well, then.. i'm really going to have to decide if i hear a difference
with the attenuator before the mic pre - because using the attenuator
in between the sytek and the rme, while keeping input gain low enough
to prevent clipping the sytek yields a really small signal into the
rme. and i'm always under the impression that keeping the signal as hot
as possible into the converters is desirable.

or maybe i need another solution.

thanks for everyone's help and tutelage