mike_mccue
I've never met anyone who can actually hear an intersample peak during music playback.

mike_mccue
One thing I have noticed is that the pro guys who started sharing the idea that you don't have to record with 24bit as hot as you would in 16bit seem to have pro grade A to D converters where 0dBFS is calibrated to +24dBu at the analog input. Their preamps are running in a sweet spot and they can bring stuff in at +10dBu and leave lots of analog and digital headroom.
 
This scenario is a lot different than using a cheezy usb powered I/O box where the 0dBFS on the 24bit digital side is calibrated to +6dBu at the analog input. If you have a preamp that runs easily up to +20dBu but you can't use it past +6dBu... you may never be in a sweet spot.

DeeringAmps
Best Answer:
"In 24bit recording, anywhere from -24dB to -12dB is GREAT!!! This gives you 12dB for any occasional spikes and this assures you'll never clip and waste a good recording take. If you think you need to record as hot as possible to get quality, your (sic) wrong."
its "you're" CJ, a contraction of " you + are"; but none of us expect you to get it right :-)
Wrong Answer:
"There is some headroom built into 0 dB"
??? I don't think so.
Most Confusing Answer:
"I also tend to write out the song's sections, in order of importance, and mix to THAT list's order, which usually them puts all the hoopla and bells and whistles and such of the end of the song mixed first, and then work backwards still in order of importance, pulling things back and even muting some stuff along the way, so that it gets easier and easier as you follow things in this direction, pulling a piano part back or dropping some steel string guitar for the second verse, and maybe then being able to leave in some neat flute or french horn sound that otherwise would be too much.

It just makes sense to me that if the end of the song chorus has to be the maximum presence version of the chorus, then starting with it and doing that - giving it everything you can, gives you a known point to keep the prior sections down below, and getting things to calm down is a lot easier than going the other way.

Doing things this way often saves a lot of time, as you may now realize that you might not actually NEED that 10-guitar multi-track 'thing' in the 2nd verse anymore, because it just doesn't fit within what you already KNOW works for the climatic ending choruses and such, because working backwards from the maximum doesn't leave room for that number of instruments without causing massive problems,"
 
What does this have to do with "tracking levels"?
 
Calibrate your equipment, 0db on a vu meter should be about -18 to -16 on Sonar's meters.
As stated by many above, "peaks" at -6 won't hurt anything. Actually any "peak" that does not exceed 0 won't hurt anything. But I do believe that 0 represents the absolute maximum (as in we are now out of "headroom").
 
Tom
 
ps: CJ's advise was/is just as applicable to 16 bit recordings as well. Trying to get "as hot as possible without going over" is/was always a fool's errand. This requires that your outboard gear be running at max gain. Most gear tends to get "edgy" at this point. Think Plexi Marshall with all controls on "10". Great for guitar, not so good for most other applications.
Personal experience;
my early digital recordings all "sucked" for this very reason.
Too much gain on the Alesis 3630 going in.
"Grainy" as hell
Just sayin'...

CJaysMusic
 
If your going to dissect post for grammatical errors, please do it to all of them and not just mine. You'll (you + will) find that a majority of them have them.