Loud Signal = Low Noise

Loud Signal = Low Noise

One of the common mistakes that amateurs do (i used to do it a lot xD) is to record at low db and then they pull the faders up or they right click the track and press "normalize" so that the wav sound file can be bigger and louder.

No. Do not do it again

You almost never bring up the faders. Do it only if you are forced to. In mixing you should only bring the fader down.

When you force the sound to be louder and bring up the faders you also bring up unwanted noise (fans, tv, even your mom's voice telling you to shut down the damn amp. Even if you didn't hear her while recording the microphone did. Your mom's voice is in your mix. And that can be unfixable ^^)

So when you are about to record be sure that the signal is about at -6 to -3 db. The nearer you are at 0 db the "hottest" recording you make. It's ok for the signal to "touch" 0db but don't overdo it or else you'll have "clipping".

When clipping the sound is distorted.

To get the hottest signal without clipping try a slight amount of compression while recording. Do not overdo it though cause when applying compression or any other effect while recording is too hard or even impossible to cancel it at mixing. So, add a slight amount of whatever you need to add before mixing.