There are only a few occasions within the audio world that genuinely really feel totally different from each other.
NAMM Present has that giant sense of scale and pleasure, the place each nook reveals one other legendary firm, one other instrument, one other piece of historical past. It’s the music trade working at full energy.
AES Conference is the place a number of the deepest technical conversations in skilled audio occur. Engineers, designers, educators, and producers all gathering to speak significantly in regards to the craft and way forward for recording.
Then there’s SuperBooth 2026.
Superbooth Berlin GmbH seems like anyone constructed a whole digital music universe inside a forest exterior Berlin and invited each synth designer, boutique audio builder, experimental musician, mastering engineer, and kit obsessive on Earth.
By day three, you’re exhausted, ingesting an excessive amount of espresso, wandering by bushes on the lookout for modular synth huts, and someway nonetheless discovering one other room stuffed with unbelievable audio gear.
That’s the magic of SuperBooth.
Headphones, Headphones In all places
One factor that turned apparent this 12 months was simply how significantly firms are taking headphones now. Not only for informal listening, however for correct mixing, monitoring, immersive work, and significant listening.
At Focal, we in contrast a number of fashions starting from their reasonably priced Hear Skilled all the way in which as much as their flagship headphones.
The Hear Professionals instantly stood out as a result of they really made sense for musicians. Strong, flattering, good isolation, and at €259 they felt like distinctive worth. They’d a bit of further “smiley face” character to them, which actually makes good sense in a monitoring setting. Once you’re recording in a dwell room, you typically need headphones that really feel thrilling and musical, not brutally analytical.
Then we moved up the vary.
The upper-end fashions out of the blue revealed tiny vocal inflections and particulars buried inside acquainted information. Listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody” turned a kind of moments the place you hear particulars in Freddie Mercury’s voice you someway by no means seen earlier than. Great and terrifying on the similar time.
That’s the unusual factor about actually revealing monitoring. You begin rethinking your personal mixes.
The beautiful individuals at Focal additionally gave us a pair of Hear Professionals to offer away.
Enter the giveaway right here: Focal Hear Skilled Giveaway
Over at beyerdynamic, the DT900 Professional X completely stole the present for me. Taking place the road evaluating headphones, these instantly felt essentially the most linear and pure.
There was a familiarity to them.
For those who grew up round NS10s, aggressive excessive mids, and rock information that snap at you a bit of, these felt extremely snug. Open, detailed, however nonetheless musical. At roughly €240, they had been shockingly good worth.
One of many smartest issues Beyerdynamic demonstrated was their manufacturing facility calibration system. Each particular person headphone is measured throughout manufacturing, and customers can enter the serial quantity into their calibration software program to retrieve correction knowledge particular to that precise unit.
That’s an extremely fashionable strategy to consistency.
And sure, the DT900 Professional X headphones impressed me a lot that the fantastic individuals at Beyerdynamic gave us a pair to offer away as properly.
Enter the giveaway right here: Beyerdynamic DT 900 Professional X Giveaway
Ribbon Mics, Tube Preamps, and Why AEA Retains Profitable
It’s not possible to stroll previous AEA Ribbon Mics Inc with out stopping.
Julie and the group had been displaying the N28 stereo ribbon mic, a extra compact different to the legendary R88. The concept was easy: make a smaller stereo ribbon microphone appropriate for contemporary dwell efficiency video setups and simpler real-world deployment.
And it really works brilliantly.
There’s a motive ribbon microphones are having one other second. The outdated fable that ribbons are “darkish” actually got here from many years of analogue tape generations, acetate copies, and constancy loss. Engineers as soon as wanted shiny microphones merely to outlive the recording chain.
Digital modified all of that.
Now engineers more and more need microphones that sound like what they really hear within the room.
AEA’s guitar amp examples demonstrated this completely. On a cranked amp, the microphone merely seemed like a superbly EQ’d guitar cupboard prepared for mixing. No harshness. No battle. Simply musicality.
Then issues turned much more attention-grabbing when AEA revealed their upcoming FC2 tube preamp.
A completely balanced hybrid tube/JFET design utilizing Lundahl transformers, Electro-Harmonix tubes, and Toshiba JFETs, it’s designed to mix the openness and linearity of AEA’s extremely clear ribbon preamps with a extra rounded, tube-forward presentation.
The outline that caught with me was:
“The FC2 blows the RPQ3 out of the water.”
That’s a daring assertion from the individuals who already make a number of the greatest ribbon mic preamps out there.
AudioScape and the Pleasure of “Forgotten” Gear
Speaking to AudioScape Engineering Co. at all times turns into half philosophy dialogue, half historical past lesson.
This 12 months’s sales space was stuffed with recreations of substances that, for years, individuals ignored or actively dismissed.
Now those self same items are out of the blue prized as a result of they sound totally different.
Their stereo EQP2A introduced traditional Pultec-style EQ right into a compact stereo chassis. Their recreations of 1178-style compressors, aggressive drum compressors, and vintage-inspired line amps all strengthened one level:
Trendy mixing typically lacks uniqueness as a result of everyone makes use of the identical instruments.
{Hardware} variance, quirks, and neglected designs are a part of what made older information sound alive.
The most effective discussions all weekend centred round compression. The parable that traditional information used “much less compression” was completely destroyed.
In actuality, engineers like Jack Douglas, Shelly Yakus, and numerous others had been compressing always, throughout monitoring, mixing, tape switch, console summing, and mastering.
The distinction was that analogue techniques rounded transients musically as a substitute of manufacturing ugly clipping.
That “bigger than life” sound typically got here from a number of levels of compression taking place gently and cumulatively.
SSL, Harrison, and the Hybrid Future
At Stable State Logic and Harrison Audio, the dialog revolved round hybrid workflows.
The fashionable actuality is easy:
Folks need analogue color and workflow mixed with digital flexibility.
The demo system centred across the SSL Huge Six, Fusion, Bus+, and 500-series processors confirmed how fashionable engineers are combining in-the-box mixing with analogue summing and {hardware} bus processing.
The Bus+ particularly demonstrated how far SSL’s traditional bus compressor idea has advanced.
The addition of high-pass filtering within the sidechain utterly adjustments how combine bus compression behaves. Immediately the low finish breathes naturally as a substitute of triggering fixed pumping.
For anybody who grew up mixing on SSL consoles, this feels just like the logical evolution of the format.
The Fusion additionally continues to show itself as one of many smartest fashionable stereo processors out there. Transformer saturation, high-frequency compression, stereo imaging, and tonal shaping all packaged in a means that feels musical fairly than scientific.
Rupert Neve Designs and the Final Nice Console
One of many highlights of the present was spending time with the Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console.
This was Rupert Neve’s ultimate console design, and it represents one thing more and more uncommon in fashionable audio:
A protracted-term philosophy.
No subscription. No DSP dependency. No deliberate obsolescence.
Simply transformers, Class A circuitry, huge headroom, and modular analogue structure designed to nonetheless operate fifty years from now.
The desk runs on ±45V rails, makes use of customized transformers on each enter and output, and prioritises extremely low noise and massive dynamic vary.
What struck me most wasn’t simply the sound.
It was the simplicity.
One knob per operate. No menu diving. No infinite screens.
Simply listening.
In an period the place a lot studio gear turns into out of date inside a couple of years, the 5088 feels nearly rebellious.
Elysia, Eventide, and Trendy Dynamics Processing
Elysia confirmed off their upcoming channel strip, full of Class A circuitry, dynamic EQ, saturation, recall, routing flexibility, and plugin integration.
In the meantime, Eventide Audio demonstrated the subsequent era of immersive processing by the H9000 Gen 2.
Twice the processing energy, immersive reverbs, superior spatial micro-pitch results, and full encompass integration make it clear the place high-end results processing is headed.
And sure, it sounded huge.
Harmful Music for Synth Nerds
SuperBooth wouldn’t be SuperBooth with out moments of whole synth madness.
The brand new ASM Levian synthesizer might have been essentially the most formidable instrument on the present.
Algorithmic synthesis, analogue filters, binaural modulation, poly-aftertouch, ribbon controllers, sequencers, modulation routing, and deep synthesis constructions all wrapped right into a remarkably approachable interface.
What made it spectacular wasn’t simply complexity.
It was how quick it felt.
You can go extremely deep with out always combating the interface.
That stability between experimentation and usefulness is extremely tough to realize.
And someplace in the midst of all this, there have been nonetheless individuals constructing unusual modular synths inside forest tents, experimental oscillators screaming by big PA techniques, and late-night techno performances taking place in hidden woodland levels.
Due to course there have been.
The Actual Magic of SuperBooth
What makes SuperBooth particular isn’t simply the gear.
It’s the environment.
You stroll from a mastering EQ demo right into a forest stuffed with experimental synth builders. Then right into a dialog about Rupert Neve transformers. Then right into a tent the place anyone is making terrifying spaceship noises by handmade oscillators.
And someway all of it is smart.
There’s additionally one thing deeply encouraging about seeing so many youthful engineers and musicians genuinely keen on sound once more.
Not presets.
Not algorithms.
Sound.
The precise texture, motion, distortion, harmonics, dynamics, and emotional affect of audio.
That obsession is alive and properly in Berlin.
And fortunately, so is SuperBooth.
