Ableton Live 9: Drum Rack/Sampler issues + SPL Transient shaper vs ableton compressor

[ElmoTRM]

(Running the latest Ableton live 9 with the updated sampler and drum rack)

Ok so I have a sample of a kick and I dragged it into drum rack and by default (in classic mode):
1. Sustain 0db
2. Release 50ms
3. Volume -12db
4. Decay 600ms

The kick is from one of those vengeance packs so it is quite processed as it is, and my kick channel gain is at -8db (since I always work at -8db for the kick). So I use a compressor since the kick is already -12db for the sampler and then adjust attack and release on my compressor accordingly. Usually my processing chain is as follows:

=> Drum rack/sampler -> EQ -> Compressor -> EQ -> SPL Transient Shaper -> Limiter

So the sound is nice and fat and pumps...didn't even need to use transient shaper, everything is fine.

I did the same thing another way. Process Chain is as follows

=> Drum rack/sampler -> EQ -> SPL Transient Shaper -> Limiter

I set the drum rack this time to 0 DB gain rather than having it -12db as default but this time I adjust the release on the drum rack and then adjust attack on the transient shaper with my limiter the same settings.

My problem is I cannot seem to tell a difference in sound between the two different ways. It seemed that the compressor was there to make up for the loss gain due to -12db and that the attack and release replaced the job of the transient shaper.

However as soon as I got rid of the compressor the transient shaper played a greater role.

So my question is this:
Is the two processing methods basically the same thing?

And how come in drum rack classic mode it is set to -12db by default, should I have the sample gain at 0db instead?

Furthermore, in 1-shot mode the velocity at 100% is that the same as having the gain in classic mode at 0db?