For Gilbert “Catfish” Mares, Host, Producer, and Promoter of The Catbluz Radio Hour (https://www.klbp.org/listen/catbluz/), the process of capturing interviews is central to everything that takes place on the radio show. Each week, Catfish hosts interview guests that share songs from their latest album release along with influential songs that have played a key role in their careers. The ability to capture interviews and work with the audio files is central to everything Catfish does, and to ensure the best possible audio quality with the ability to easily move the files about as necessary, he relies on his DR-40X 4-Track Digital Audio Recorder and USB Audio Interface from TASCAM.
Catfish graduated from Cal State Northridge with a Bachelor’s degree in radio, TV, and film. Prior to hosting his own show, he worked for seven years in the LA radio market and gained a wealth of experience. His Catbluz Radio Hour show takes place on Tuesday evenings at 7 PM and past episodes are archived online at https://www.mixcloud.com/Catbluzradio/. Catfish purchased his DR-40X 2 years ago and since that time, the versatile recorder has been central to his work. He discussed his experience with the DR-40X.
“As a 4-track recorder, the DR-40X provides all the versatility I need when capturing interviews,” Catfish explained. “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.”
When queried about a DR-40X feature that he finds particularly valuable to his manner of working, Catfish pointed to the unit’s 2-in/2-out USB audio interface for both Mac and PC. “The USB audio interface on the DR-40X is tremendously useful,” he reports. “When connected via USB, each time you power the DR-40X on it gives you three choices: (1) USB buss power—eliminating the need to power the recorder via batteries, (2) the ability to transfer files between two devices, and (3) 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.”
With many musical electronics, questions frequently arise, so the ability to get capable and responsive customer / technical support services is crucial. When asked about his experience with TASCAM’s customer support services, Catfish offered the following, “To be honest, the DR-40X has been an intuitive piece of equipment straight out of the box. And while I haven’t had to take advantage of the company’s support services, my conversations with TASCAM team members has been impressive. They have people on staff who are musicians and audio professionals. They understand the gear and they understand what people are looking to achieve with the products. This is what led me to TASCAM in the first place and it’s why I have my eye on the TASCAM Mixcast 4 and US-42B MiNiSTUDIO Creator.”
As he prepared to turn his focus back to the day’s business, Catfish offered these final thoughts regarding his TASCAM experience, “When the pandemic began, it became necessary to conduct my interviews over the phone as opposed to in-person. 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!”
For additional information about Gilbert “Catfish” Mares, he can be reached at Catbluzradio@gmail.com.
