Mike Rivers wrote:

artie writes:

So you think it's beter to split at the mic level with a Whirlwind box.
Interesting.

Who said that? I think it's better to just set the preamp gain
correctly and adjust it when necessary. Or else settle for some low
level high resolution recordings that you can goose up as required.

There are reasons for running multiple fixed-gain setups in parallel
and using the one that works best, but laziness isn't one of them, nor
is "not breaking the mood" in the studio unless there's more money
than ego.

Once upon a time I was tracking an elderly Texas singer. His regular
singing voice was fairly quiet, and i close mic'd him with a U87 into an
API pre and on to the A80. But when yodelling time came around, which
usually was several times per song, he'd throw back his head and _wail_.
there went the mic, the pre and the Studer. So another U87 was
positioned about an arm's length away from him, gain set for that
yodelling action, and the hot parts went down nicely to a different
track on the deck. From there I comped very usable vocals. This helped
not just with the change in level, but also with the shift in vocal
texture. Even if I'd had 24 bits, I don't think I'd want to give you the
yodelling from a few inches off of his mouth.

--
ha