Clipping when recording from S/Pdif

[TimUK]

I would have expected that when recording from an optical S/Pdif source the level controls would be greyed-out but on my SB Live card they remain active and when set to 100% audacity display clipping in the recorded Waveform.

Oddly, the recorded audio does not sound distorted so I wonder if the red clipping marks are being triggered at sample-values =+/-32767 which,of course, is OK

On a previous S/Pdif card (Trust's Sound Expert Optical) things seemed more straightforward with gain in digital recording mode being greyed-out and no clipping ever showed. Any suggestions or experience?

Tim

[kozikowski]

Broadcast videotape machines do that with scaling, but they also have provision for click-stop preset or 1:1.

Does yours?

Koz

[TimUK]

My recording source does have some adjustment +/- on its S/PDIF output but as it's set to zero I would have expected correct recording levels with the attenuator chain fully open?

I've changed the recording format from 16 bit to float's and all the visible clipping is gone.