SynthFest 2026 Walkthrough

video uploads by Molten Music Technology

"I visited SynthFest for the day in Sheffield and these were the bits of synth and modular that caught my attention."

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Playlist:

1. SynthFest 2026 Walkthrough

Sound On Sound magazine brought back SynthFest this year to delight us with synthesisers, modular and electronic music technology. It was filled with gear, seminars and a good dollop of community. Here's my walkthrough of the main expo in the hope of giving you some of the vibe of this fabulous show. Check out my handful of other videos getting closer in on some of the interesting bits that caught my attention. https://www.synthfest.co.uk/

2. SynthFest 2026 Noise Lab Beat Designer

To go along with their Drum Designer module, Noise Lab has come up with a fully featured drum machine called Beat Designer. https://www.noiselab.se/

3. SynthFest 2026 Orbiton

A remarkable new prototype instrument called Orbiton. It uses these twangy lamellas to physically modulate the sound. Currently the sound source is a DSP internal synth, but the intention is to be able to use the lamella vibrations as oscillators as the instrument develops. https://orbitonsynth.com/

4. SynthFest 2026 Delia Derbyshire Day

Grabbed a few moments at the Delia Derbyshire Day booth who are using Delia's legacy to empowered women in electronic music and technology. This was juston the Insta360 camera so the video and audio are a bit ropey, but it's a wonderful charity who deserve a shout-out. https://deliaderbyshireday.com/

5. SynthFest 2026 Half-Time Modular 8TR, 2TR and a Looper

Half-Time Modular are released a stereo, 2-track recorder module that will capture your performance at the touch of a button. Very neat in 2HP but also useful as a 1U tile. They also had a prototype looper - one to watch out for. https://www.halftimemodular.com/

6. SynthFest 2026 MidiCake Una

Una is a sort of build-a-band, hardware interactive composer that responds to what you play and jams around it. https://midicake.com/

7. SynthFest 2026 Rides in the Storm Rhythm Rides

Rides in the Storm were showing their not-quite-working drum machine Rhythm Rides. It's a massive source of modular drums, pattern generation and percussive grooving. Should be running at Superbooth next year. https://rides-in-the-storm.de/

8. SynthFest 2026 Bradshaw Instruments Drumkid

Sample-based drum module that's a whole kit to play with and includes lots of probabilistic messing about. https://bradshawinstruments.myshopify.com

9. SynthFest 2026 CLIP Photon Smasher

CLIP are a community-led project that brings people together over the generation of sound, and making and listening to music. They had two different Photon Smashers to show us. https://www.clipsoundandmusic.uk/

10. SynthFest 2026 Ian Helliwell

Discovered a superbly dressed man, showing some wondefully put together boxes, making some fascinating noises. That man is audio/visual artist Ian Helliwell. https://www.ianhelliwell.co.uk/

11. SynthFest 2026 F*ck With Sound

F*ck With Sound were showing three modules including a Ring Modulator, Distortion and Spatial mixing thing. https://www.fwithsound.com/

12. SynthFest 2026 Wonkystuff FluxMEMORY/h

Wonkystuff has pulled the FluxMEMORY out of the AE Modular format and put it into your hand. The handheld FluxMemory/h gives you four sample playback heads that you can mix and mess with. https://wonkystuff.co.uk/

13. SynthFest 2026 Eternal Research Demon Box

Strange triangulaar box that feeds of electromagnetic fields and outputs MIDI notes and other bits of data. https://eternalresearch.com/

14. SynthFest 2026 Transistor Sound Labs Bitloader

Bitloader is a sample-based drum module that's the perfect companion to the Stepper Drum which been in development for a very long time. However, Nina seemed to think that January could be the moment to get both of these modules released! https://www.transistorsoundslabs.com/

See the labels below for additonal posts on each.