Synthfest UK 26: A Triumph of Community Spirit

On Saturday 24th October 2026 the good folks at Sound on Sound & Sensoria Film & Music Festival put on a hell of a synth show! Synthfest UK 26 featured over 70 exhibitors - from the largest synth companies to inventive one-person operations, seminars, plus a "modular meet" area filled with passionate enthusiasts.

The Synths

I managed to grab a fair number of sliders and knobs on the Saturday, so I thought I'd to mention some highlights!

• The HUGE Korg PS-3300 reissue was located in Korg's warmly lit basement room. 3 gorgeous analogue synth engines (comprised of 144 synth voices - 3 per key!) which run into 3 highly resonant bandpass filters; the PS-3300 is analogue heaven, for a price! I found that I was able to very easily go from slightly warbly, naive bell pads to complete atonal dystopia - a testament to the large amount of front panel controls. Amazing.
• A much smaller, yet just as satisfying polyphonic experience was to be found on the Skald modular stall. This 4-voice Eurorack system is comprised of a polyphonic MIDI module (Polybus) which then controls up to 4 individual, discrete, hand-soldered synth voices. I got them tuned up and WOW, it was the highlight of the show for me - I've always loved the sound of independent monophonic voices, ganged together into Polysynth duty. By tuning some of the voices up and down an octave, I stumbled across some staggering fugue-like moments. Skald also has a really nice 42HP sequencer, so check out the website.

• Bob from Groove Synthesis gave a fantastic demonstration of the 3rd Wave - showing the instrument's range of wavetable, VA, FM and sampled sounds - it really is a sonic chameleon with both analogue (SSI2140) and digital (SVF) filters, plus a bunch of really. nice effects!
• Helli-Machines (Ian Helliwell) showed off a curious collection of custom instruments, including the Hellisizer 5000 synthesizer (complete with joystick) and a Hellivision Miniscope, which produced monophonic, pixelated waveforms on a screen - graphics that reminded me of early computers like the ZX81!

• We had a nice chat with the creator of Yoshimi, an open-source software synthesizer for Linux. It began as a fork of ZynSubAddFX and features a scalable interface, a 16-part "kit" mode and charming retro style.
• Analogue Solutions usually brings along an absolute Behemoth or two to display, and this year they were demoing the series 700 modular - a faithful reproduction of the Roland System 700. Almost every circuit has been reproduced from the original schematics!
• Synth panel of the show, for me, went to Monk Project Generative Hardware Sequencer. I personally have very little interest in generative devices, but I had to admit that the Star Trek-like light show was absolutely captivating.

The People

Whilst the synths are undoutedly the focus of Synthfest, it's the people that make it what it is. I'd like to give some shoutouts!

• It was lovely to chat to fellow Sonic TALK alumni like Matt, Robin, Tom & Ty! Some hilarious anecdotes were shared :D
• I'd like to give special thanks to Paula & Rik who graciously gave me a lift & showed me to the Student Union at Lunchtime, where I didn't need to queue for my scran!
• It was fun to meet synth enthusiast & machine persuader Ste Rauer.
• It's always a pleasure popping by Pro Synth Network's stall, where Robbie and Peter had a bunch of amazing classic Yamaha synths (including a CS15D, CS20M & SK30!) plus, some really cool tote bags - I bought a Battlezone one :D
• And it was really nice to meet a few other folks for this first time - so hi to Dave Spears, Martin Christie, Nathan Ramsden, Paul Nagle & Peter Ruczynski. I'm sure I've forgotten people, but that's old age for you. See you next year!

• A Kalimba In Your Pocket 26-Oct-26
• Alesis Andromeda A6 as a Plugin 26-Oct-26
• Underworld - Born Slippy Nuxx 26-Oct-26
• Should Brands Build Un-hackable Synths? 24-Oct-26
• Kosheen - Hide U 23-Oct-26