OT: live/firebox/kaoss pad problems (not sure which but something's wrong)

[Nick <ParadoxQuine@gmail.com>]

I just traveled home (to santa cruz!) from school for winter break and
i set up my firebox and keyboard and kaoss pad and though i have the
proper cables running from the firebox to the kaoss pad and kaoss back
to the firebox, when i start up live it outputs to the speakers fine,
outputs to the kaoss pad fine, but inputs from the kaoss pad are at
about 2% volume. I've checked everything I can think of - ableton
recognizes everything, audio midi setup does too, sound preferences
are right (although are not showing any input though the firebox is
selected, though I'm assuming that is because it's on input channels
3+4), all the volume controls seems to be fine in audio setup,
ableton, on the kp, on the firebox, etc. I've rebooted about half a
dozen times (the computer, the kaoss pad, and the firebox, with no
change.)

could anyone give me some pointers on how to troubleshoot this please?
I don't think I've ever found a computer issue that stumped me this
much...and opening a terminal isn't working :P

Thanks!
Nick