I was under the impression that at 24bit you don’t need to run as hot.
I've heard this batted around a lot, too, and I never understand why.
running *conservatively* when going 24 bit seems to defeat the purpose.
Agreed. Seems to me, one would want to run the levels hot (i.e. peaking as high as possible without clipping) at 24-bit. Running the levels hot allows one to capture
maximum resolution (a Good Thing), and I don't understand why anyone would not want to do so. I can understand running 48k, or 96k, instead of 192k sample rate since it saves gobs of space and has much less of a dramatic impact on sound quality, but I don't understand running relatively low levels at 24-bit.
with 24 bit I am running more conservatively and can normalize a bit later if necessary
Nick (or anyone who does so, for that matter) - can you help us understand why you're running more conservative levels at 24-bit?