I'm getting a mild distortion on a very loud vocal passage. I'd almost call it "saturation" due to my tube chain, but it's thin and feels like I'm hitting some kind of brick wall somewhere in the chain. Am I hallucinating?
I'm singing this passage about 2 feet from the mic (which could account for the thinness but any closer and I get deeper distortion).
Chain:
Pearlman TM-1 (tube mic)
Chandler LTD-1 (gain pretty low at -30 db, output about 12o'clock/midway)
Distressor (whether bypassed or not, similar result)
Digi002 (channel 3 TRS in)
The session is at 88.2k / 24 bit / WAV. The recorded level ends up being around -8db so it's not clipping the converter (it's not harsh digital clipping).
Sample:
http://www.kirkross.com/ftp/samples/
EDIT: Well this is embarrassing... The "stressed" sound I kept hearing had nothing to do with my chain. I monitor through a Mackie Big Knob and I had the input set to -10db... Arrrrrrrr!!! I just happened to glance over at the input meters and they were pinned in the red during playback... so... the phantom distortion sounded was there no matter what settings I had in my chain.
Lesson: check the stupid stuff first.