Hitman,
You are aware that digital craps out over 0db almost NOW?Right?
I have seen it in this forum where people with an analog way of thinking, where you can go to +3 or 4db can be applied to the digital input and an overload occurs. Digital is a lot less forgiving than analog, and can shut right down.
I'm not calling you a newbie here, I'm just not sure if you aware of this. Nominal levels s/b around -12Db as an average.That gives you enough headroom for the peaks. If you look at the meters on the VSunit you will see the 12db mark I believe. It's also on dat recorders.If you compress and level out the program you can bring it higher. At least on popular music. Not on classical.
Your mackie won't distort at 3db but the recorder will.
You may want to calibrate the levels if you can, to get a common ground.
[Edited by Ears on 10-15-2000 at 21:55]