Proper Gain Staging with a Tascam DA-38 and DP7

[Rhetro]

Hey Guys.

Wow.

I don't even know where to begin. Talk about feeling stupid -not sure i even want to tell you guys what i did.... (if you really want to know, i'll tell you but you have to submit your request in writing -and i'm hope you gentlemen aren't too curious)!

What i really need to do is apologize to you both for wasting your valuable time reading my last post. Probably had you guys thinking, "...what is this dude's problem??" -please, don't answer that....

Problem fixed (I have to laugh at myself --this is a good thing). Pretty much akin to locking yourself out of your car in the middle of thunderstorm in some remote location!

Let's just say i can attenuate whatever channel levels i need to. -14dBFS and -12dBFS peak; no problem. Looks like i got all the headroom i need. Heck, i even tried to see how quiet i could get this thing while still getting a level (-48dBFS). The levels are still hot out of the tape, but i can at least attenuate at this point.

But for future reference, it looks like i can even record in 32bit floating point. Why not there? Would it even be noticeable?

Thanks again for helping out.

Cheers.

[rodger1811]

Hey Guys.

Wow.

I don't even know where to begin. Talk about feeling stupid -not sure i even want to tell you guys what i did.... (if you really want to know, i'll tell you but you have to submit your request in writing -and i'm hope you gentlemen aren't too curious)!

What i really need to do is apologize to you both for wasting your valuable time reading my last post. Probably had you guys thinking, "...what is this dude's problem??" -please, don't answer that....

Problem fixed (I have to laugh at myself --this is a good thing). Pretty much akin to locking yourself out of your car in the middle of thunderstorm in some remote location!

Let's just say i can attenuate whatever channel levels i need to. -14dBFS and -12dBFS peak; no problem. Looks like i got all the headroom i need. Heck, i even tried to see how quiet i could get this thing while still getting a level (-48dBFS). The levels are still hot out of the tape, but i can at least attenuate at this point.

But for future reference, it looks like i can even record in 32bit floating point. Why not there? Would it even be noticeable?

Thanks again for helping out.

Cheers.

Hey, we've ALL made our share of mistakes and I can assure you that many of them were rather silly in hindsight! With regard to 32bit, it's a nicety but I haven't bought in to the whole idea just yet. I haven't been able to here a difference worth the price of increased file size particularly since I tend to focus on recording appropriately. The mix engine within DP is a 32bit mix engine and for me that and recording at 24bit is all I need.

On a side note and in addition to your topic, I don't even get caught up in the whole "sample rate" argument. Should it be "48, 88, 192 etc. If you can't get an AWESOME recording at 44.1, then you have other problems that need your attention. If I were recording for DVD, it would be the only time that I track above 44.1/24.

[screws]

Hi,

I know nothing of the math like the other two guys who have been helping you here, but I have a DA 38 and I used to do what you're doing all the time.

I have a Yamaha 02R digital mixer and a MOTU 2408 mkII locked together. I used to run my DA38 via XLR out to the 02R tape ins which are +4. My DA38 tapes would also register an occasional red clip from time to time, but Tascam (and Yamaha) told me no biggie, there is built in headroom for this.

If I ran the faders at 0, then whatever level and clips I had on tape were transferred directly to DP, and the sound was almost identical, except for the D to A to D conversion happening. If I wanted the levels in DP to be 6 db lower, I simply dropped all the faders by 6 db. But if it sounded great on the tape, I saw no need to do this.

[Rhetro]

Hey Steve.

I was just going over old posts and came across your note.

I just data dumped everything from my DA-38 into my computer -after a few glitches on my part. Everything worked out with the levels. I was a little worried at first, but you're right; there's inherent headroom in these machines.

What levels did you record at on the DA-38? Looks like -12dB is a good rule of thumb -which i didn't use at first!