[Lou]

I appreciate the response

I guess the only thing though is that it sounds better, at least to my ears, when the gain is at the highest level without going over right when you do the transfer, as opposed to raising it later in an editing stage. I also was really referring more to fluctuations in the tape as opposed to fluctuations in the show itself. I would never tamper with soft spots in the show itself. Even if they're pretty soft, if that's how the show was, that's how it will remain. Like I said, if I start to see it go in the red consistently (and not just a bump in the microphone), I pack it up and start again, and I specifically go to the spots that were giving me red and adjust the volume to make sure they don't go in red again. In that instance, I will adjust the volume around those spots, because that's just how the show is.

What I was getting at is adjusting the levels when it's clear that the loudness is a result of a tape problem; i.e. the taper gets knocked around and things go out of whack for 10 or 15 seconds. Has nothing to do with show itself, just has to do with a problem the taper was having.