Pardon me if this topic has already been discussed but I can't find it.
I have both a Zoom H2 and Edirol R-09. In terms of the Zoom, on
www.oreilly.com there has been a discussion about the interaction of the 3 position (L/M/H) "mic gain" switch and proper volume input level (0-127) for internal mics. At any of the mic gain positions the Zoom defaults to a "100" setting for input level when the unit is turned on.
After much discussion there it has been suggested that the input level function is essentially useless (I used the "M" mic gain setting for a live show, noted that the VU meter was a little hotter than I would like, and moved the input level down to "80" to get what I thought was a proper setting to avoid distortion. When I uploaded the Wav form to Cool Edit the peaks were _clipped_ (flattened) on both channels at -7.49 dB!). Apparently the level setting did nothing to attenuate analog input distortion, even though the VU reading looked appropriate.
What 2 Zoom techs instructed me to do is to choose the mic gain position that most closely approximates a VU of -6 to -12dB at the 100 setting. So, to apply this to the above, rather than lowering the input level to 80 at "M" I should have switched to "L" and left the unit at 100.
Thus, the function of the input level viz. the mic gain remains unclear, except for perhaps some very minor adjustment capability. Folks on O'reilly are comparing the Zoom to a point and shoot camera whereby one corrects the input levels in the computer rather than on the unit.
My question is this: Do these same factors apply to the Edirol? If so, what is a "default" internal mic input level similar to the 100 on the Zoom?