Meter Question

[312studio]

I am just getting started with mixing and my Tascam Model 12 and I am a little confused about metering.

I read this in the manual:

"Level meter guide
This provides guidance for level adjustment. The guide is shown at the -12dB level."

The "Level meter guide" is the line that goes across the screen that you want you tracks to hit when recording. I got that it.

Now say I record a percussive sound like a snare hit from a drum machine. I have gain set up so the snare is hitting the Level meter guide (-12dB) on every hit. I have the snare track fader at 0 level.

Now if I have the red master fader at 0 level and just have that snare playing alone with it's fader at 0 level.
Why is the led meter (that also states it is in "dB") hitting at at +6dB?

Thank you.

 

[AltTuning]

0db on the MAIN meter is at -15db full-scale, so if you recorded a channel at exactly the -12db guide it would be at +3db on the MAIN meter. From what I can tell, the LED MAIN meter responds faster than the LCD meters so that might account for the extra 3db difference you're seeing. You might also want to try some test tones to experiment with levels and see how they respond on different meters, or you could also look at the WAV files on a computer to compare how the peaks look there -- might shed some light on how the peaks are doing at your levels, especially with a fast transient source like a snare.

Generally-speaking it's better to error on the side of too low than too high unless you want distortion, with 24-bits there's plenty of room to turn things up as needed in a later stage.

Hope this helps,
Alan