That would be neat dave!  You're a good sport.   You can just chalk most of this up to I'm just kid who geeks out on math still.  One thing I found interesting was when I moved TH2 to the bottom of the chain I wasn't immediately able to get a crushed file that nulled when I pulled it back in.  That one just has me more curiouser!

I wish I was 100% sure of what the ProChannel module clip lights signify when they turn red. The Waves Renaissance compressor, for instance, has a limiter built in to stop the output going over 0dB, and it's supposed to be desirable to "drive" it a little, but as soon as I do, that darn clip light turns red and makes me think I've screwed up my gain staging.

sharke
The Waves Renaissance compressor, for instance, has a limiter built in to stop the output going over 0dB

So Waves made an assumption about what users wanted to use their plugins for?  

sharke
I wish I was 100% sure of what the ProChannel module clip lights signify when they turn red. 

AFAIK that just means at some point that module is receiving >0db input.  
Take working with a single track - sometimes this is how I see what a plugin or prochannel module can do.  I look at the track at that point, and it says +.5 db I have options:
1) I can gain stage the inputs to the effects or reduce input gain or reduce input gain on, say, the prochannel compressor
2) I can turn the track volume down by .5 db and see which one sounds better or if they sound the same

Yes within the daw you can completely disobey good mixing gainstaging and recover at the bus level by dropping the gain. Floating point is forgiving that way.
 
However in general its still best to follow good gainstaging practice since you never know how plugins will react. Some might simply have bugs with their handling of high gain values and some might model circuits that actually distort in an unexpected way when driven too hard. 

Thanks for chiming in Noel, I find this all in the spirit of good fun and creative exploration.  

swamptooth
That would be neat dave!  You're a good sport.   You can just chalk most of this up to I'm just kid who geeks out on math still.  One thing I found interesting was when I moved TH2 to the bottom of the chain I wasn't immediately able to get a crushed file that nulled when I pulled it back in.  That one just has me more curiouser!

http://forum.cakewalk.com...out-this-m3065697.aspx

Thanks for that Brando!  I never saw that thread.  Good read - I really admire Dave (bitflipper) a lot.  He's been a real source of inspiration to me in the community here.