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To avoid clipping, I record in 24-bit for more headroom.



I'm not sure that 24 bit versus 16 bit recording will give you any more 'headroom.' What it WILL give you is more dynamic range. From Rane's Professional Reference Manual

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headroom A term related to dynamic range, used to express in dB, the level between the typical operating level and the maximum operating level (onset of clipping). For example, a nominal +4 dBu system that clips at +20 dBu has 16 dB of headroom. Because it is a pure ratio, there are no units or reference-level associated with headroom -- just "dB." Therefore (and a point of confusion for many) headroom expressed in dB accurately refers to both voltage and power. Which means our example has 16 dB of voltage headroom, as well as 16 dB of power headroom. It's not obvious, but it's true. (The math is left to the reader.)



If my understanding of this is correct (and I've been wrong before) if you record at -12dBr (referenced to 0dBFS), then you should have 12dB of headroom. If you're using 16 bits, then you have a dynamic range of 96dBr versus 24 bits which gives you 144dBr of dynamic range. However, if you're still recording at -12dBR, you still only have 12dB of headroom, 16 or 24 bit.

If anyone disagrees, please discuss civilly.

Gary

I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!