Originally Posted by
blinddrew
Sorry I'm going to disagree with Doc here. Aiming for 0/-1 is fine for analogue systems but for digital you need to give yourself waaaay more headroom because you've got no margin for error. You need to be aiming for general levels bumbling along around -18dB and peaks at -10 / -12. In fact, the meters on your canon probably have a green dot at -12 on the scale. That's where you want your peaks. You can crank it up in post once you've mixed it.
Even at 16 bit you should be plenty off the noise floor using your Rode.
But if you're sticking the rode close to a source I'd drop the pad to -10dB and even then you might be overloading the mic as it's not really a tool for close-micing.