[tele_player]

Mark, you really can get the levels as high as you need in ProTools, using bounce to disc, and going through all the extra gadgetry isn't necessary just to raise the levels.
Perceived loudness is a different thing, the mastering thing, but not what you're talking about with the DAT and CDR.

Get Elemental Audio Inspector. It's FREE. Run it on your master fader. Play your song through. It will tell you how much headroom you had at the highest peaks in the song. You can raise your Master fader by that amount (minus about .1 db or so) without clipping. If your master fader doesn't make it, you may need to raise the levels on all your tracks (mix hotter).

You can also do this without Inspector, use ProTools to track the peak level on the Master fader. Same thing, but I think Inspector is handy.

Basically, this is like peak normalizing, which you can also do to your bounced track, except getting the levels right in the mix stage maintains resolution a bit better. (hehe, a 'bit')