Had a splendid time at Superbooth 2025 - inexplicably my first time, but glad to have made it there now to enjoy the vibes - and the synths.
As ever, the best bit is talking with people, catching up with friends and finding out more about the synths, modules and audio machines of all types direct from the makers/designers/manufacturers themselves. But having access to so many keyboards in one place is also a rare occurrence, so obviously one needs to try and play as many different synths as possible! I also tried to take a pic of everything I played on - which was made ‘a little' harder by my phone dying about an hour in on the first day I was there...
Regardless - here are all the pictures I did take!
Moog MiniMoog Red Edition!
Minimoog innit..always a pleasure to play :-)
Non-Linear Labs C15
One of the classiest instruments there. Lovely keyboard to play and great sounds.
Yamaha Montage M7
Amazing retro modular-styled control panels for all parameters. Didn’t get a chance to find out if this actually makes it easier to sound design with (looks like rather a lot of reaching for things quite far away), but if you’re gonna map out all controls for a digital synth, you may as well do it properly!
Auto-fader hackday project
Someone at Yamaha clearly had fun hooking up some sliders to Actuators and software to made a perpetually evolving sonic artefact!
Berlin University Modular synthesizer (1980s)
Need to look up the details of this one
The Subharchod
An extraordinary valve based machine from 1962, made in the GDR. Apparently banned by the authorities who clearly saw it as threat to the stability of Communism. (Accurately, as it turned out, this things bass frequencies brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union a mere 25 years later!).
More seriously it uses the principles of sub-harmonics to create tonal frequencies. Something I need actually understand in a bit more detail. Moog’s recent SubHarmicon uses similar principles. Apparently the red knobs and dials were originally white, but have gracefully all turn the same shade of red.
What does it sound like? Oh terrible! :-) Or at least, it’s a very raw organ-like tone, that lacks any modern sense of fidelity or smoothness. The four knobs in the bottom row on the left control harmonics, and actually, you can get reasonable tones. The bottom row of switches directly above the keyboard are notch filters from low to high; so quite radical harmonic interventions can be made. It is quite a remarkable thing!
Publison DHM-88 & KB-2000
In the same room as the SubHarchord (Berlin Synthesizer Museum), there was also the very rare Digital Delay Line / Sampler system made by Publison in the early 1980s. Like other DDLs, the captured ’sample’ can be manipulated in a sampler-like way. However the Publison goes quite a lot further with the ability to trigger loops in different places, to change pitch of repeats, with total feedback, and many other interesting and novel controls. Check out Robert Henke’s Pitchloop-88 for a Max-For-Live recreation.
Oberheim DMX - software version
This was the closest I got to vintage drum machine. There’s reason I’m very interested in vintage drum machines. All will be revealed in due course!
Erica Synths Hex Drums
The long awaited Erica Synths re-relased of Hex Investors drum box.
Sounds bloody great! (And an effects box that was hooked up to it)
Melborne DELIA
The one with the motorised parameter pots, so with each patch load, all the knobs automatically rotate to the correct setting. Despite that seeming to be a bit of gimmick, I don’t mind as it actually sounds fantastic (and the morphing between two sounds pot is great)
Alesis Andromeda 6
Great to play on one of these at last. Sounds as fat and lush as it looks it should.
Sequential Circuits Prophet 10
The new Prophet 10 innit.
Korg Wavestate
I am really drawn to the sound of wavetable synths, and I love the sound of Korg’s Wavestate.
Janko Project (Hooked up to an Arturia Polybrute)
Like an exploding hallucination of a bad generative AI keyboard, the Janko is a valiant attempt to re-imagine the piano keyboard. Attempting to solve for the ‘problem’ that on a piano some white notes are a tone apart and others a semi-tone. (Not something I’ve ever had a particular issue with). An upselling point is that chord shapes remain the same in every key. Again, not something I’ve thought to be a huge issue before.
It was easier to play than I thought though, and the different levels of each key are usefully placed. But, they are quite narrow and if I tried to play fast, my fingers just slipped off the keys all the time. So…like other valiant attempts to redesign the piano keyboard (or the querty keyboard, come to that), the current system is simply to ingrained in our fingers to change now.
Waldorf Iridium
A nice sounding modern box; didn’t play for long enough to get a real sense of its personality..
Schmidt 8-Voice
Now we’re talking. Sounds as extraordinary as it looks. Huge sound, every modulation option imaginable is possible; so much to learn, yet laid out in a reasonably straightforward way so I reckon you could find your way round without too much bother, and a bit of concentrated effort.
Yamaha Reface
I liked the idea of a knob-based control system for FM, but unfortunately the system didn’t seem to be working properly today.
PPG Synthesizer 1002
I did have a go on this, but it’s unconventional and I didn’t manage to figure it out before the next guy’s turn. It’s not not your standard VCO > VCF > ADSR set-up, that’s for sure!
Walforf Quantum - Big sounding synth; I’m afraid I didn’t do much more than step through preset, and of course they all sounded great.
Conspicuous by THEIR Absence Award Goes To…
Don’t know enough about their corporate strategy to explain their absence. (Do they usually come to Superbooth?
Other things I played but didn’t photograph:
Korg Mini-700s - just a fun and quirky monosynth.
Korg Kronos - perfect for the jobbing composer who just needs the range of a modern M1. This wasn’t in headphones so I had to deploy my best Bach, Beethoven, Chameleon and Golden Brown renditions for public consumption. A good way to address my recurring dream of performing in public, but forgetting all the notes!
Novation Bass Station II - perfectible serviceable mono-synth
Sequential Prophet-6 - lush and sophisticated, as you know.
Instruo Seashell Module - Wild little unit! Lots of FM / Ring mod / Hard-sync sounds at the drop of a hat (or knob)
Modal Systems Cobalt 8 / Argon 8 / Carbon 8 - I really like the sound of these; the sound world aligns really well with my taste for interesting harmonic content in sound
Moog Messenger - NICE. Particularly liked the ‘bass compensation’ knob for hi-resonant filter settings. Clever.
Moog Muse - LUSH.
Cong Burn Strokes (with Plaits inside). I already own this so was nice to meet the developer behind it.
Clank - Won ’Star of the Show’. A very innovative interface and approach to sound design. Intriguing and would need much more time to understand its possibilities.
UDO Super 6. Bloody love this. Sounds amazing. UK brand too!
WMD - new module Skorpion. Super-powerful wave folder. Nice tricks like LFO control of wave-fold parameters to keep the sound active and alive.
BASTL - tiny units sample thingy. Couldn’t really get the hang of it. It’s difficult to grasp Modular sometimes in this kind of environment I think.
Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave. The one that got away - I would have liked to have tried this one. Pretty sure I would have loved it.
Audio.Computer Beat.Compute - Interesting semi-preset CR-78 based drum machine. Start with a preset and each instrument has a control to add more notes independently (generated by alogorhythm). Also a swing control knob (labelled ‘jazz’) and an ‘enthusiasm’ known. Also three onboard effects like bit-crush and delay, which also interact in interesting way. Would be great for quick backing beats playing live that could be evolved relatively quickly to provide often-much needed variation in ‘live DAWless jam’ situations!
Korg Physical box thing - set of piezo-connected tines, which can be physically altered with rocks and things put onto them. Charles & I couldn’t quite get the
Torso Sample ‘Player’
Very nice way of interacting with samples that is more intuitive and immediate that old-school sample editing. It’s cool and fun.
Bjooks - I spent a lot of time with Kim and co on the Bjooks stand. There may be a reason for this…watch this space!
Surgeon Live - Great to see the techno legend live at last!
All in all - I had a fantastic time at my first Superbooth - and fully intend to return next year!
Top tip for next time: Don’t put ‘Superbooth’ into Google Maps without double checking the address. I spent 45 mins getting to a public toilet in east Berlin’s equivalent of Deptford…