Hi all,
I've set-up a series of PEQ filters.I arranged things so that I was only including cuts rather than cuts and boosts. I followed the excellent guide by Mwillems and some of the questions in that thread and took note of the guidance to add a volume filter to DECREASE volume by the amount of max boost in a PEQ filter so as to avoid the chance of clipping. I thought, therefore, that with all the cuts in my PEQ filters I could (and should?) add a modest volume increase of a few dB. BTW, up to now I've been using System Volume with the slider at 100%, as my pre-amp (a Wadia di 122) has its own volume control.
Anyhow, I've noticed that in general terms the use of any more than 2 dB gain on my volume filter still allows some passages of music to cause peak level during playback to hit 100%. For example, the snare drum (I think) on Steely Dan's Babylon Sisters hit 100%, not for long, but the level still gets there!
Should I consider using Internal Volume or Volume Disabled? I don't really understand all the factors at play here but I'm starting to think that I should be using something other than System Volume. In JRiver wiki it says that Internal Volume gives the highest quality software volume, is that better than using Volume Disabled and relying upon the Wadia hardware? Is clip protection still active if I use volume disabled?
One final question, I presume some passages in some recordings will reach 100% peak level anyway, just as a result of the way the engineers have set-up for recording the music?
