JamesLucas,
I think you need to relax and take a deep breath, here. You're worrying too much. You learned a new word, and someone used it in context like : " X will give you bad recordings," etc. In your case X=lack of headroom.
Now you're talking a bunch of nonsense about space in your recordings and RCA outs and Behringer mixers and all that jazz. There is a lot to learn about recording -- for all of us. I've been doing this for about 18 years if you count when I got my very first cassette-based 4-track recorder,
and I'm still learning all the time. Take it slow, and try to learn a few things at a time.
Headroom is only one of many, many concerns. Although it is something you should be mindful of, it's not going to be any sort of deciding factor in getting quality recordings. There's actually plenty of very high-end gear that lacks headroom . . . and plenty of consumer-level gear that has headroom for days and still sounds like complete dog shit.
No matter what level of gear you're working with, you still need to understand it's limits. Once you know it's limits, just make a mental note to yourself:
Not to go over them. Most everything has a point at which it will start to sound nasty. Either by way of it being too loud going in (for it to handle), or too loud going out. Whatever that point is, just don't exceed it, and you'll be fine -- seriously. That's all there is to it. You, as the engineer, can even give/allow yourself more of it if you choose, so a lot of it is in your hands.
So . . . taking this step-by-step, here's your first lesson:
If you're micing a very loud source, then first of all, you need to understand what SPL handling is, and whether or not your microphone has enough of it. If you exceed your mic's limits, then it doesn't matter what kind of headroom you've given yourself anywhere else down the chain.
If it's a very loud source, just understand that you need a mic with high SPL handling. This is one of the reasons the Shure SM57 and similar dynamic mics are so popular -- they can handle pretty much whatever you throw at 'em.
Next, make sure that whatever is coming out of your mic isn't going to be too loud for the input of your mic pre to handle. Many preamps have -10 db and even -20 db pads right at the input. This is to help protect against that sort of thing.
I'll leave you with one last tip: If you're micing anything loud -- think snare drums, very loud guitar amp, etc. -- then GET YOURSELF A BUNCH OF
THESE. They will improve the headroom of everything else in your signal chain, so you're far less likely to be stressing anything out (or testing it's limits).
