unwanted distortion or peaking while recording acoustic guitar

On the track you're using, lower it's volume down to, say, -5 to -9, and raise your computer's volume so you can hear as best you can during recording. I don't know too much about recording with an acoustic yet, I'm trying to figure some things out too. I've had trouble in the past recording acoustics. But with other instruments, real or software, I started lowering track volumes when recording to avoid clipping and distortion. Then, when you go to mix, you can tweak the volume of that track (and other tracks), bringing some up bringing others down, and adding compression and enhancements to help the guitar stand out, if that's what you want. I can't be sure this will work for you; you must take into account you're playing style/attack, where you're mike is placed, etc. I've heard that placing the mike angled down at the rear of the sound hole is the best point to record at.

I started lowering track volumes when recording to avoid clipping and distortion.

the track faders do not affect recording volume

Well, when I used to record distorted electric guitars, I'd have the track volume at zero or above, and usually ran into clipping issues. This was a couple of years back when I was still learning some of the intricacies of GB. During '09 and up through the present, I record just about every electric guitar part down around like -4.2, and either leave it or lower it some more. I noticed that I was getting better results without compromising the sound. Less clips, if any at all. Maybe this doesn't work with recording acoustics, but it probably can't hurt.

But the track faders do affect playback volume, negatively if the clips get into the red. It might not be apparent through headphones while listening to playback, but say you share the song to iTunes, rip a CD, then jump in your car. The speakers will buzz and other bad noises or unwanted effects can be heard or felt. This is ultimately what I strive to avoid with any instrument, drums, guitar, vocals, etc.

I have a bunch of new material; in October I ripped a CD of the rough mixes and played it back in my car. What I had thought were perfect bass volumes on most of the songs turned out to be too loud as a whole, and my car was humming and buzzing like a hive of bald-faced hornets. I went back in and re-adjusted everything, and it eliminated the problem. This is a little off the subject, but just a point to make that even if a track doesn't clip into the red, it can still be mixed too loud and can ruin a song. This is why headphone playback can be deceiving. But as for acoustics, more attention is required.

recording and playback (mixing) are two completely different things. track faders do nothing on a track being recorded, -144 or +6, makes no difference.

So the faders have nothing to do with how you mix an instrument? I'm a little mystified by this. When I record, I set the faders in a fixed position, record, and after other instruments are added, do some mixing. The faders are absolutely essential in this phase of the song's evolution. I don't mean to take this to a rudimentary level, because I feel I like I'm nearly at an advanced level of GB knowledge (using loops and recording acoustics are things I need to work on more). Kind of explain a bit more what you mean if you can. I find it interesting and helpful.

petercharles wrote:
So the faders have nothing to do with how you mix an instrument?

they have everything to do with how you mix an instrument. they have nothing to do with how you record one.

the OP's issue with with recording, track faders have no effect on recording