sorry to say this, but you can’t compare the volume of the THRU track inside OT with the signal that gets sent to OT.
your mixer and your OT has completely different headroom
I’ll post a shitty made video to show that there are no issues coming to levels inside OT.
im speaking about THRU compared to BUFFER (sampled THRU)
EDIT
any qwuestions welcome…sorry for my English/pronunciation and my cold nose =)