OK, recorded Tedeschi Trucks last night, 9th row dead center at the Boston Orpheum, AKG ck61 Actives -> Fostex FR2-LE Oade Mod.
I've ran the FR2LE for a number of years, am very comfortable and familiar with it, including using in the field, in the dark, etc. It has the following meters:
1. An 8 segment LCD peak meter, with the seventh segment being 0dB and the last segment being "OL" (Overload").
2. Two Red LEDs on the side, directly above two mic trim pots to indicate clipping on the mic preamps,
3. 6 Colored LEDs on the side for each channell (12 in all) Two Green, Three Orange, One Red.
The Oranges are -12, -6, -3, and Red is "OL" - Overload".
I ran it a little hot as I usually do, set to peak near / just below 0dB on the top meter, the side lights were visible to me throughout the show, and I kept my eye on them, the Mic Preamp Clip lights never came on, Trim Pots were at 12. The Level Meter LEDs were either-6 or -3, never OL, never saw a red light all night, when I play back the recording on the FR2LE, no red lights, the top LCD Meter never hits OL.
BUT.....
1. When I import it into Audacity, it looks slightly over.
2. When I select "Show Clips" it shows the Clips in Red, lots of them (See attached pic).
3. If I use Amplify or Normalize to get to 0dB, it shows a 0dB adjustment,
4. If I use Amplify to push it down to -1.0dB, it shows an adjustment of -1.0dB.
It's hard to tell if there's any minor distortion, because at those points Audacity shows red, the band is thundering, Derek is wailing, of course he's playing through an overdriven tube amp (on purpose). It's certainly not crackling / brickwalling, anything like that.
What gives?
I'd tend to trust the Fostex with the Oade re-built input stage rather than Audacity.
I'm recording them again Saturday 8th row on the right side of the center section, I'll run a little more conservatively then.
Oh & BTW, head of security told me about 4 times I had to keep the mics at "Shoulder Height" per direct request from the band management. Thankfully it wasn't like an ABB show with a bunch of drunken people making lots of noise, really no problems with talkers or clapping or anything.
The band had two pairs of audience mics on either side of the stage - an LD and a SD, and at least one XY Coincident pair at the soundboard (why they're running XY, IDK....)
TIA.