This variant treats the whole pipeline as a single piece of hardware. Sound is generated on the left, flows through a case of patched modules, and leaves on the right as a file. There is no “Stage 2” and “Stage 3” — only modules in a signal chain, which is exactly how the engineering actually works.
Tone.js and SoundTouch modules sit side by side in the same case. SoundTouch modules wear a gold faceplate so you always know which engine is touching the signal — but you patch them in any order, interleaving freely (EQ → pitch → reverb → stretch). That is the “unified rack” architecture made literal.
Rotary knobs, bypass LEDs, and patch cables borrow the muscle memory of real gear. Drag a module by its grip to repatch the chain; right-click for duplicate / bypass / remove. Sliders would be faster to read, but knobs make the surface feel like an instrument you play rather than a form you fill.
The cables aren’t decoration — they encode order. The waveform on the OUT module reacts live as you turn knobs and re-order modules, so cause and effect stay legible even with a deep chain. The horizontal case scrolls, so the rack can grow without a redesign.
Sound designers and musicians who think in signal chains and love hardware. The trade-off: density and a learning curve. It rewards exploration over first-run speed — the opposite end of the spectrum from the prompt-first and guided variants.
Mocked engine · all four stages share one model · swap in real Tone.js · SoundTouch · lamejs later