Topic: What is the best part of the rig to get most of the gain from ?

[aaronji]

The 2 standards we face are for gear intended for sale and use in the USA, and the +6 level is a standard in Europe. It's just like the difference in AC power standards. Regardless, my understanding is that both dBV and DBu are measures of voltage where each unit of measure represents 1 milliwatt of gain, only difference being the impedance. Even if it is only effectively a 12db difference, that is more than double in actual "loudness". This means that a balanced XLR line is made to accept twice the signal level that an unbalanced consumer line input can, which is the main point I was making.

"Universal" is universal, not "gear intended for sale and use in the USA".  Many people on this site are located outside of the US.  Additionally, as the input of your recorder is fixed in terms of impedance, dBu and dBV are still ~2.22 dB different.  I understand your point, but on a logarithmic scale that's a noticeable difference...

Venturing off topic along with you guys, I have found that in practice, it does not sound the same with 24bit to have maximized the bit depth where the peaks are hitting close to zero during the recording, versus running soft levels at the show peaking below -6 and then boosting them close to zero in post. Theoretically it should be true, but my experience has been that it's not.

That's been my experience too, especially on quiet parts in music with a broad range...YMMV and all...

[datbrad]

To each his own..........

Yeah-we all should do what makes us happy. My recordings that peak at -6 sound fabulous to me and I'm never again going to worry about keeping my levels near 0 and worrying about clipping.

Since you're apparently a skillful enough recordist to be able to do that, more power to you. I need to be able to keep things simple or recording is not enjoyable for me (as long as the results sound good to me).

You probably have better ears than I do also. I'm getting up in years, so I'm sure I wouldn't hear any difference if I recorded closer to 0 dB anyway. After all, a good Hi-SP minidisc recording sounds pretty much the same to me as a good 24 bit one.

I would not call myself skillful, but since I spent over 15 years recording at 16bit, I have gotten pretty good at optimizing my levels as close to zero as possible without going over. I guess it's more intuitive to me to run strong levels that are what I want in the end result and do nothing more than covert to 16/44.1 in post. And I am on the topside of 40, so my ears are certainly not as good as they were 20 years ago. Nevertheless, I feel there is something to be gained from working hard at the show to optimize levels.

[fandelive]

I would run the preamp at 90 to 100% then increase level on the recorder until you are at about -10 or so then normalize in post.

So I'm back from the show and I just wanted to thank you all for your priceless advices.
I couldn't set the volume during the first act as it was an acoustic/solo performance.

I started running the preamp at 100%, the Edirol at unity gain (38) and checked the levels during the first song.
My right mic hit the peak several times so I just reduced the preamp gain using the knob until -6dB.

As a result, I got a great tape with no distortion

[fmaderjr]

So I'm back from the show and I just wanted to thank you all for your priceless advices.
I started running the preamp at 100%, the Edirol at unity gain (38) and checked the levels during the first song.
My right mic hit the peak several times so I just reduced the preamp gain using the knob until -6dB.
As a result, I got a great tape with no distortion

This forum is an incredible source of info for new tapers and for tapers unfamiliar with the best way to use equipment they've just bought.

When I was flying blind I used to get distorted recordings at times and not even know why. Now, even if I'm using equipment I've never used before, that virtually never happens.