In mid-April, SchneidersLaden took part in Synthfest France for the first time. We’d like to share a summary of the experience had by our team members Maxime and Miquel, who showcased their selection of gear over the three days of the event.
This 2026 edition took place at La Fleuriaye, a recently renovated conference and events centre near Nantes. It’s a spacious venue surrounded by greenery. The atmosphere is very friendly, and most visitors return every year. Two large halls were filled mainly with French and European brands, both small and large, and synthesiser collectors, including an Oberheim fan who brought along several originals. Bitwig was there for software, as were several pedal stands. A very interesting melting pot, constantly buzzing with workshops, presentations, demonstrations and talks.
Our stand had keyboards synths on one side and a modular setup on the other with three different systems: a first one focused on techno, featuring the Ohmforce Bohm, the Vhikk X, the Magerit Laniakea, the WMD Clutch, the LPZW. Modules Elster and the Mžourack Diktaat. You can well imagine how successful it was! For West Coast sounds and experimentation, we brought along a complete Verbos system, this red one had lots of hands on. The third system, a 104hp unit, was created to be more melodic, yet still deliver a very powerful and rich sound. It included the Macbeth Dual Oscillator and Backend Filter, driven by the superb Seaside Modular Proteus; Happy Nerding FX Aid filled the remaining 4hp, but with Macbeth’s sound, the dry/wet ratio remained rather dry, haha.
We also brought back the Manifold Antilope for some hellish drums, and a great 80s sounding wavetable/sampler: the Suonobuono Polyvera. And as we always want more, we’d also brought the majestic Frap Tools Magnolia from our showroom, and a UDO DMNO fresh off the production line. Warning: these two synths are absolute beasts. They were a massive hit, sparking nothing but smiles and enthusiasm. Sometimes, there was even a bit of a wait to try them out, to the extent that a member of staff came to tell us before we left that they were turning up before the show opened just to have a go – no joke!
As the machines could only be listened to via headphones, any potential cacophony was avoided, which also gave us the idea of connecting them all to a OTO MACHINES Bébé Chérie using splitter cables so that visitors could, if they wished, listen to each other and play together. An external clock generator set the tempo for the modular systems and the Antilope; on Saturday afternoon, we were at 133bpm. We racked our brains a bit over this setup, but it was honestly cool!
We have great memories of all our interactions with visitors; we learnt and discovered, as well as from the other exhibitors and particularly the Morphor team, those guys are just brilliant and no wonder their ECHON 6 is so out of the ordinary whilst sounding so good!
Thank you Synthfest for your warm welcome, and we’re looking forward to next year!
To find out more information about the SynthFest France, check out their website.