Bub
This was very interesting to me (from Craig's video) ...
"It's important to start your mix while the Console Emulators are already in place and do your mix with all of them enabled, adding them after the fact to an existing mix is rarely as effective."
I don't understand why? If you mix your project so it sounds good, and then you add the CE, it should add 'something' to the mix, good or bad. Even if it emphasizes the high end, and creates distortion, you should still hear something. Another thing bad about this is, it's kind of odd to have it work this way, especially if you want to go back and add it to an existing project. You'd have to reset the desk and start from scratch. That just doesn't make sense to me.
Bub, the reason why is obvious - because the documentation says that's the way you should use it.
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR%20X2&Lang=EN&Req=ProChannel.8.html Don't confuse yourself by trying to use logic and reasoning when it comes to audio. Or get bogged down in technical details about what's actually going on or do blind testing or anything like that.
Instead, just blindly accept what the marketing folks tell you and your entire world will be beautiful and happy and wonderful and joyous and you can post upstairs about how wonderful everything is!
You will automatically hear the stuff they tell you about:
A wider sound stage.
Increased sense of sense [sic] of spatial cohesion.*
More depth and definition.
A bit more warmth and aggression.
Easier to balance levels across tracks.
*This is my favorite, because, before X2, my spatials just weren't cohesed (even when they were warmly and aggressively deep and defined).
I'm not sure about the wider sound stage though, because I don't have a ruler handy in my studio.