If you absolutely hate using TRS connectors or don't have any available, there's an option available to us right now that everyone should keep in mind. The two L/R channels can be set up as either pre or post fader, so if you set them up to be post-fader you can apply attenuation to the inputs via the faders. Now, most will want to use this option if you're only recording two channels of inputs, but if you're running two channels and your inputs are peaking and you have no more headroom on the trim knobs, just make sure you're recording L/R to the SD card and apply attenuation via the fader. I suppose you could use this option if you're using more than two channels too, but you'd need to do your L/R mixdown on the fly.
But wait -- I thought "pre or post fader" was only applicable to the mixer outs, not to what gets recorded to the card. Am I wrong on that? Are you suggesting that if you set them up as "post fader" you can somehow lower the input sensitivity of the entire input? That would be useful... just wasn't aware that was how it worked....
Yes, the faders are applicable to the SUB and MAIN outputs, but you also have a fader for controlling L/R, which can be recorded to the SD card as shown on Page 23 of the manual. In my previous response, I thought you could route L/R either pre or post fader, but right now I'm not seeing any options for setting them up pre-fader, which makes sense since each of the eight inputs goes directly to SD card pre fader. In any case, the L/R channels are on the output of the mixer which is shown on one of the input screens. OK, so here's how to set it up...
The mixer option changed slightly with V2.00 of the firmware, but if you have V2.00 installed, first go into the SYSTEM menu and make sure that under the 'Trim Knob Option' menu, you've selected 'Trim'. The other option is 'Mixer' which is a new feature installed in V2.00.
Now back out of the menu and toggle through the input screens. Page 10 of the manual shows the input screen for the mixer. Notice again that one of the outputs of the mixer is the L/R channels, which are displayed at the bottom of that screen. On the mixer screen, as you toggle through the channels, you have to toggle through two separate settings for each channel; pan and fader. When the fader is highlighted, click the big round toggle knob to engage the fader. You're able to apply post fader gain from MUTE all the way up to +12db to each channel.
The above controls are redundantly available from two other places. If you press the pfl buttons for each channel, as you toggle through the choices on the pfl menu, two of the choices given are fader and pan. These are the same settings, so you'll notice that if you change those settings on the mixer screen, the setting will also change on the pfl screen.
Finally, you can pull up your ipod or ipad app. On the mixer screen of the ipod app, the fader sliders for post-fader level control of the L/R channels are all the way to the right.
One thing you might wish to note from all of this...if you set up your headphones up to monitor the L/R channels, don't forget to pan the L/R channels or else you'll hear a mono signal out of your headphones. I actually always monitor L/R with my headphones because a) I can change the headphone volume without changing the input levels of what's being written to SD card and b) since I don't use the L/R channels to record and I like to get my headphones REALLY loud during the show by adding up to +12db to the L/R and headphone signal. Obviously, if you're intending to use L/R for attenuation, you wouldn't want to use L/R the way I use it.