hey hey! hope all’s well otherwise 
when you checked levels, did that include under PARAMS > SOFTCUT? the softcut level on the metered LEVELS screen is only the main output of softcut, but it doesn’t control the feed of the three sources (input, engine, tape). those are all addressable under PARAMS > SOFTCUT tho!
also, you might need to hold K3 while adjusting the level to get to fine-grain values