Last September, Brazilian techno genius Gui Boratto unleashed his third LP, appropriately titled III, on Kompakt. Its lush, low-slung chugger “Destination: Education” helped establish the gorgeously deep and moody tone that the album took on, cementing the man’s already solid reputation as a producer of the highest order and a force to be reckoned with.

Then last week Boratto upped the ante, offering up an exclusive-to-Beatport remix EP of that track, with a couple friends having a whack at it. While we are pretty wild about Terranova‘s upbeat, almost-tribal second take on the tune, we really wanted to pick Boratto’s brain about what technology goes into making his songs such studio masterworks.

Here, Boratto tells us about a handful of the production gems he often falls back on:

1. My EMS VCS3 Putney synthesizer

This one is from 1969, and it just sounds amazing. Its textures are really unique. I love its angled wooden case. It’s been used for years, with artists like Pink Floyd, Vince Clarke, Tangerine Dream, etc. It’s very rare to find one these days. I found mine on eBay, and coincidentally it belonged to Vincent Gallo! Normally I use it as a standalone, passing through my patchbay into my Apogee audio interfaces. Since I use Logic and ProTools, I use plug-in compressors and EQs. I wish the VCS3 had built-in delay, but instead I often use a Boss digital delay on its output. Its construction, finish, and details are so incredible. I just used it to do one of the arp sounds on a remix I did for Stimming & David August‘s ”Sexy Biest,” to be released on Diynamic really soon. Normally, I use it for leads and basses, but I’ve done some clicks, hats, snares, and kicks with it, too.

2. My Roland MC-202 MicroComposer

I got this when I was in Japan for the first time back in 2006. I really love its size! It’s very portable, and it has a little sequencer and keyboard inside. I use this baby a lot, especially with an overdrive guitar pedal on its output. My song ”Take My Breath Away” has a lot of this machine: The main synth that goes on and on is the MC-202 with the overdrive.

3. My Roland MC500 MKII

This is my first sampler I got back in 1989 when I started to program things, around age 15. My father got it for me when he went to London on vacation. It has two MIDI outputs, which means you could use around 32 synthesizers at the same time. Normally, all the synths of that period had only one MIDI channel. The thing I love about it is its super timing—it doesn’t slip a millisecond. It’s much faster than a computer’s programming. I still use it sometimes to program some house drum sequences. I know people will say I’m crazy to still use it, but if you try to do some step sequences on that, you’ll fall in love with it, too. I did lots of extra programing with it on all my albums, including III.