Gilbert “Catfish” Mares, the host, producer and promoter of The Catbluz Radio Hour podcast, which features interviews with guests that share songs from their latest album release along with influential songs that have played a key role in their careers, employs a DR-40X 4-track digital audio recorder and USB audio interface from TASCAM at the heart of his workflow.
Prior to hosting his own show, Mares worked for seven years in the LA radio market and gained valuable of experience prior to launching his podcase. He purchased his DR-40X the years ago and since that time, it’s been central to his work.
“As a 4-track recorder, the DR-40X provides all the versatility I need when capturing interviews,” Mares explains. “I use it to pre-record all my phone interviews—while always keeping my voice on a separate channel. Once the interview is captured, I upload it to Adobe Audition and prepare the interview for broadcast. By capturing these real time recordings—the interviewee and my own voice on two separate channels—the DR-40X effectively creates a Left and Right channel format. Then, after transferring the audio to the computer via the DR-40X’s USB audio interface, I save each channel as a mono track for editing.
“The USB audio interface on the DR-40X is tremendously useful,” he adds. “When connected via USB, each time you power the DR-40X on it gives you three choices: one USB bus power, eliminating the need to power the recorder via batteries; two, the ability to transfer files between two devices; and three, the ability to use the DR-40X as the front end to a computer-based DAW. That capability in and of itself gives users like me a wide range of options when going about their work. I never cease to be impressed by its design.
“When the pandemic began, it became necessary to conduct my interviews over the phone as opposed to in-person,” he concludes. “This required a fundamental shift in the way I approached my interviews and the DR-40X has proven itself to be a versatile audio recorder that has proven itself adept at working in a variety of ways. For me, the DR-40X is invaluable. Thus far, I’ve interviewed over 100 guests on my show and I intend to capture many more moving forward. Thank you, TASCAM!”
