I have a Fireface 800 and want to record guitar into the front guitar (1) input.  The guitar is going through a drive pedal, then straight into the input.  I have the Drive, Limiter and Speaker Emulation features unchecked.  The recording will be out of the firewire into Cubase.

I have tried to get a good sound, but the problem is that when recorded it seems overdriven and/or distorted. I check if I have the sound I want by first plugging the drive pedal straight into an amp, then, without changing any settings (on the guitar or the pedal),  I plug the pedal into Input 1 on the Fireface.

Obviously I want it to be overdriven, but I am talking about excess drive/distortion compared to plugging the drive pedal straight into an amp for comparison. I don't require any additional gain from the Fireface as the pedal will be providing all I need. So actually,  all I need is for the Fireface to supply AD conversion.

I was wondering if Input 1 is adding any pre-amp gain?