M-AUDIO DMAN - Manual (Page 9)

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design practices as in the DMAN, the only way to make a noisy
digital recording is to add the noise yourself!
Digital Recording Dos and Don’ts
Meters are not meant to ever go into the red. Digital recording is
very unforgiving of clipping. Unlike analog systems, where tape
saturation gives a nice smooth compression, digital distortion
sounds like someone is breaking a pane of glass in your ear.
Make sure that you give yourself lots of headroom both when
recording and mixing. You’ve got all that dynamic range -- use it.
Measure twice, cut once. With most hard disk recording
software, like the version of Samplitude that is bundled with the
DMAN Digital Studio, you will be doing your mixing in the
program. Because you won’t be able to run each track to
outboard gear (effects, compression, etc.) when mixing, you want
each track to sound right when you record it. Take your time to
make sure that mic position, EQ, and effects settings are exactly
what you want when tracking. “Fix it in the mix.” hardly ever
works, anyway.
Know your signal chain. Some programs set the levels
internally, others use the Windows level controls. Make sure you
know which is which. If you are not getting the levels you
expect, retrace your signal chain and make sure that you are
adjusting levels in the correct places.
Plan ahead. Think about tracking ahead of time and decide in
what order you are going to record the tracks. Keep a track list.
Use it to make notes when you are recording (where you might
need to punch in and out, etc.). With hard disk recording you
don’t have to worry about the bass track bleeding into the vocal
track or whether the heads have the same response on different
tracks, but you still want to have a plan.
Back up your work. Sure, most editing functions with HDR
systems are non-destructive, but some are not. If you are doing a
lot of editing, (or even if you’re not, but don’t want to take any
chances) back up your audio tracks. Audio takes up a lot of disk
space, so you might want to have a large format removable drive
(Iomega Zip or Jaz, Syquest EZ Flyer for example) on which to
store audio files.
Optimize your disk often. Fragmented audio files can cause
problems.