There are two sets of outputs on my 4track: monitor-out and line-out

The only means I have of hearing my music in stereo right now is to connect them to the aux-in of a portable stereo I have but no idea which outputs to use or why

I'll probably record to tape, then record to my computer with ear buds just to check the signal

which outputs do I use for each of these tasks ?

I use a cheap plastic 70s boom box radio amp with rca inputs from the headphones on my beringer 202. with the tascam going into the 202 soundcard and instruments going into the tascam. then everything goes into the soundcard, it is a dead end , but it works, and i dont record from my computer ever anyway, unless it is to tape.

Remember to compensate for RIAA eq curves when recording from headphones. this can bugger up your mix good, or make it a million times better, if you want the truest sound so what you are working with use lines and rca's and avoid mic and headphone jacks for recording mixes, this messes your sound up, and then compressing it is a disaster.

In a typical situation where you record tape to computer, use rca jacks.

thanks tape smoke

sorry I wasn't clear about the ear buds etc.. what I meant was that I will be recording my tape to the computer and I have no speakers for my computer so I will check the signal with some earbuds... but that is not relevant to my question:

I want to send the signal from my 4track to the 1/8" aux-input on my stereo, should i go from line-out or monitor-out ?

then after I record to tape I will want to record later to my computer via an interface... again, line-out or monitor-out ?

thanks for the info, sorry about the mix-up

Use monitor outs for your boom box, and line outs to your interface.

Monitor outs usually go to the speakers your monitoring the sound from, in your case the boom box. The monitor usually will have a seperate volume control which only afects the volume to those connected speakers, so you don't have to use your master fader all the time and change the overall sound.

The line outs are set to a line level signal volume. This line level is perfect for your CPU interface because the audio signal/ volume won't need boosting like a quiet mic signal. So you would connect the recorder line outs to your interfaces line ins.
But sometimes your interface might have a combined mic and line input, that's no problem though you simply connect as normal and don't use any or much gain from the interfaces pre amps.

line out for recording, monitor for monitoring on the speakers. .

thanks all.

would you recommend going out from sp-device to 1/8" aux input ?