common 60 paramater settings for recording?

just curious about your guys' PAR settings. what level do you normally keep you stereo mix volume at? i read someone here say that, when sampling, to always try to make the meter hit just below the "!" so as to get as loud a sample as you can, then you can always turn it down on the mixer. but sometimes the sound coming from the turntable is only hitting halfway on the meter and it already sounds loud enough.

i guess i really wanna know is are there any 'rules' you guys follow when sampling or do you kinda tweak your setting depending on the particular instrument/ sound.

my drum sounds are 'perfectly mixed/ compressed' supposedly so i kinda try to match the audio level of my samples to my drums.

or, do you just play it by ear and keep tweaking PAR's here and there on the 60 and on the outboard gear until you get the sound you want coming from your monitors?

thanks in advance. i feel this forum is the best place for this question as it is 60-specific.

Yeah i try to get it jus below the "!"

Im pretty lite on the pads because im paranoid im going to break my baby, so usually i dont have to turn down the mix of each pad. But for my samples most of the time i use full level esp if im using note off. And when i use full level i turn each individual hit down in the step edit to give variation or just turn down the track level.

Your using a mixer right? After the turntable

yeah, vestax 06. i have a behringer 16-channel mixer, but no monitors yet.