What is the instrument panel thing that Duncan Trussell says he plays with sometimes? It's like a board with lights and switches and plugs that he can mess around with and it makes different noises?

You're definitely talking about a modular synthesizer. Duncan is always geeking out over that stuff on his show. It’s basically a massive board full of patch cables, knobs, and switches that lets you patch different signals together to create those weird, trippy soundscapes. It’s not like a regular keyboard where you just press keys; you’re literally building the sound from scratch using electricity.

I’ve messed around with similar setups a few times when helping some friends in the local music scene with their gear racks. It’s honestly like working on a complex wiring job but for audio. You plug one end of a cable into an oscillator, run it through a filter, and then out to the speakers. It’s super satisfying once you get a rhythm or a crazy drone going, but it can get pretty expensive and addictive real quick if you start buying new modules to add to your rig.