Why is it very important to watch the sound meter closely when recording someone talking, to avoid 'clipping'?

It is very important to watch the sound meter closely when recording someone talking because the sound meter provides a real-time visual representation of the audio signal's strength or 'level'. Every recording system, whether analog or digital, has a maximum audio level it can handle before distortion occurs. In digital recording, this maximum is precisely defined as 0 dBFS, which stands for Decibels Full Scale, representing the absolute loudest sound the system can process without exceeding its capacity. When the incoming audio signal, particularly the loudest parts or 'peaks' of the spoken word, becomes too strong and exceeds this 0 dBFS limit, it causes 'clipping'. Clipping is a severe f....