In November, SchneidersLaden and Stromkult went on a trip to China for the 2025 Edition of the Modular Commune event in Beijing, China’s biggest modular event, which has grown steadily over the past few years with more visitors and manufacturers attending every year.
Here our impressions of the event, along with some pictures!
credit: Modular Commune
The event was held in an old factory in the Beijing 798 Art Zone, an art district with galleries, artist workshops, music venues and restaurants located in an area marked by its visually striking decommissioned military factory buildings from the 1950s and 1960s.
A little bit like China’s version of the SuperBooth, the Modular Commune features a mix of product exhibitions, concerts, workshops and afterparties, touching on all aspects of electronic music-making.
credit: Modular Commune
Among the brands exhibiting at the Modular Commune were many well-known Western brands such 4ms, Ableton, Bastl, Buchla, Dreadbox, Doepfer, Endorphin.es, Joranalogue, Korg Berlin, Native Instruments, Neuzeit and Oxi Instruments.
view from the exhibition hall
Representing the local Chinese brands were veterans like Meng Qi Music and many small DiY builders and experimenters like Synso, Modular Khiat and MadKidsEmpire, as well upstart brands like EAR Modular. Among the exhibitors were also upcoming brands from other Asian countries, such as South Korea’s Holocene Electronics.
EAR WindString, credit: EAR Modular
The Doepfer booth was headed up by our friend Jeanie of Beanie Bunnie Modular, who was representing Doepfer for us at the event and is currently working on starting her own synth store in China.
Jeanie with her Doepfer system
Reflecting on her experience exhibiting at the event, Jeanie noted that “people were not shy at all, they were very proactive in their attempts to try out the system and play around with the patching.”
activity at Jeanie's booth
The multiple modular live and ambient stages featured over 140 concerts, with performances from the likes of TamiX (who has also performed at the SuperBooth), Julia Bondar, Tats from Korg Berlin, Eric from Schlappi Instruments, Meng Qi, and many more.
credit: Modular Commune
There were multiple afterparties as well, with an ambient afterparty hosted in an atmospheric gallery space and a sweaty techno party at the city's Groundless Factory club.
ambient afterparty, credit: Modular Commune
Groundless Factory, credit: Modular Commune
In terms of the event’s educational side, there were DiY workshops with brands like Bastl Instruments, Making Sound Machines, Error Instruments and Synthesis Minority (Meng Qi). There was also a "novice corner" in which experienced modular users offered to walk people through their systems, which we thought was a very nice touch and great way of inter-community education.
DiY workshop, credit: Modular Commune
The talks and masterclasses featured a variety of presenters and lecturers such as TamiX, Tats from Korg Berlin, Meng Qi and Julia Bondar of Endorphin.es.
Tamix and Tats, credit: Modular Commune
Audience at the Endorphin.es talk, credit: Modular Commune
And of course our own Andreas Schneider also gave a talk!
Andreas' talk
Our team noted that the crowd (unlike many of the more "traditional" synthesizer events in Europe) definitely tended towards the younger side, with many young gen Z attendees that were very excited about diving into the world of electronic music making.
credit: Modular Commune
credit: Modular Commune
In general, we came away from our trip feeling energized and impressed by the potential and momentum of China's modular scene, and we are very excited by what some of the new upstart brands and builders will be bringing to the market in the next few years!
view from our hotel window
You can find out more about Modular Commune over on their website and Instagram.