when recording my vocals should i

[bad intentionz]

record them at a lower DB and later add the volume to them or record as loud as possible before distortion

 

[Raw-Tracks]

Record the signal hot, but leave yourself plenty of headroom. Vocals can be pretty dynamic. You may have plenty of headroom at the beginning of the song, but by the 3rd chorus you could have "overs". If you're recording at 24 bit resolution, shoot for an average level of about -18 or -20dBfs. That will give 18db of headroom in case you need it. It's better to be a little on the conservative side, rather than ruin an otherwise good take because you were trying to get a really hot level.

 

[bad intentionz]

thanks for the info

 

[TuoKaerf]

Record good levels, but avoid trying to push it up as far as possible. A lot of the notion of recording as hot as possible comes from the analog world, when you wanted to record quite hot to mask the noise ratio on tape. In digital recording, this is not an issue. You want to leave as much room as possible to use plug-ins, and this is where people run into problems when mixing in the box.

As said above me, recording at 24 bit will help alot.