Wow, I started this thread, and it took off into a virtual shooting war, and has now calmed back down to some useful answers. In my case, I was able to successfully deal with a hot board patch, as the R-4 Pro's sensitivity settings allowed me to take the signal down by 20 db or so. I also found out from Edirol, (after asking their tech, and having him call Japan for the answer) that the R-4 Pro (I don't know about the R-4) actually shows you if your analog input is clipping, as well as also separately showing digital clipping. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but by lowering the sensitivity levels, the clip indicator stopped, and I could use the trim controls from there. From that perspective, I love the features on this machine.