I tend to record at mid levels (I would also never normalise) . In all my tests recordings I have found that recording less hot gives plugins a lot more headroom to work particularly on the stereo master buss which results on in amore dynamic, less static sounding mix

Whe i first started recording digitally I was recording everything as hot as possible and all plugins sounded crap to my ears. Now I get better results. I dont know why, Im not scientist.

I always use an L2 on the mix buss now. During my hot years I could never get a decent result from that plugins, now I do. The same goes for Compressors, well everthing really.

I realise there is techinical details regarding bit information and many say recording hot as possibble is the way to go, but if I do that I have to pull all the faders down de to verloadung of the master buss which I dont like doing, or the master fader which I like doing even less.