Thursday, September 27, 2018 — Brooklyn, NY – September 27, 2018 – Producer/Artist Nick Hook has made a name for himself as an in-demand producer for hip-hop artists, helming the mixing desk for artists like Young Thug, Run the Jewels, and 21 Savage, as well as following his own muses into ambient and psychedelic territory with albums like Relationships. Well known for his love of synthetic flavors from analog behemoths such as the ARP 2600 synth to the latest in digital and software synthesizers, Hook’s latest favorite ingredient is the Vengeance Sound’s Avenger synthesizer.
“I kind of see myself like a chef,” Hook explains, “I’m always searching for new spices, new flavors, anything to get a new angle and be able to adapt to a new situation. When a bunch of rappers walk in, I always pull up Avenger because it’s ready to go.”
Sounds in the Spice Rack
Prior to being exposed to Avenger, Hook had long been familiar with Vengeance Sound from its beloved preset packs, a staple in many producer’s drum and bass sounds. “Those packs had been on my hard drives for years,” Hook says, “They became part of my spice rack, and I’d know that if I pulled up a certain kick sound, it would just work every time.” Hook had used the packs on several of his productions before, perhaps most notably on Young Thug’s Olde English. Needless to say, finding out that Vengeance had developed a synthesizer perked his interest. “I didn’t even know they’d made one!” Hook laughs, “So when they told me I knew I had to check it out.” Hook found himself at home immediately with the same high-quality sounds upon booting up Vengeance for the first time. “It had all of those ready to go club sounds that I was familiar with,” Hook says, “So no matter what I knew they were going to sound great.”
Fresh Flavors
As someone who is constantly looking for fresh sounds, Hook found the editability in Avenger immediately appealing. “The flow of Avenger really enables,” he says, “It just gives you the capability to be able to modulate and customize anything. The only limit is you and the way that you see sound — so if you want to have four filters on something you can just keep adding and tweaking until you get what you want. It’s really a great framework because you can start from what you know, which for me is trap/hip hop, but then once you start breaking it down with all the crazy options Avenger has, you can really get into some wild places and create some magic.”
This kind of magic serves Hook well when working with clients, and he relates to it in a visual way. “In a lot of hip hop and trap, it’s about painting a picture and getting a theme going behind the rapper to really let them give their best performance. Vengeance really does the work for you in the sonic department, so you can focus on the performance department.”
As a producer and an artist, Hook is always checking himself to make sure that he is not becoming stale. “For me, it’s about being able to go into the studio each day and find ways of keeping it fresh,” Hook says, “I want to be able to adapt to any situation, sonically or stylistically.” In that sense, Hook says that Avenger is a valuable tool that will help him on this quest. “You can get really wild sounds out of it fast, from the 8-bit retro synths to the drum editors, and there’s still so much I feel like I need to learn about it, but at the same time it has those presets that I love so even if I don’t feel like exploring that day, I know it can get the job done.”
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
About Vengeance Sound
Manuel Schleis is the producer and mastermind behind Vengeance-Sound, a Germany based company. Vengeance Sound delivers top notch sounds and tools used in electronic club music for over a decade. In 2008 together with Rene Keilwerth, Vengeance developed a VST effect and mastering plugin series which led to the creation of the powerful Avenger Virtual Synthesizer. http://www.vengeance-sound.com
