tips...38.(sorry , been busy.)
makeing sure you can hear yourself while recording.
(and other monitoring ideas.).

a common complaint i hear from people new to recording and
friends is....I CANT HEAR MYSELF VERY WELL WHILE RECORDING A TRACK.
this is all down often to incorrect choice of gear often or incorrect organisation sometimes.
for example a friend of mine has a little simple usb audio device for getting audio into/out of the pc.
the problem is a lot of these newish little gizmos often dont have a ton of power for powering headphones.
some do but some dont.
i think i mentioned earlier when recording tracks one should aim
for peaks of no more than -6b, and some pro engineers are suggesting that traks sound even
better if one doesnt have the best sound card convertors recording at even lower levels.
thus the temptation can be to push up the master fader in ptw to compensate and get more level going out to
whatever feeds the phones. it depends on the rig.

BUT..if u have probs hearing yourself, mebe your hooking the phones off
a sound card with a wimpy phone output for example.

therefore i suggest you consider a proper HEADPHONE AMP.
(OR use an old home stereo with a powerfull output to phones.)
in my case ive been useing a older fostex line mixer that i pulled out of
storage (from a studio i sold off.) that has a powerfull phone output.
(sometimes you find em used for 80 buks.)

the hook up would be...
sound card stereo out>>>headphone amp>>>phones.
some headphone amps let several pairs of phones to be hooked up.
usefull for jamming with friends for example.

you can even build your own ..eg.(dunno how good this is...
google for more headphone amp schematics..there are lots.)
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4910.html
or
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4881.html

(note national also have all in one IC's that will drive speakers also if u search.
some of their all in one chips are pretty inexpensive.
but if u dont know electronics....TAKE A SAFE ELECTRONICS COURSE.)

in summary .if your haveing probs hearing yourself.
ENSURE...
1. your sound device passes thru the signal being recorded
to the output.
2. try a reasonably powerfull headphone amplifier.
(pro audio shops that sell audio mixers normally sell them.)

let me now cover something else.
ive never done this...but thought i would mention it.
there is a huge debate currently going on tween hugh end pro
audio engineers (i'm just a songwriter..i dont profess to be a gold record
guy..i just try hard n have fun...lol.)
about two terms ITB and OTB.

ITB = in the pc (box) mixing.
OTB = out of the pc mixing.

how do the two differ ??

for OTB normally a sound device with multiple outputs is
utilised..whereby tracks can be sent from the pc to an external mixer.
for final mixing to stereo.
(in the same way as multitrack tape machines were used in past days.)
some engineers feel a better mix is created this way.
but others feel just as good mixes can be done totally in the pc.
anyone reading this might check with pg support...cos i'm ITB.
but...its my understanding with the right sound card/device you could do OTB with
ptw.
i mention this , just in case anyone is interested for example in
recording a lot of tracks in ptw....then haveing say 8 sound card outs going to 8 ins
of an external mixing console.
ie...just another possibility to consider.

in this scenario...the external mix/monitor console would create the final stereo mix
master. and of course speaker/phone monitoring would be hooked up to this mixer.

now let me comment on speakers.
for monitoring some people use just one set of speakers.
(for value for money i'm kinda partial to yorkie monitors or yorkvilles.)
but i would suggest a speaker switch being fed by a studio power amp,
that in turn can switch tween various speakers.
1. proper monitors (eg the yorks.)
2. a pair of "ratty" speakers. (YES..the problem is lotsa people have them.)
3. a mono speaker mebe. some studios use a tv speaker.
also some people chek mixes on boomboxes as lots of people have em.
(note...u can now get boomboxes fed by a usb port on the pc !).
there are many approaches.
heres an example of a speaker switcher box...
(for non powered speakers.)
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=29754&doy=search
(google for many other deals.)


(REMEMBER...put fast blow fuses in speaker lines...!)

simply turn off the speakers when recording with phones.
(note...try and choose monitor speakers that are shielded if your useing an old computer
monitor.)

(if u google youll see lots of power amps for speakers,
as well as speakers with power amps built in.)
(more to come.)