If you have 26v on pin 8 of ic21, then you have the wrong power inverter plugged into. Sounds like you have one from a PC hooked to it, because that's a common unloaded voltage range for the older PC laptop models. I regularly use old Sony and Lenovo adapters to power oscillators that need 20v.
You should have 9v on pin 8 of ic21. ic22 pin 5 should have 9v and if you can find D5 that should have 9v on both sides, a little less on the circuit board side if it is floating around in there by the AC adapter plug.
The circuit is digital to the DAC, then into ic21 and the power amp, ic22. nothing else to debug. If you put a scope on pin 12 of the dac, ic20, you should see a clock signal, a square wave. Put a meter or a scope on the midi output pins and hit a key. see if you have any voltage changes or if you have a scope, you should have some type of square wave that you can't trigger on as it doesn't repeat the same data, I mean you can, but you have to be setup for it. You need to use the midi ground pins because IC7 is probably an opto isolator and the grounds might be lifted at the midi output.
If the midi is working, I would be amazed if you have 26v as you mentioned on those pins. It's possible because the 9v is brought down by ic19, a regulator. See if you have 5v out of pin 3 and 9v on pin 1. Pin 2 is ground. don't short that regulator because if you have 26v coming in where it should be 9v, that is the only thing protecting your digital circuitry.
My money is on the wrong AC adapter, then a defective AC adapter, that blew everything in the analog chain. Or maybe you just misread the voltage on the meter. Note that some AC adapters (bricks) don't output the correct voltage without a load, others can tell you why. The unloaded output of the power amp can be an unknown voltage. Just because it pops when you plug it in doesn't mean much.
If the midi works, run it into a PC with a USB to midi adapter, they cost less than $20, and then use the PC to drive the volume output. That assumes your IC's are blow and it didn't propagate to the other circuitry.
If the opamps are blown, then the output amp is probably shot too, and maybe the DAC. all that can be replaced inexpensively.
Jerry