One advantage to recording with peaks much lower (e.g., at -10-12 dBFS) is that the errant loud bit won’t be recorded with distortion. BUt Mr. Sides probably knows his set up to the nth degree, and KNOWS how to keep everything clean even with a high peak recording level. Someone riding the faders during tracking to ensure that isn’t unlikely either!
Another advantage to recording at those lower peaks is that A/D conversions are said to be more precise when not near their peak inputs (I don’t pretend to understand the math involved here, but that’s what people say). But I would guess that at his level the interfaces sound just fine when driven hard, maybe even better if he’s using tubes for distortion etc. So the “sound” he wants might be absent at those lower peak recording levels.
But, these are all “maybe” explanations … maybe someone here works with him?
