As part of his new Santa Monica recording studio, Butch Walker has adopted Endless Analogue’s Clasp system: ‘I grew up cutting tape and I missed the sound and art form of it,’ he says. ‘Being the proud owner of Studer A800 Mk.III, I sadly had it in storage for ten years because it just slowed down my workflow, so I gave it up to just go digital… But nothing’s ever emulated tape the right way, so I was extremely happy when I heard Clasp.’
His first encounter with Clasp was at the studio of his friend and noted producer John Fields. ‘I went over to John’s studio and he demo’d it for me,’ Walker says. ‘I really like being able to have everything hit tape first, not only because of the audio quality, but it’s no fun having to record everything onto tape and then dump it at a different time, it takes up the whole day. And so with Clasp, I liked the idea of it constantly dumping on to Pro Tools without having sync issues. I was also able to hear the actual audio again for the first time in years coming off of tape, and that’s enough to sell you.’
Walker has established himself as a songwriter, musician/artist, producer and engineer in the US music industry, having penned hits for Avril Lavigne, Sevendust and Fall Out Boy. He has engineering/engineering credits with Katy Perry, Pink and Weezer, as well as being Rolling Stone’s 2005 Producer of the Year. And as a musician/artist, he has received critical acclaim for his work with Marvelous 3, his DVD Live at Budokan, and his studio records The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and The Lets-Go-Out Tonights and Sycamore Meadows. His latest release, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart, features Walker and a new backup band The Black Widows.
He will be using Clasp with a new custom-made 24-channel Tonelux Designs recording console and his selection of vintage analogue tape recorders. ‘I’m going to be using Clasp with three tape machines,’ he confirms. ‘I’ve got an Otari MTR-90III, a Studer A800 Mk.III, and then I’ve got an ATR-102, which is an Ampex half-inch machine. Clasp is going to allow me to get all the benefits of analogue tape with the convenience of digital.’
More: www.endlessanalogue.com
