After years of covering the NAMM cycle I’ve never seen flagship gear hit the shelves so quickly – here are 6 of the hottest NAMM 26 releases you can pick up right now
The dust has only just settled on NAMM 2026, but if you think you have to wait to bag the latest gear releases, you’re dead wrong. Despite Anaheim only just packing up plenty of the gear on show is already available at retailers, allowing you to bag the hottest gear ahead of the competition.
The MusicRadar team was on the ground in California over the past week or so, and has picked out the hottest gear from a slew of releases, all of which can be bought straight away, no pre-orders or waiting months for a release date. From gigantic samplers to touch-screen audio interfaces, this is the hottest NAMM gear you can pick up right away.
Arguably one of the biggest announcements for NAMM this year, the Akai MPC XL is a massive deal, and not just in its huge size. Loads of hands-on control mean less menu diving, and when you do need to, this capability is offered by a stunning 10” touchscreen. It’s essentially a computer all by itself with 16GB RAM, 256GB of storage, and a Gen 2 8-core processor. What we love most though is the multi-zone drum pads, where each pad has four different assignable zones, giving you 64 pads in total to play with.
Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini
It was between this and the Akai in terms of humongousness when it comes to NAMM launches, but here we’re going the otherway with one of the all-time most popular floor modellers being seriously shrunk down. It still retains all the power of the full-size Quad Cortex though, so you can stack as many amp and effect blocks as you want to create complex signal chains. Ideal for home and studio users, the Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini is the perfect playground for guitar players.
Most people probably wouldn’t get excited about a digital mixing console, but I’m a particularly nerdy musician, so the Yamaha MGX16 stood out to me. Whether you’re playing live shows, recording a podcast, or hooking up a boatload of synthesizers to it, the MGX16 offers some incredible digital flexibility, which means it can output 22 tracks of audio via USB and even output video via an HDMI port. It’s also super lightweight at just 10.4lbs.
Many existing Studio One users baulked at the idea of Fender taking over their favourite DAW, but whisper it, early indications are that Fender Studio Pro is actually pretty good. It’s not just a change of badge; Fender has brought its well-regarded amp and effects models alongside a new look, revamped samplers, audio-to-note conversion for sound layering, and a new chord assistant that helps you freshen up any tired old chord progressions.
The Yamaha URX22 audio interface also caught my eye, largely thanks to a built-in touch screen on the top panel. This allows you to use DSP effects on your input, which is great for those who prefer a more analogue workflow or for content creators who want something they can use for podcasting. With 192 kHz / 32-bit resolution and high-end AD/DA converters, this could well be the interface to help you take things to the next level.
Another NAMM-defining moment for guitar players was Billy Corgan showing up and playing some classic Pumpkins’ tunes, sans any guitar amplifiers. For the demo, he used the Laney Supergrace pedal, which he’s been closely collaborating with the British amp maker and American amp builder Brian Carstens on for some time now. It features two channels with one based on the high-gain Carstens Grace and the second on the Laney Supergroup, which delivers Billy’s clean tones.
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