Adding Gain To Stereo Mixes

[flymax]

I know this has been covered before but I searched and couldn't find it.

How do you all do it in Pro Tools?

Import normalize and export?
Import and rebounce with fader up?
Is there a difference?

Is Audiosuite Gain & Normalize "lossless" if the dither preference is off? I've always heard it to be lossless.

Thank You

[chris.d]

what is the purpose? just to get as loud as you possibly can?
use waves l1 ultramax. you have control over all the options. as long as you don't reduce peaks it's the same as normalizing. but you have control over dither & noiseshaping. when reducing peaks you can even get aanother 3 - 6 db without noticable artifacts, depending on the density of the material

[flymax]

I don't want to run it through any plug ins as that can "colour" the sound.

[flymax]

I'm bumping this because I could use a definitive answer. Digi? I remember a thread about this, could someone direct me to it?

Thanks.

[Mark Reis]

Audiosuite normalize is a plug-in, just like anything from Waves. While technically increasing gain using the fader is "lossless" and increasing the signal level using Normalize or Gain plug-ins may be "lossless" (I don't know), the quality of the recording may be compromised.

When you increase your gain by 6dB, you're also increasing the noise by 6dB.Doesn't this kind of offset any minor coloration that might be introduced by a plug-in?

[JGuth]

If you raise the gain and the noise both by 6 db the signal to noise ratio is unchanged.