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Trent Reznor’s custom synth blends analog sound design, real hardwood, and a working Atari 2600 in one gloriously overbuilt console.
A Studio Console With a Secret in the Front
Some musical instruments are designed to disappear into a studio rack. This one demands the room’s attention. Trent Reznor’s custom synth combines a serious analog sound system with a working Atari 2600+, turning a recording setup into something halfway between a vintage control desk and a childhood game room.
Swedish designer and woodworker Love Hultén built the one-off station for the Nine Inch Nails frontman. There’s a cartridge slot set into the front, a small monitor perched above the main panel, and a joystick positioned beside the keyboard as if it’s patiently waiting for a break between recording sessions.
The whole cabinet feels like someone fused Trent Reznor’s childhood bedroom with a dark, highly organized recording studio. It’s made from hardwood, stands on slim legs, and has just enough theatrical flair to make you wonder whether it belongs in a studio or on a very tasteful spaceship.
Naturally, the Atari is shown running Ракетное командование. That choice feels almost too perfect. The game’s collapsing cities and constant sense of impending disaster fit comfortably beside Reznor’s famously tense industrial soundscapes.
Why the Atari Belongs Here
The gaming hardware isn’t a random decoration. Reznor grew up with an Atari 2600, taught himself programming on a Commodore 64, and later created the soundtrack for id Software’s Quake in 1996. The console is therefore tied to his early relationship with technology, sound, and games rather than being a simple retro prop.
I’ll admit my first reaction was that the Atari might be the gimmick—the flashy detail people would photograph while ignoring the instrument itself. Looking more closely, that impression doesn’t hold up. The game system is integrated into the console’s visual language, while the synth hardware remains the serious centerpiece. It isn’t a game console wearing a musician’s costume. It’s a working music station with an Atari built into its personality.
Hultén has been combining woodworking and electronics since design school in 2010. His projects have included synthesizers, arcade cabinets, and custom consoles, usually as one-off commissions. His signature style makes modern electronics look as though a 1970s equipment company hired cabinetmakers instead of relying on plastic molding.
That approach is especially well suited to Atari hardware. The original 2600 already had a famous woodgrain appearance, even though much of that retro charm came from a printed imitation of wood. Hultén responds with the real material, making the new cabinet feel warmer, heavier, and considerably more luxurious.
The Analog Heart of the Machine
The musical engine begins with an Analogue Solutions Ample, a desktop synthesizer handmade in England and priced at $2,499. Apart from its MIDI chip, the circuitry is analog, with three oscillators, a 24dB low-pass filter, and circuit designs inspired by the mid-1970s.
The Ample’s standout feature is its pin matrix. Instead of connecting everything with a tangled nest of patch cables, the player routes signals by pushing tiny pins into a grid of holes. Each pin has a different resistance, so the selected pin affects how strongly a signal reaches its destination.
That may sound like a small technical detail, but it changes the physical experience of making music. You’re not simply turning knobs and pressing keys. You’re building a signal path with your hands, one connection at a time. It has the satisfying, slightly stubborn character of old hardware: the machine asks you to understand its logic rather than hiding everything behind a screen.
Hultén brings this matrix directly onto the custom panel. Rows marked VCO1, VCO2, VCO3, noise, and ring mod sit opposite destinations such as filter cutoff and oscillator pitch. Bright orange pins show the active connections, adding a small burst of color to an otherwise dark instrument.
Six gold plates in the center appear to function as the Ample’s touch keys. Tapping each one sends a set voltage, while a compact keyboard below handles more conventional playing. The result is a tall, imposing control panel packed with knobs, switches, connections, and touch-sensitive controls.
A Synth Panel That Looks Like a Control Room
The instrument’s layout is one of its strongest details. Every section has its own visual territory, but the parts still feel related. The vertical panel resembles a vintage studio console, except someone has slipped an arcade machine into the furniture.
The orange pins are especially effective. They make the patching system readable at a glance and echo the Atari cartridge labels used elsewhere on the cabinet. Even without hearing a note, you can tell this is meant to be played, adjusted, and fussed over.
That hands-on quality matters. A modern computer-based setup can offer almost limitless sounds, but it often reduces the physical drama of making them. Here, every knob and pin becomes part of the performance. I can imagine reaching for one control, changing a filter connection, and accidentally spending twenty minutes chasing a completely different tone. That’s not necessarily efficient, but it is exactly how interesting sounds tend to appear.
There is a mild drawback, though: the panel looks dense enough to intimidate anyone who hasn’t spent time with analog gear. The visual richness is part of the appeal, but it may take a while to understand what each section is doing. This is a machine that rewards curiosity more than quick results.
Warm Delay, Grit, and a Little Drone
The sound chain continues with a Zen Delay, a stereo delay unit developed by Erica Synths with London label Ninja Tune and co-conceived by Coldcut’s Matt Black. It combines tempo-synced delay with a 24dB multimode filter and valve overdrive.
That combination is built for warm, dubby sounds with a little roughness around the edges. The delay can create space, the filter can reshape the tone, and the overdrive adds a layer of grit when a clean signal feels too polite.
After that comes an Industrialectric RM-1N reverb pedal for even more atmosphere. Hultén gives these effects their own stretch of the cabinet, with controls for feedback, drive, tone, reverb mix, and one wonderfully mysterious knob labeled simply “drone.”
A control marked “drone” is an invitation, really. It suggests that the cabinet isn’t only for playing notes or building tidy sequences. It wants to produce long, evolving textures—the kind of sound that begins as a low hum and gradually takes over the room.
With the synth, delay, overdrive, and reverb all working together, Reznor could build an entire Ghosts-style soundscape without leaving the cabinet. That may be a little dramatic, but the setup clearly favors atmosphere over sterile precision.
The Atari 2600+ Takes Its Place
Then comes the other star of the show: an official Atari 2600+ released by Atari and Plaion in 2023 for $129.99. It is an 80-percent-scale replica of the 1980 four-switch model, with HDMI output, an enlarged cartridge slot, and compatibility with original 2600 and 7800 cartridges.
Hultén moves the cartridge slot onto the main panel and places power and TV-type switches nearby, recalling the controls of the original console. A small display sits in the upper corner, while a classic joystick is mounted into the keyboard deck.
In the photographs, the system is running Ракетное командование. The cartridge sits proudly in place, making it clear that this is not a decorative shell or a hollow tribute. It’s a working console integrated into the same piece of furniture as the analog instrument.
The placement also makes practical sense. The joystick is close enough to reach from the playing position, but it doesn’t overwhelm the keyboard or synth controls. It feels less like an afterthought and more like a second mode for the same machine: create a wall of sound, then defend a few pixel cities while your ears recover.
Real Wood, Fake Woodgrain Memories
The cabinet’s details pull the entire idea together. Black panels with orange lettering mirror the look of old Atari cartridge labels, including the Ракетное командование cartridge in the slot. Horizontal ridges across the front echo the ribbed top surface of the original 2600, while alternating black and orange knobs reinforce the connection.
The most elegant reference is the cabinet itself. Atari’s original console famously used faux woodgrain, while this custom build answers with genuine hardwood. It’s a clever reversal: the old plastic console pretended to be furniture, and Hultén’s new cabinet actually is furniture.
Around the back, a grain-textured black panel includes an Atari logo cutout that glows red. Slim black legs give the structure the proportions of a mid-century cabinet, keeping the large instrument from looking like a bulky equipment rack.
It’s a lot of visual language, but it never feels random. The game hardware, studio electronics, colors, ridges, wood, and glowing logo all point toward the same period without turning the cabinet into a museum display.
A One-Off That Works Because It’s Personal
Hultén previously created the NES-SY37 in 2022, another project that paired a game console with a synthesizer using chiptune modules. This newer build takes a different route. Instead of making the console and synth share the same sonic identity, it lets both systems perform their own jobs side by side.
That distinction makes the design more convincing. The Atari remains a classic game machine, while the Ample and effects chain remain dedicated music hardware. They’re united by the cabinet, not forced into one complicated hybrid.
This is a one-off commission, so there’s no production version waiting on a store shelf. The Ample, Zen Delay, and Atari 2600+ are separate products, but recreating the entire setup would still require serious woodworking, careful wiring, and a willingness to sacrifice a perfectly good afternoon to a jigsaw.
For all the drama built into the design, I hope Reznor keeps this one away from the stage. A keyboard might survive a little road wear. A custom hardwood cabinet packed with analog circuitry, an Atari, and a tiny monitor deserves a calmer life—preferably somewhere with a sturdy floor and no flying drumsticks.
The best retro-inspired designs don’t merely copy old shapes; they understand why those shapes still matter. This console works because the Atari 2600 is part of Reznor’s history, while the analog hardware reflects the tactile, hands-on process behind his music. Would you keep the setup focused on sound, or would Ракетное командование win the first studio break?
ЧАСТО ЗАДАВАЕМЫЕ ВОПРОСЫ
- What is built into Trent Reznor’s custom synth?
The cabinet contains an analog synthesizer setup, effects hardware, a working Atari 2600+ console, a small monitor, and a classic joystick. - Who designed the custom Atari synth cabinet?
Swedish woodworker and designer Love Hultén created the one-off sound station. - Which synthesizer provides the main sound engine?
The system uses an Analogue Solutions Ample, an analog desktop synthesizer with three oscillators, a 24dB low-pass filter, and a pin matrix. - What Atari game is shown running on the console?
The built-in Atari is shown playing Ракетное командование. - Can this exact custom synth be purchased?
No. The cabinet is a one-off commission, although the Ample, Zen Delay, and Atari 2600+ are separate products.
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