Question about gain staging

[drewphishesp]

I use an Arkham oracle before my recording interface. So I have a kinda simple question. Is it better to have the master on my preamp out louder and the channel it goes into a volume down. Or a higher volume on the interface channel and thus a lower volume from my master out.
Hope you follow me

 

[31HZ]

I'd rather have the Oracle do the heavy lifting at supplying gain, that is unless you have a high-dollar channel strip/interface that you prefer sonically over the Oracle.

 

[silky smoove]

Don’t overthink it. Set your Oracle to where you like its sound. Now, adjust your interface’s channel gain until it’s hitting the ADC between -12 and -18dbfs on average with no errant peaks cresting above -6dbfs (check on the interface’s meters or in your DAW). At that point you’ll have a tone you like from the Oracle and will be at an ideal operating level in the box.