Okay, so I went there. I know, I know, there's already a million threads on this, but I'm a trying my best. Give me some flame if it makes you feel better.
I was playing around with some sounds and started to really get some of the best sound of my life. My interface input level was set to +27db with the -20db pad in so it brings it down to +7 (these number are not relevant to the story). My concern was I was occasionally hitting the red on the interface and spdif into the kemper was also showing red on the input led, not permanently, just peaks. Neither was clipping but I know my interface and if it's showing red then I'm getting dangerously close.
The problem was that if I turn the input level down on my interface to give me more head room then it didn't sound the same, it was close but it's just missing something. I then started to adjust the distortion sense the the punch started to come back. I pulled the interface level down by -4db and turned the kemper distortion sense up to +4db. Is this how it's supposed to work? Is cutting 4db from the interface and boost by the same amount on the kemper distortion sense correct or is it just a coincidence that those numbers work.
I'm just going by ear and it sounds pretty close. It would be good to confirm that this is how it works?