I am recording vinyl records.
I am trying to set the recording level to avoid clipping (aiming for -6 dB). Documentation says the blue bar in the Recording meter indicates maximum level reached, so I play tracks (without recording) and activate the meter, after having reset the blue bar by left-clicking on the meter. I am controlling the source level through my pre-amplifier and through the “Recording” panel in pavucontrol.
The recording meter seems to work correctly, except the levels shown never go beyond -6 dB (idem for the blue bar), even if I boost the source volume to a point where the sound is obviously distorted.
Am I misreading the documentation, or is there another way to play a sample and find out whether the source sound level is ok, by obtaining the maximum level that was reached?
Audacity 2.2.1
Alsa / PulseAudio
Archlinux 4.14.13-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT x86_64 GNU/Linux