SolderBox

What it does

A semi-modular synth based on Jakob Haq’s own hardware rack. The top half is a conventional signal path, two oscillators with sine, triangle, square, saw and super saw, shapers, a resonant filter, envelope generator and VCA, already normalized so it makes sound before any cable is patched. The lower half is a patch bay with colour-coded ins and outs, two LFOs, noise, random and sample and hold, a quantizer, a pulse sequencer and the wave surgeon wave-mangling module. It loads as an instrument or as an effect.

In the demo

Jade, who says outright she is not a modular person, starts from an init patch and adds one section at a time, then plays through the abstract, generative and instrument preset banks before patching cables herself.

Worth knowing

It leans toward generative, drone and soundscape work rather than conventional song parts, and the patch bay rewards experiment over planning.