I have a nice adjustable attenuator I bought for $25. RCAs in and out. When taping from the soundboard (given it's a mono feed) I tend to leave the left side bumping tight against the clip line and attenuate the right side to assure no change of clipping. In mastering, if the left side doesn't clip it has a full frequency/volume range. If it does clip, I boost the right side volume. Then paste R/L or L/R depending on the best.
For the love of god I'm trying to remember the company I got that nice little box from .... (something) Labs.
If you're a frequent board patcher, some type of attenuation is a MUST.
tim