Am I Using My Reel-to-Reel deck correctly?

[PHILANDDON]

I'm recording me singing and playing guitar off my ribbon mic. My outboard preamp is cranked (60db of gain). I have the input knob on my fostex A2 at 12 o'clock and the output knob 3/4's cranked. Then, I adjust the input knob accordingly until I am metering around 0db. After recording, I crank or nearly crank the output on playback when transferring to my CD recorder. Is this right? THANKS!!

 

[PHILANDDON]

Anyone know?

 

[Muckelroy]

Let your ears decide.

You might try toning down your mic pre a tad to prevent distortion, and upping the input gain on the recorder, to dial it in a bit more cleanly, but your ear is your best judgement on that.