Best of NAMM 2026 for Electronic Music Producers

As the famed music instrument show marked its 125th birthday, we hit the Anaheim show floor once again to find out what’s hot, what’s not, and whether it’s possible to escape the constant AI chatter.

Korg Phase8

Announced in fall of 2025, the Phase8 captured the imagination of synth enthusiasts worldwide. Korg finally unveiled this exotic animal to the public at NAMM 2026 and we got some answers.

The Phase8 is truly unique. It bridges the physical and electronic worlds in a way as compelling as GameChanger’s Motorsynth or the rare Moog guitar, but it boasts an interface perfect for the electronic music producer, as one would expect from venerated manufacturer Korg, creator of the addictive Volca series and the legendary Kaoss Pad.

It’s impossible to sufficiently explain the Phase8 with words; you have to touch it. It’s not analog and it’s not digital; it’s haptic. The synthesizer literally moves, vibrating steel tines that serve as your oscillators. With a sound all its own, a unique polymetric step sequencer, and a one-of-a-kind user interface, we expect it to be the secret sauce behind many tracks in 2026 and beyond.

Launch priced at $1149 – target ship date of April 2026.

Eventide Music Mouse

Invented by electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel (whose compositions appear everywhere from the Voyager Golden Record to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games) and released to the public originally in 1986, Music Mouse was an algorithmic musical composition software that ran on Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari computers.

Eventide teased us with this mysterious (and when we at the booth, unattended) retro display which was devoid of any real details. Light internet sleuthing led us to this URL which went live on 1/20/26, revealing that Eventide is planning a special re-release of this legendary electronic music composition tool 40 years after its original launch.

No more details are available at this time.

ASM – Leviasynth

The sound generation wizards at Ashun Sound Machines unveiled their Leviasynth to the world, and the name fits. Sixteen voices with up to eight oscillators each, seven oscillator types to choose from, and a litany of rich analog and digital filters make this a fitting studio centerpiece and a serious step up in flexibility from the brand’s legendary Hydrasynth series.

Boasting many of users’ favorite features of the Hydrasynth including their unique Polytouch engine, MPE support, and ASM’s famous vowel formant filter, the Leviasynth builds on ASM’s admirable legacy and goes – and sounds – even bigger.

Available in both a desktop module and a 61-note keyboard, the Leviasynth was one of the best feeling and sounding pieces at the show. We recommend going for the keyboard so you can enjoy the massive ribbon controller and the creative avenues it opens up.

Desktop and Keyboard priced at $1799 and $2499, respectively, and expected to ship in spring 2026

Korg KPV

It’s been over ten years since Korg did an honest to goodness refresh of their beloved Kaoss Pad, and the new KPV introduces this classic hands-on approach to sound design to a whole new generation of music creators. Upgraded with a new dual touch interface and upgraded sampling and looping capabilities, the KPV can wear many hats; effects processor, looper workstation, expressive MIDI controller, sampler, USB audio interface, and the list goes on.

With a deep catalog of more than 200 onboard audio effects, the KPV keeps intact the user interface that thousands of musicians and producers have fallen in love over the course of the last several decades but adds a new level of expression.

AlphaTheta – RMX-Ignite

AlphaTheta revealed the successor to their capable RMX-1000 sampler and effects unit, a piece beloved my many creative DJs that also found its way into the production workflows of many creators who favor a more performative creation process. AlphaTheta/Pioneer have long been known for the incredible, studio-quality effects that played a part in making the DJM series of mixers the industry standards they are, and they bring this power – as well as the second-to-none tactile control and rock-solid performance the brand is synonymous with – to the RMX-Ignite.

We love the addition of three big, satisfying throw levers akin to the style levers on Pioneer’s battle-style DJM-S series mixers. These allow the user to activate and deactivate effects like echo, reverb, and time stretching with extreme timing accuracy and simply feel amazing. The RMX-Ignite also features an onboard sampler and can elevate any DJ performance, live PA set, or studio session. 

Akai MPC XL

Akai continues their legacy of producing studio workhorses with the release of the MPC XL. This new flagship workstation fills the void left by the departure of the MPC X and then some. Like its predecessor, the MPC XL is centered around a 10” high-res touchscreen, 16 iconic MPC pads, and a boatload of I/O including CV outputs. The XL, however, ups the ante by doubling the CV output count to 16, exploding the onboard storage to 225GB via SSD, reintroducing the touchstrip we loved on the MPC Studio, perfect for real-time control over effects and instrument parameters, and many more improvements.

The MPC XL is sure to be a classic.

Soundtoys Spaceblender 2

We spotted an unreleased update to Soundtoys’ excellent Spaceblender ‘imaginary space machine,’ a creative and powerful take on reverb and delay. Inspired by the tape loop delays of ambient musicians like Brian eno, the original Spaceblender dropped in early 2025 and was met with much praise. The update appears to multiply the capabilities of the processor by adding entirely new sound engines with names like ‘metronomic’ and ‘synthi,’ and a droolworthy UI that begs you to click, drag, and completely mangle sound.

There’s no official announcement of the update at show time so the plugin will likely look a bit different when the final release hits the market, and we’re excited to see the final product.

Elysia Channex Studio

A truly aspirational piece for the serious electronic music studio. Elysia’s incredible Alpha Compressor is one of those IYKYK pieces, a two-channel mastering processor that costs as much as a decent used car and acts as the final mix glue in many serious electronic music production and mixing studios.

The Channex Studio continues this uncompromising approach to hardware design, this time offering studios a mic preamp, dynamic EQ, and incredibly versatility compressor section with multiple distortion or ‘flavor’ modes, all 100% controllable and recallable via a plugin in your DAW. Launching at $8,999, we can’t all afford this one, but those who can should consider it. You can’t get a bad sound of this piece – even when the circuits are pushed beyond any reasonable limit, the result is musical.

Flock Audio Patch SE

Another studio piece, the Patch SE brings Flock Audio’s renowned digital patch bay technology to a price that some people actually can afford. A massive upgrade for any electronic music studio that houses a collection of hardware processors, the Patch SE gives instant recall of patch routing via a plugin in your DAW, allowing producers to actually remember the signal chains they used on last week’s session, and even changing patch routing mid-session. Try that with a traditional patch bay.

At $999 it isn’t cheap, but for a serious studio it’s comparable in price to an old school analog patch bay with a full complement of cables. Add the convenience and extra creative capacity it offers and you’ve got a piece that makes its way onto our short list

Dubreq Stylophone Voice

Now for something with a something far less serious and much more playful than high-end analog mixing gear, the Stylophone Voice. We have loved seeing Dubreq reinvent the Stylophone over and over, each time adding an addictive new twist to the quirky synthesizer that was originally invented in the 1960s. Now they’ve gone and made it a sampler, and it’s $50. Allegedly shipping this summer, it’s another great way to add some fun factor to the production process, and it’s cheap enough that you can rationalize buying an extra one as a gift for a friend.

Target price $50, shipping (we hope) in Summer 2026.

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