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Some distortion is better than others.
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And I wouldn't argue that -- But I can add it, fake it, fabricate it, etc., etc. -- But I can't take it away if it's already there.
And no doubt, it's used creatively all the time -- Just ask any Marshall amplifier. The approach I'm getting at is that a lot of gear --
especially the "budget friendly" stuff that a lot of people are using, just turns to crap quickly and easily when pushed - while many of them sound quite decent if levels are a little more conservative. "Conservative" meaning "the same signal you'd probably be using if you were hitting tape" - as opposed to the signals that many people think of as "normal" that would cook right through analog tape.
And even then - It might work well on this and that -- I had a preamp that started to break up readily and audibly whenever it went over around 0dBVU. I'd run bass through it, some vocalists, etc. But not everything...
Personally, I wish people didn't consider it "lower" levels... I've always (even back when 16-bit was the only game in Digitalville) thought of it as "normal" levels. The front end is designed to work at a particular level -- It doesn't care whether the recording medium is analog or digital - That level is the same.