not just an EAE product. It’s the result of a six-year collaboration with Chase Bliss — the pedal started in 2020 and finally shipped in June 2026. John designed the stereo analog preamp and the limiter embedded inside the feedback loop of the Chase Bliss Big Time — a hybrid analog/digital delay inspired by legendary early-80s rack units like the Lexicon PCM 70 and Korg SDD-3000. Joel Korte from Chase Bliss said publicly that it was John’s analog expertise that gave him the confidence the whole project was worth building.

As a guitarist, I played the Sending and the Halberd and they were exactly what I was hoping for — warm, deep, genuinely musical. John Snyder is the kind of builder who thinks about circuits the way a composer thinks about harmony. Every decision serves the sound. I’ll be keeping a close eye on everything he releases.

Chromatose — When a Modular Rig Becomes a Visual Instrument

AV Software · chromatose.app

Not hardware, not a synth — but one of the most striking booths at the show. Chromatose is a software platform that generates real-time visual art from audio input. At their Superbooth booth, a modular system played continuously while a large screen above it transformed the sound into neon edge-detection graphics — people in the crowd rendered as glowing outlines in electric blue, gold, and green.

AV performance is an increasingly serious part of the electronic music world. Tools like Chromatose make it accessible without requiring a computer science degree. The visuals were genuinely beautiful. Worth bookmarking: chromatose.app

What Superbooth 2026 Tells Us About Where Music is Going

Walking Superbooth every year gives me something that reading Gearnews or watching YouTube demos cannot: the physical experience of instruments in a room, played by people who built them, surrounded by musicians reacting in real time.

What stood out in 2026: the gap between expensive and accessible is closing. The Sequential FOURM at $999 with Prophet-5 DNA and polyphonic aftertouch would have cost three times that five years ago. Dubby puts an open-source platform that rivals boutique studio software into a €300 hardware box. The tools are becoming more democratic.

At the same time, the Zähl PM12 proves there’s still a market for instruments that take thirty years of expertise and refuse to compromise. The two ends of the market are both getting stronger.

I left with a list of things I want to buy, a longer list of ideas I want to try, and the quiet confirmation that this is one of the best times in history to make music with electronic instruments. See you at Superbooth 2027.

Learn the instruments

Want to get hands-on with modular synthesis, DIY electronics, or live performance?

Berlin School of Sound offers courses in modular synthesis, DIY synth-building, live performance, and more — taught by working Berlin artists at ACUD Kunsthaus. Summer 2026 courses are open now.→ View Summer CoursesBook a free call with Vojto →

Free · 15 min · Vojto Monteur, Director of Berlin School of Sound

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