I am recording from DAT. All of the transfers worked very well except one which has levels that are too high and causing clipping. This is seen on the Input level meter and on the recorded wave form.Changing the input volume on Audacity has no effect on the observed level or the monitored sound. Bringing down the level on my M Audio Delta 1010 sound card software also has no effect. What’s going on?
If you’re recording an analog signal, then you’ll have to either adjust the volume on the output of the DAT player, or follow the advice in the link that goony gave you. An attenuating cable will probably work for you.
However, if you’re recording a digital signal (via S/PDIF), then I’m not sure what to say. Those signals can’t clip in the way than an analog signal can, since they’re already digital. If this is the case then you’ve either got bad data on the DAT media, or your DAT player is amplifying the signal before outputting it. If you’re getting a bad digital input, it’s up to the DAT player to fix it.