When I work with synths, I rarely have any sort of level problems. 99% of the time a synth track renders out at decent levels.

Occasionally, an audio track from guitar may not record with a strong level even though the input is showing it to be robust..... with a bit of red showing in the input meters.  So if the wave is a bit anemic, I will normalize it. 

I almost always run a 96% normalization on all my tracks AFTER I have exported the final mix into my wave editor. The tracks are lightly compressed at this point and have many peaks that are not exceeding 0db. 

Normalize simply raises the overall level a tiny bit in most cases with out changing the ratio like a compressor would do to achieve a few db more out of the track. 

this mp3 wave pic: which has been normalized




is this song:  http://www.soundclick.com...34&songID=10369122

Using Normalization is just like any other tool in the DAW.... it is there to be used, and it is possible to abuse it. 

Ignoring Normalising for a moment, there are some benifits to bouncing your synths to audio before mixing...

- Less CPU
- I find working with an audio track can be easier and more flexible to mix
               THe BIG ONE
- Years down the road, you may want to revisit the mix, but you no longer have the Synth, License or it's not compatible with your new 84 bit system...you will always have the audio track.

Yes Mike, I usually save 2 "final" copies - one with synths frozen, one without.