by gorman » Fri Sep 26, 2014 10:45 am
Anyway, the sense of preamp is that, basically...
Ok, reference for RG is 89db. If a track stands at 89db as measured by RG, there's pretty much no way that it could clip (unless it was done on purpose).
Let's take a track that needs -10 track gain, and one that needs +4 track gain.
The one that needs -10 would measure at 99db, the other one at 85db.
If you apply a reasonable amount of preamp, let's say +3db, you still don't clip but on the other hand you don't need to raise the volume too much (which has its uses, considering you can't be sure of an amplifier power, especially when driving good quality headphones).
Also, if you look at the standard I linked in the first post, RG stores peak values as well, and those can be used to limit preamp, as to avoid clipping in any case. You might decide to ignore that and simply state to be conservative in preamp settings.