Topic: Suggestions/Strategy for 4 track 16 bit recordings?

[Roving Sign]

Im using two JB3s with and 2 outboard clock-synced A/Ds to record 2 sets of 16/44 stereo tracks.

When mixing these down - Im quickly finding the increase in volume when combining sources to be troublesome.(although not difficult to overcome)

Is it better to record with levels maxed out - and reduce in post?
Or should I back off live and leave a little bit of headroom for post editing?

I understand the advantage of 24 bits in this situation - but I'm wed to 16 bits for the foreseeable future.

Any advantage to running at a higher sampling rate? I've been able to get my JB3s to do 88.2 without any notable problems. I wondered if it would give me a finer control when syncing sources?