Chris Lake uses Ableton Live, which he told MusicRadar in 2025 has won out over Logic and Reason. He has said he uses Omnisphere, Massive, Sylenth and Synplant, Soundtoys EchoBoy and Decapitator, and he named a Prophet, a Novation Summit and a Hologram Microcosm on his album Chemistry.
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“Ableton just speaks my language and doesn't feel like it gets in the way of me taking an idea from my head into the computer.”
“The other thing that's really key is loads of Overdrive. I think it's one of the most underrated plugins in Ableton Live.”
“I decided to get Logic 8 on the Mac and I think it's brilliant, especially for when I'm recording vocals.”
“I really like Spectrasonics' Omnisphere, that's kind of like a ROMpler in a way. It's really powerful, I love the waveforms”
“I love Native Instruments' Massive and I love Lennar Digital's Sylenth still.”
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“Ableton just speaks my language and doesn't feel like it gets in the way of me taking an idea from my head into the computer.”
“The other thing that's really key is loads of Overdrive. I think it's one of the most underrated plugins in Ableton Live.”
“I decided to get Logic 8 on the Mac and I think it's brilliant, especially for when I'm recording vocals.”
“I really like Spectrasonics' Omnisphere, that's kind of like a ROMpler in a way. It's really powerful, I love the waveforms”
“I love Native Instruments' Massive and I love Lennar Digital's Sylenth still.”
“It's weird, but I actually used that for the lead on In The Yuma. It's got such a great sound.”
“I put a Soundtoys Decapitator on, a couple of Echoboys”
“It's the first group of plugin synths I turn to for inspiration.”
“It just sounds so good, so expressive and fun to use.”
“I used a Prophet-8 quite a bit, the Novation Summit and a Crumar Seven electric piano with a couple of pedals.”
“The Hologram Microcosm is a great granular looping pedal for creating spatial delays and stuff like that.”
“It's a shame it's monophonic, but it is great for really warm standout leads, basses and effects.”
“I just don't end up using it that much even though it's very versatile.”
“They just work for me nicely and the sound correction is pretty cool too”
“to make sure my mix has not gone sideways on the main monitors”
“Soon after that, it would have been a Roland MC-303, which I quickly upgraded to the MC-505.”
“Armand's style has truly stood the test of time.”
“I absolutely adore them and they meant so much to the younger me.”
Ableton Live. He told MusicRadar in December 2025 that after moving between Logic and Ableton, Ableton won out and he has been using it for a very long time. In 2026 he told MusicTech that Ableton's Overdrive is one of its most underrated plugins.
He told MusicRadar in 2023 that he likes Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Native Instruments Massive, LennarDigital Sylenth and Sonic Charge Synplant, which he used for the lead on In The Yuma. He told MusicTech he put Soundtoys Decapitator and EchoBoy on the vocals.
On his 2025 album Chemistry he said he used a Prophet quite a bit, a Novation Summit and a Crumar Seven electric piano. In 2009 he said his Prophet '08 sounded so good and expressive, and praised his Moog Voyager for warm leads and basses.
In a 2009 MusicRadar studio feature he said his main monitors were a pair of JBL LSR4300s, with Genelec 6040s to check that a mix had not gone sideways. He has also said he has released music monitored only on laptop speakers.
A Hologram Microcosm. He described it to MusicRadar as a granular looping pedal for creating spatial delays.
Chris Lake is a British house producer and DJ based in Los Angeles who runs Black Book Records. This guide covers the DAW, plugins, synths and monitors he has named in interviews from 2009 to 2026, plus a few records he has talked about.
truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. Chris Lake didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.
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