Gain staging without a meter

[Dilettante]

When I connect a channel strip into an interface which LEDs are known to be less than perfectly precise, what is the "best" way to detect that signal is getting distorted?
I would imagine passing a sine wave of some sort, but how exactly / using which software?

 

[AnalogSteph]

The basic idea is sound, but you'll have to give a few more details on the systems involved on both sides (PC/Mac? Audio players / recorders / DAWs already installed?) as there's a multitude of ways of skinning this proverbial cat.

One dead giveaway of too much input is digital output levels reaching 0 dBFS (or at least not much less) on a regular basis.

 

[Dilettante]

The basic idea is sound, but you'll have to give a few more details on the systems involved on both sides (PC/Mac? Audio players / recorders / DAWs already installed?) as there's a multitude of ways of skinning this proverbial cat.

PC. Have Audacity and Cubase, can install whatever as long as the said "whatever" isn't too expensive. OSS is strongly preferred.

 

[Lambda]

Use REW. it has a tone generator and a real time analyzer.
So you can generate tone loop it back to the input and see at what level it starts distorting.

or the rule of thumb is have your input peaking at -12 to -6dBFS

 

[Dilettante]

Use REW. it has a tone generator and a real time analyzer.

Appreciate the suggestion, however I am already using @pkane 's Multitone Analyser for that.
The question is to how infer the presence or lack of distortion from the live signal, e.g. microphone.

 

[Lambda]

The question is to how infer the presence or lack of distortion from the live signal, e.g. microphone.

with the real time analyzer?
actually you can uses any live FFT display software

RTA Window

Distortion Graph

 

[Dilettante]

with the real time analyzer?
actually you can uses any live FFT display software

Ah, so that thing works in real time! I shall make a feature request for the MA...