I’ve searched and there are already similiar questions here on line vs. mic-level, but I’m unfortunately not able to deduce from the answers to my particular situation.
I want to record from my digital organ line out into the tascam dr-40. I use separate unbalanced TRS cables for L/R channel.
However using line input on the tascam makes a very low signal around -30dB. So I tried switching the input on the tascam to mic-level and use the input level settings to level around the recommended -12dB without getting peaks.
For me that sounds better and from my (very basic) understanding of signal theory it’s always better to get the highest possible input level to get good SNR.
So my question is:
Besides the preset input level for line level input, is there any difference in the signal way between mic and line level input? If I get better input level from correctly leveled mic inputs should I stick with this or is there good reason to better take the lower level line input and adjust signal level later in software?
(Similar questions may be arise for digitizing vinyl etc. using this device. I saw some comments on amazon from people complaining about low line level in this case, but no discussion on solutions.)
Update: I reviewed both files in Audacity and checked quality after normalization and they are both OK for my purposes. I had no noticeable noise after normalisation of the -30dB file, so this issue is none in practice in my case.