The Logic Off Topic list

>Like to end this argument once and for all. Is using the gain function
>in the audio window better than normalizing your individual audio
>tracks to bring the levels up to get the best quality recording to mix
>with?
>
Normalization and Gain are similar functions.  Normalization just 
maximizes the gain, whereas gain enables you to make incremental 
adjustments (both increases and decreases).

However, John Pitcairn posted an interesting comment on using Logic's 
normalization function (which I assume also applies to the Gain 
function).  Here is a snippet of that post:

>The reason normalization is frowned upon is that it's generally
>performed at a fixed bit-depth as a destructive process - this will
>permanently reduce the sound quality of the audio slightly, due to
>resampling quantization error. Emagic do not specify the processing
>bit depth for the Sample Editor, but it may in fact be done at the bit
>depth of the original file (16- or 24-bit fixed point), which is
>definitely a bad thing.
>
>In Logic, it is far preferable to increase level by boosting the fader
>level and/or inserting Gainer plugins, which ensures that the increase
>in level is done both non-destructively and at a much more accurate
>32-bit floating point resolution. The result when added up across many
> tracks is _clearly_ superior to normalizing all the audio.
>
Given the above comment, I would assume the best way to maximize your 
signal-to-noise ratio is get the levels set correctly when you record 
the sound.  Otherwise, gain, normalization, or using the Gainer plugin 
will raise both signal and noise. 

Kind regards,
Dave