John L. Crockett wrote:
> I've never understood this. When you boost the level in post, why doesn't
> that raise the noise as well as the signal? Why isn't it better to aim fo=
r
> the maximum possible signal level initially in order to end up with the
> maximum s/n at the end?
There's one point I don't think has been made explicitly. In analogue audio=
recording the occasional peak over 0dB was fine and even, in some cases, d=
esirable. So, keeping the levels hot was a good idea to avoid the noise flo=
or.
But digital distortion sound terrible and is to be avoided at all costs (ou=
tside of certain subgenres of noise music!). Thus we must be especially con=
servative in setting recording levels. Thankfully with 24 bits we have all =
the amplitude we need. We can both avoid peaks and capture the full dynamic=
range of the source, as others have thoroughly explained.
-- Robin Parmar
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