Its definitely not clipping on the output. I sometimes see mild yellow on input. The noise I'm referring to sounds vastly different than clipping.
sorry for being all over the place but I'm dealing with multiple problems at once.. so I was also using spdif at 48k and the kemper now cannot stay synced when it is the clock source. I also read that a bad spdif connection can cause digital artifacts. So I swapped back to analog. The artifacts are still there.
All my equipment is running through power conditioners. Top of the line cables, all new with Neutrik tips, tried xlr also high quality. I also discovered that my kemper only freezes when rig manager is open. It then opens on to a chromatic detuning effect which was probably the last profile I browsed
I am honestly at a loss.. I'm going to try di recording and then reamping with kemper and check if the artifacts are still present