Avoiding clipping on bounce through effects

[dan_kolpakov]

Hi everyone!

I've tried to do some “virtual reamping” on Juno Gi. I've recorded guitar on a mono track with effect placement “record dry”, than changed placement to track 2 (that's where the recorded guitar is), pressed Play and started experimenting with different guitar effect patches. So far, so good. Found the one I liked, tweaked it — sound fine. Okay, next I must render the guitar track with the effect applied, so I go to the Bounce mode, set output track 2, virtual track 2 (so I get processed sound on the same track, but different virtual track) mute all tracks except guitar, adjust level. No sign of clipping on the level meter, so I rise up the track and master faders to the max. Record. Now choosing newly created track as the active virtual track, listen... Oops :( Sounds like garbage. The clipping is awful. Where did it come from? (Maybe that's because I'm bouncing to mono?) Sounds like a bug to me: I've seen no clip marks on the mix level meter and heard no clipping while recording. I've tried lowering track and master levels several times and re-bouncing, but the clipping is still here. What are the safe settings? Are there any?

BTW, what these level numbers really mean? Is “100” a 0 dB? Is “50” a -6 dB?