Pretty Lights – A Color Map of the Sun (Deluxe Version)

A custom 2000XL was used for sequencing the synths on A Color Map of the Sun, as stated by Pretty Lights in this July 1, 2013 Electronic Musician interview.

“I used a custom-made [Akai] MPC 2000XL to sequence my modular synth, but for cutting up my vinyl to sample and arrange it, I simply used the ‘Arrangement View’ in [Ableton] Live or Drum Rack; I love Drum Rack! I use other stuff now, like Sampler and all the NI [Native Instruments] stuff and UAD-2 [plug-ins], but for the album I just used good-old-fashioned slicing and warp pins straight in Arrangement mode.”

In the YouTube video titled "Pretty Lights - Tour Bus Studio," Pretty Lights showcases the Lynx Aurora 16 16-channel 24-bit/192kHz A/D D/A Converter as part of his studio setup while working on the album "A Color Map of the Sun" (ACMOTS).

Used to record the material used in A Color Map of the Sun, as seen at 0:31 in the documentary "The Making of A Color Map of the Sun". The MTR-15 is also mentioned by Pretty Lights in this July 1, 2013 Electronic Musician interview.

“Nothing had been created, no ideas had even been toyed around with,” Smith says. “I just knew I wanted to record with as many musicians as possible. So that happened first and it was all done to stereo tape. It’s funny, because when I called [Studio G] and said I wanted to do it to tape, they had their 2-inch 24-track Studer tape machine ready to go, and I was like, ‘No, I must have miscommunicated. I want to use the [Otari MTR-15] quarter-inch stereo tape machine and run it on 7.5 ips so we’re really getting into emulating a garage recording studio in the ’60s in Detroit or Cleveland or some place like that.’ They said, ‘Are you sure? You won’t be able to change it later.’ I said, ‘Yes, I want it to be very destructive,’ which in an audio sense means you can’t go back and change it.

Visible in the documentary "The Making of A Color Map of the Sun" at 0:43.

Used for the Studio G sessions of A Color Map of the Sun, as listed in the official album credits.

Used during the composition of A Color Map of the Sun, as stated by Pretty Lights in this July 1, 2013 Electronic Musician interview.

“There were no demos. I had a Wurlitzer and a small Virus Polar polyphonic synth so I could come up with chord progressions on the fly and bring it to the musicians, one at a time. I would literally go to the guitar player and say, ‘All right, strum D-minor,’ and he’d strum that, and then I’d say, ‘Okay, now add the 9th. Now strum it slower; now finger it up on this register. No, strum it up instead of down. A little faster.’ He’d finally get the strum and the chord exactly how I wanted it and I’d say, ‘Great! Stop, remember that. Stick with that.’ Then I’d go through the same process with the keyboard player on the Hammond and Wurly, the other guitar player, the horn players, and the bass player. A lot of times I would play bass, too, so we’d have two basses. (...) But through that first session, I so fell in love with analog modular synthesis, and I feel my ears really learned the lesson and could hear the difference between what my Virus sounded like when I just played a saw waveform and what the modular sounded like when I played a saw waveform. So that’s when I made the decision to make even the synthesis aspects of the record completely analog and modular. I built a big old modular synthesizer that I had to teach myself to use, and I used that for everything monophonic, and then I also purchased a polyphonic Dave Smith Prophet for the chord synthesis.”

Brain Coogan, a member of Pretty Lights' live band, can also be seen playing a Virus Polar in this photo from the beginning of the Episodic Tour 2016.

Visible at 0:19 in the documentary "The Making of A Color Map of the Sun".

Used for A Color Map of the Sun, as stated by Pretty Lights in this July 1, 2013 Electronic Musician interview.

“I used a custom-made [Akai] MPC 2000XL to sequence my modular synth, but for cutting up my vinyl to sample and arrange it, I simply used the ‘Arrangement View’ in [Ableton] Live or Drum Rack; I love Drum Rack! I use other stuff now, like Sampler and all the NI [Native Instruments] stuff and UAD-2 [plug-ins], but for the album I just used good-old-fashioned slicing and warp pins straight in Arrangement mode.”