Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas (left) and engineer Warren Huart, with CLASP.
Nashville, TN (October 11, 2011)—Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas and engineer Warren Huart are using four Endless Analog CLASP units to record the band’s new studio album.
The band began sessions in July at two Aerosmith-affiliated Boston-area studios: Pandora’s Box, which the band owns, and the Boneyard, guitarist Joe Perry’s personal studio. Two CLASP (Closed Loop Analog Signal Processor) units are present at Pandora’s Box: one connected to a 16-track, two-inch Studer A800 analog tape machine for recording drums, and one connected to a 24-track, two-inch A800 MkIII for recording everything else. At the Boneyard, another CLASP is connected to an additional 24-track, two-inch A800 MkIII for overdubs. A fourth CLASP will adorn a yet-to-be-announced Los Angeles studio when sessions move to the west coast later this year.
Douglas, who, aside from his tenure with Aerosmith, is noted for his work with John Lennon, the New York Dolls, The Who and other classic acts, stated, “CLASP is revolutionary. We’re sticklers for big, fat analog sound, so this CLASP system was just perfect for us. And we’re so happy that Chris [Estes, CLASP inventor] came along and was able to hook us up with the stuff, and we really love it.
“The album’s gonna sound amazing. It has that rich, fat sound of analog and we have the convenience of being able to edit in Pro Tools, so we really love CLASP and what it’s let us do. Normally, if we were using tape, we’d be using reels and reels. But CLASP lets us use the same reel over and over again. And then normally we’d have to break for a few days to dump everything into Pro Tools for editing, but CLASP allows us to do real-time transfer. And we can record at any tape speed we want.”
The new album, Aerosmith’s first for eight years and the band’s 14th studio project, is set to be released in May 2012.
Endless Analog
www.endlessanalog.com
