Quote:
Originally Posted by kelp
OK, I'm losing my grasp here (again)...
Yep just stated that gaining up/down within REAPER isn't going to affect sound quality. But haven't points been previously made about "plug in headroom?"
|
There are a few plugs that still operate internally at 24-bits... Waves Linear being the most "notorious" (well known).
If you encounter one of those by chance and clip it, you'll probably hear it right away because you'll be practicing critical listening methods during the mixing process.
Unless maybe the track is a distorted guitar that was recorded severely clipped already from the guitar amp... you may not hear it. Either way, if you follow analog practices during tracking (and trim the tracks from others who did not) it won't matter either way because you'll have plenty of headroom.
The vast majority of plugs in 32-bit float won't clip no matter what you do to them, for the "science experiment" part of it. But generally speaking you shouldn't be feeding them levels that high anyway. If the mix isn't "loud" enough... that's not the solution.
The common train of thought for tracking with gear that doesn't meter properly is this. If you don't know your converter calibration and you don't have VU meters on your outboard gear and you have no idea what level to shoot for in the daw... use the -10 peak level in the digital meter as a maximum target (for random transient signals) and you'll be good... if everything sounds ok.