If you have a track that is a -60 dB with one tiny spike -5 dB normalize will only raise the track proportionally 5dB.You could get rid of the little spike and then the track would raise 60dB. Never normalise after you mix. Normalise all your tracks one at a time then mix. After you've rendered to a stereo file you can normalise again and it won't affect the mix.
If you ever worked in the day of tape the goal was to record each track as hot as you can cause there's no such thing as normalise with tape.

John
ESI Gigaport HD+
Lenovo Turion II /4 Gig Ram/ Win7x64 be
15.6" Monitor
"The only Band is a Real Band"
www.wintertexaninfo.com/BANDS/JohnnyD.php