Dean Delray is a case study of turning passion into a labor of love, merging his affinity with music and comedy into a thriving career on stage and a growing podcast network. As a comedian, he has toured the U.S., headlining all the major clubs as well as opening for some of the greatest comedians ever to do standup comedy, including Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, and Marc Maron. As a podcaster, Delray has been operating his podcast titled Let There Be Talk for over a decade. Central to his podcasting activities are products from TASCAM, including the Mixcast 4 Podcast Station with built-in Recorder / USB Audio Interface, TM-70 microphones, and TH-05 headphones.
“I started standup comedy at the age of 44 years old and quickly realized that I also needed be podcasting, so eleven years ago I started,” Delray reports. “My podcast Let There Be Talk now has over 655 episodes that I’ve recorded. I’ve been fortunate to have had some of the greatest musicians ever on the show, including AC/DC, John Mayer, Josh Homme, Rob Halford, Judas Priest, and Pearl Jam. Up until last year, I was using all kinds of different recording equipment, but once I started using the TASCAM Mixcast 4, there was no looking back!”
When asked what he like most about the Mixcast 4, Delray offered the following thoughts, “The Mixcast 4 is so easy to use, a beginner could use it and be up and running in no time. I can easily mix and record mic inputs, internal sounds and music via the trigger pads, and external audio input from a phone or PC. That flexibility gives me a lot of creative options. Further, like everything TASCAM builds, it’s rock solid, so there’s never any worries about equipment failure.”
“The Mixcast 4 is a great tool when hosting multiple guests,” Delray Added. “With the new Version 1.30 update that just became available, the Talkback output has been expanded to the USB, Bluetooth, and TRRS connections in addition to the headphone outputs. This new Talkback function is particularly useful because it enables the me, as the host, to talk to podcast participants privately. This type of useability and ongoing improvements to their products is what I really appreciate about TASCAM.”
When queried about his experience with the TASCAM TM-70 microphones and TH-05 headphones, Delray was equally enthusiastic. “The TASCAM TM-70 Microphones have a warm and natural response that enables me to deliver a nice broadcast sound. When podcasting—in addition to offering interesting and appealing content—one of the most important goals is to achieve great sounding audio. If your mics are bad, people will simply turn the podcast off. You don’t want to work your ass off only to have people turn it off because of bad sounding audio.”
“As for the TASCAM TH-05 headphones,” Delray added, “I find them to be very durable and comfortable, which is important when you are podcasting. There is nothing worse than bad headphones because they become distracting. The guest starts messing around with the headphone and, in the process, lose their focus on the interview. It can be very counterproductive.”
As is the case with many of today’s musical electronics, questions inevitably arise from time to time, so responsive and capable customer and technical support is crucial. Here too, Delray was very complimentary of TASCAM’s support services. “TASCAM has fantastic customer support, which is very helpful,” he said. “With as many features and capabilities as the Mixcast 4 offers, chances are good you’ll occasionally have questions—so you certainly don’t want to be without good tech support.”
“Before shifting his focus to the business of the day, Delray offered these final thoughts regarding his experience with TASCAM gear, “I must tell you that I wish I had this equipment years ago. My life would have been so much simpler. TASCAM has been making recording and related equipment for a long time and their experience shows. The Mixcast 4 offer a great set of features, and its operation is intuitive. This gear is a must for all podcasters.”
To learn more about Dean Delray, visit his website at www.deandelray.com.
