Topic: Tascam DR-XX series peak light

[jagraham]

Does anyone understand the peak lights on these units?  I ask because the DR-2d thread mentions leaving the input up in the 90s, but on my DR-05 I have always left the input at 0 and still got decent levels.  Perhaps I was doing it wrong, I thought I had read if it was above 0 it would be possible to clip.  The DR-2d manual states "If the input is too high, the PEAK indicator to the right of the display lights and line remains at the right end of the indicator bar.  Set the level as high as possible without causing the PEAK indicator to light red when the loudest sounds occur."  However, I have noticed that when the peak light does light up, the resulting recording is not actually clipped.  I never want to run a recording too loud or too quiet, so how do I know how much peak light is appropriate?  I run CA-14s(C/O) > STC-9000/9200 > DR-2d and in the past have used the DR-05 and DR-07.

[Gutbucket]

I have noticed that when the peak light does light up, the resulting recording is not actually clipped.  I never want to run a recording too loud or too quiet, so how do I know how much peak light is appropriate?  I run CA-14s(C/O) > STC-9000/9200 > DR-2d and in the past have used the DR-05 and DR-07.

I'm not sure what the threshold of the clip indicator is.  It may light slightly below actual clipping.  But the simple answer is don't let the light illuminate at all.  It may not clip exactly as the light illuminates, or it may be clipping just the tops of the transients and you aren't noticing it by ear (but may see it if you zoom in with a wav editor).  In any case, not only is the likeyhood of ruining a recording with clipping is far greater than doing so with recorder self-noise at the quiet end, but at resonable gain settings everything is pushed up to the top of the dynamic range of the recorder anyway.  To have recorder noise issue due to low levels, your peak levels would need to be really, really low, probably peaking at -40dB or something (guessing), so in reality 'too low' is rarely a problem since you can increase the gain afterwards without compromise.  Even it it was, the harsh nastiness of clipping is far worse than some low level hiss.

The way the gain numbers work is different on various units.  On the DR-2d the LINE-IN attenuates from a default of 100 down.  As you probably know it's usable range is only from 100 down to 95.