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Originally Posted by deeewight maybe I don't get this...wouldn't -18 actually hit the console softer..I am probably backwards but just trying to make it make sense in my head. Is it because you would be putting things in four db hotter? 
dwight |
It can be pretty confusing. We're talking about the reference level. I try to visualize on the DAW faders where the reference level is nd that = 0 VU. So as you move that reference level lower, the amount of ditance (visually only) from that reference level to where your audio levels are is greater, thus a hotter signal. So if your signal is say 10dB above your reference, that's +10VU for -14dBFS, and +14 VU if -18dBFS reference. Hopefully I didn't make it even more confusing.
Now because it's a reference, it's relative to how hot you print. -18dBFS can be perfectly fine if you are printing at moderately low levels and leaving a ton of headroom. But the problem is that most people record hot and as close to 0dBFS as possible (which is perfectly fine). In these cases, using -18 means that you have to distort the analog gear's output to reach levels that hot, and you distort the analog gear's inputs coming back off of PT when printing that hot.
My personal preference is to use -14 (since PT HD doesn't go to -12) so I can print hotter w/o overloading analog gear. As opposed to using -18 and just not using the extra bits. When dumping from 2" to a DAW sometimes use -18dBFS which is a lower level coming in (more confused now?).