I honed that skill on the original Oade ACM 660.
the problem is that the board on that deck has gone through so many revisions ..., they dont all behave the same.
that first gen though, that was the shiz.
and when i say peak over, I dont mean nailing it all the time, but riding the levels at -4 to -2db and having that 0db lit up ...a lot..., one you find the spot you know it. all the recordings come out w/a certain amount of flavor (distortion ?) that is just silly good.
maybe its just complimenting the noise / distortion in my head to begin with.