Monday, October 22, 2018 — Los Angeles, CA – To say that Greg Wells is an in-demand producer, writer, and musician is a bit of an understatement. From his work with platinum selling pop artists like Adele, Katy Perry, and Pink to legacy artists like Burt Bacharach, Elton John, and the Count Basie Orchestra, the musical polymath has worked his magic on dozens of productions in a wide variety of styles. Given his busy schedule however, Wells is always on the lookout for new tools that will make his process smoother and better. “I live in a world where everyone needs results yesterday,” he laughs, “So the more intuitive a tool is, the better it is for my workflow.” The most recent game-changer to Wells’ workflow has been Vengeance Sound’s Avenger synthesizer, a program that Wells says has almost immediately become his go-to when working on a new project. “It’s a winning combination of being intuitive and having amazing results,” he says, “And it’s a winner for me because I need to get a lot done in a short amount of time.”
Expertly Curated Presets
Wells notes how the most well-known session synthesizer players are known as much for their curation as they are for their playing. “You have to show up with great sounds ready to go,” he explains, “And that pallet of sounds is just curated through years of experimentation and tweaking presets.” As a skilled synthesis himself, Wells has no illusions about how difficult that can be. “Synthesizers from every generation have always had tons of presets that you just can’t imagine using on making a record,” he explains, “It’s a given, almost to the point of them being renowned for it. The exploring can be fun sometimes, but it’s not ideal when you’re under a time crunch.” Given this difficulty, he said he was immediately impressed with the preset sounds on Avenger. “When I open Avenger up, it’s like the hard work has already been done. It’s been curated by an expert and the height of the bar they use is so consistent. Every sound was instantly useable and musical, and I could already hear how it would sound on a track. I feel like I could write a song to each new preset that I was calling up.”
Riding the Wave of Creativity
Wells has no shortage of synthesizers in his studio, from vintage analog classics to newer digital and software synths. Despite the wide array of choices however, he says that he often finds himself using Avenger to cover all of these bases. “I have so many different synths and I can’t think of one synth where so many sounds are instantly usable. I’ve never played a synth that’s so consistent and geared towards modern record making. I can hear the work that has been put into the sounds, and it’s something we’re all benefiting from.” he says. “The sounds can be very ‘now’ while still not being tied to any specific genre. It’s effortless to find a sound and immediately pepper a track with it and no matter what genre the music is it all works.” Although Wells is obviously a fan of the ease of use of the provided presets, he does note how easy it is to edit them if needed. “You can get really complicated with it if you want,” he says, “It’s beautifully designed so if you need to do deep edits, it’s so easy to work with it. It gets up you up on the surf board right away and you can stay on it in a very creative way.”
Opening up that creativity is the key thing for Wells, and because of that Avenger has already become a staple of his production and composition workflow. “It is now my go-to synth on any project that I find myself working on. That’s where I start, and I don’t find myself needing to leave it.” He says, “The quality control is so high that it makes it really easy to just “plug it in” to whatever you’re working on. It’s really easy for me to rave about because I so enjoy using it.”
Avenger is available exclusively in the USA at Sweetwater. For more information, please visit: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AvengerVPS–vengeance-sound-vps-avenger
