You aren't going to hurt the pres or converters just by putting in a standard level signal and cranking the volume.

Unfortunately, if you are talking about the preamps in your PT unit, I don't think there is any way to overdrive the analog portion of the circuit without clipping the digital signal. Overdriving a tube circuit, a solid state circuit, and a digital circuit all sound very different. If you like the sound of the overdriven digital signal...well...it's your song and you won't damage the equipment...and I guess the signal will look like the output of a lot of mastering houses these days.

Thanks BobRogers,
I have real preamps connected with patch cable to the interface/coverters, I'm cranking the gain of the preamps, and I don't have compression like mastering houses

If I crank the preamps, the level in protools is clipping (red) and the track looks almost black

How can I expand the track and axially see ?

I guess the converters/protools, can handle much more dynamic than my analog preamps because I'm not able to hear any digital distortion jet!
I'm blind because I don't know how to expand the track and see what's going on!

If you see the red clip light in Pro-Tools, then you are digitaly clipping. If you train your ears you should be able to hear it. The vertical zoom is on the upper left bar above the zoom buttons. RTM there is a lot of good stuff in there... Like the answer to both of your questions.

Don't worry

The individual tracks is protools can clip and not cause unwanted distortion. As long as the master channels are not clipping you can push the other lines in the red. The main reason for this as I understand it is the way digital fills in gaps in recording rates. Google Dither and read up a bit. I am not sure I understand it enough to teach it.,

"The individual tracks is protools can clip and not cause unwanted distortion. As long as the master channels are not clipping you can push the other lines in the red. The main reason for this as I understand it is the way digital fills in gaps in recording rates. Google Dither and read up a bit. I am not sure I understand it enough to teach it."

Don't push it...

The clipping from the original track is transposed into the master, it just happens within the waveform not on the extremities. However, when you sum a clipped track with another track, that isn't clipping, the flats will resolve into curves because of how the second track phases into the oringinal. If this all happens within the headroom of the master bus then you can win. But be aware that if you push it it will sound nasty.

Also, regarding the thread title, caps are annoying and change "in" to "on". It hurts my sensibilities.

All this pandering to people who find certain words offensive...

Re: Don't worry

threesymbol wrote: The individual tracks is protools can clip and not cause unwanted distortion. As long as the master channels are not clipping you can push the other lines in the red. The main reason for this as I understand it is the way digital fills in gaps in recording rates. Google Dither and read up a bit. I am not sure I understand it enough to teach it.,

If we were talking about playback you would be right, but the OP is talking about red clip indicators durring recording.

ineedtolearnhowtorecord wrote: I'm not able to hear any digital distortion jet!

i want to hear that jet also.

Greener wrote: Also, regarding the thread title, caps are annoying and change "in" to "on". It hurts my sensibilities.

All this pandering to people who find certain words offensive...

OK I hope now the title is better.
P.S.
YET or YEt or jeT?
But I want to train my self to digital distortion because I can't hear that

Digital flat lines. You can't hear nothing. Or can you?

Re: Don't worry

GeckoMusic wrote:
If we were talking about playback you would be right, but the OP is talking about red clip indicators durring recording.

OK , I'm cranking the analog preamps in recording mode , watching protools red clip, wile I set levels, before the recording too.

Greener wrote: Digital flat lines. You can't hear nothing. Or can you?

I can try that , but I need to disconnect the preamp, why?

Why are you doing that?

It makes it much harder to mix down, you are stuck with the volume you've created.
I can understand driving an analog pre hard, but I don't get why you want to feed your converters so hot.

No, I don't do that, I just crank the analog preamps, it just happen as a consequence of cranking the pres

I don't mix at all, I just record the tracks, that eventually will be mixed in analog.
I'm using protools just like a tape recorder, no editing.

so ...a red clip is digital distortion? how much headroom I have in the individual track before audible digital distortion, how can I see expand the track and see really what's going on?

Re: Don't worry

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54&langid=100&itemid=22942

Read the manual.

ineedtolearnhowtorecord wrote:
[quote=Greener]Digital flat lines. You can't hear nothing. Or can you?

I can try that , but I need to disconnect the preamp, why?

Yes indeed... Why?

ineedtolearnhowtorecord wrote: I don't mix at all, I just record the tracks, that eventually will be mixed in analog.
I'm using protools just like a tape recorder, no editing.

Why would you spend nearly $300 on software to record like a tape recorder? You can do that for free with Audacity?

so ...a red clip is digital distortion? how much headroom I have in the individual track before audible digital distortion, how can I see expand the track and see really what's going on?

Yes. None. RTM or read my first answer.