On an analog recorder, I was always taught to make sure the signal averages around 0 VU. But on my new DAT machine, 0 is all the way at the top of the scale. Whats going on here?
Analog recorders are operated such that the signal maintains a nominal level that strikes a good balance between signal-to-noise ratio and headroom. Further, since analog distorts very gently, you often can exceed your headroom in little bits and not really notice it. Digital is not nearly as forgiving. Since digital represents audio as numerical values, higher levels will eventually force you to run out of numbers. As a result, there is an absolute ceiling as to how hot you can record. If you record analog and have a nominal 12 dB of headroom, you’ll probably be okay if you have one 15 dB transient that lasts for 1/10th of a second. The record amps _might_ overload, the tape _might_ saturate, but you’ll probably be fine. In a digital system, that same 3 dB of overshoot would cause you to clip hard. It would not be subtle or forgiving. You would hear a definite snap as you ran out of room and chopped the top of your waveform off.
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