[Siddhant Bhatia]

Hitting this discussion up, since it's quite similar to my question! I never gave this a thought before up until now since I could hear audible hardcore distortion everywhere!

Windows 10 > Pro Tools 2022.10 > HD Native > HD Omni > SPL SMC 7.1 (Surround controller)

When I hit +10dbu - speaker level - no distortion but the levels are quite low and I have to literally turn the knob all the way up to get good levels.

When I hit +24dbu - line level - the levels are beautiful and the knob is a lot lower - but in only a 'few' pro tools sessions I am hearing MASSIVE distortion (proper digital clipping) on both speaker out and headphone out.

I am feeding Analog 1-8 via DB25 straight into SPL SMC 7.1 from HD Omni. Levels are being controlled by the Hardware section from within Pro Tools.

What's interesting is that I am pretty sure I never had this issue on my Mac before. I've just switched from Mac to Windows after a literal 20 years. And amongst a ton of adjustments - this one bewilders me.

Can someone help make me understand what is happening?

Reading more about SMC 7.1 in the manual - it allows up to +22dbu on it's input - but that's as good as what almost all analog mixing equipment allows ... then what is going on and what's going wrong? I am pretty sure we are not hitting clipping anywhere. Not from within Pro Tools for sure ... then why is the output so clipped?

No clipping happening AT ALL when it's on +10dbu ... Speaker level.

All meters are fine, levels are within -3 dbfs ...

I would be very grateful if someone can make me understand what's going on?!

Thanks!