[bgrotto]

I too have been getting more into setting all faders at unity and building sounds and balances from there. My desk, convertors, and outboard just seem to operate much better that way. The only potential issue I've found is signal-to-noise issues when I'm tracking to tape; I get around that by EQing and compressing on the way in. As for the ability to drive preamps into their money zones, just throw a compressor or fader or other gain stage after the pre. Problem solved. And don't tell me about degrading the signal path with extra amplifier stages. Doing it the way I do it keeps me from pulling the line in amps on my desk way down (which sounds noticeably bad), or pulling the PT faders way down (which sounds noticeably bad), or pulling the desks faders way down (which makes doing automation rides a major pain in the ass). In other words, the added gain stage during tracking is a compromise for improved resolution during mixing, and well worth it.

At the very least, tape or not, I always use 0VU as a reference when tracking. Four outta five times, the faders end up close to unity anyways when I start getting balances together.