dasdoing
Major Contributor
Once more you are not understanding the nature of testing. My intent is to level the playing field to get all devices, if possible, to capture at their full dynamic range. And this is near 0 dBFS with 4 volt input. If the only way to get there is by using the trim, I will do that.
As I said, I personally do that with my interface, setting my compressor to maximize the dynamic range by getting close but not exceeding 0 dBFS.
By your logic, the trim control should not be there.
what do you actually mean by trim? the knobs on the front?
they control the pre-amp gain for mic and instrument inputs. line signals don't need gain.
input 1 and 2 are rated as up to +10dBu afaik. you sent 14dBu and applied additional gain to it. so we have a situation where the specs say it will distort because the signal is too hot.
now +18 shouldn't distort according to specs on the dedicated line-ins.
about you wanting to maximize dynamic range: does this make sense? where is the noisefloor of this signal you are feeding from your compressor?
it doesn't make sense to add gain in the analog domain to this signal. you take care of this in your DAW