Best of show: walk NAMM with us in a gear-mas gallery

Who stood out at this year’s NAMM show, that festivus of gear that brightens our winters from Anaheim? We’ve given you some idea with NAMM and LA’s Buchla & Friends. Here, in images, are our favorites from NAMM, as captured by LA photographer Mehdi Hassine and veteran Berlin hardware guru Gösta Wellmer.

Ukraine’s Tembra Modular continues workshops, gear despite attacks

Through blackouts, bitter cold, Internet disruptions, and nightly attacks, Ukrainian DIY producers Tembra Modular persist. The two-person shop continues to run workshops and produce DIY kits and assembled modules. Blackouts can’t stop them: their production often takes place literally by candlelight. Here’s Kaximia to tell us the story of their modular synth resistance, and why you should be conscious in your choice of what hardware you use.

Soundbites: the music inventions of NAMM, Buchla and Friends

Gear-mas comes but once a year. But with swirling doom and gloom, just how is the world of making musical instruments? We sent Nadia Says, along with Burak Yerebakan, Portrait XO, Franck Martin, and Mehdi Hassine to find out, at the mighty NAMM show in Anaheim — and the indie Buchla & Friends in LA, too. Here’s the show viewed through artists and makers alike, one portrait at a time.

Nadia Says - January 30, 2026

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