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<blockquote data-quote="Tim McCulloch" data-source="post: 218854" data-attributes="member: 67">The full scale display in your DAW is literally ZERO dB Full Scale.&nbsp; You would be out of 1&#039;s and 0&#039;s.From the early days of digital recording and all of analog recording, &quot;hitting the tape&quot; with the most level before clipping was important from a signal to noise standpoint.&nbsp; With 24 bit words (or 32) this is no longer necessary but old ways die very, very hard.&nbsp; You can crank up your inputs by 16dB and turn down all your live outputs by 16dB and have a pretty picture in the DAW.FWIW, in Ye Olde Analogue Dayz we&#039;d solo/PFL an input and raise input trim/gain until the signal was more or less at 0 dBVU, which left about 16-20dB of analog headroom in the output circuits.&nbsp; If you look at most digital mixers these days, -16 to -20 corresponds to the same voltage as 0 dBVU (1.4 volts into 600 ohms) while the mixer has a full output voltage of 15v or more, which corresponds to the mixer&#039;s 0 DBFS level (out of 1&#039;s and 0&#039;s).The whole point - the digital noise floor is well below the analog noise floor so there is no reason to squeeze the last half dB out, but broadcast and recording expect it because it&#039;s always been done that way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tim McCulloch, post: 218854, member: 67"] The full scale display in your DAW is literally ZERO dB Full Scale. You would be out of 1's and 0's. From the early days of digital recording and all of analog recording, "hitting the tape" with the most level before clipping was important from a signal to noise standpoint. With 24 bit words (or 32) this is no longer necessary but old ways die very, very hard. You can crank up your inputs by 16dB and turn down all your live outputs by 16dB and have a pretty picture in the DAW. FWIW, in Ye Olde Analogue Dayz we'd solo/PFL an input and raise input trim/gain until the signal was more or less at 0 dBVU, which left about 16-20dB of analog headroom in the output circuits. If you look at most digital mixers these days, -16 to -20 corresponds to the same voltage as 0 dBVU (1.4 volts into 600 ohms) while the mixer has a full output voltage of 15v or more, which corresponds to the mixer's 0 DBFS level (out of 1's and 0's). The whole point - the digital noise floor is well below the analog noise floor so there is no reason to squeeze the last half dB out, but broadcast and recording expect it because it's always been done that way. [/QUOTE]

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