Well probably not underrated and not really my "favorite" but the Multi-Dock is a freaking life saver for me considering I work on a single screen and honestly don't think I'd really want a second screen even I could afford it (I would just get a BIGGER screen). I would like to see some improvements on it (like being able to cycle through whatever is in the dock using the arrow keys, being able to drag the tabs around to where I want them, an option to fullscreen it with a simple keybinding, etc...) but damn is it a million times easier to manage a project instead of having a million Windows floating around and having to hunt through them to find what you want.
As far as techniques I was told this is a little weird but I like using the Comp mode for my MIDI drums. I treat it just like I do an audio track. I slam out sections one at a time doing multiple takes with different ideas then see what sounds right, flatten the stuff I choose (or make multiple full versions) and clone the track then archive the original and delete everything except the flattened take lanes.
Then I listen to those and practice along or just play to my scratch tracks basing my performance on what worked from the originals. At this point I try to perform the song in it's entirety multiple times trying out different fills, turnaraounds, etc, recording each one. I might end up with a dozen performances.
Once I've got a bunch of decent performances or mostly decent performances I start using the Fast Comping approach (slice the song up into relevant sections, go into Fast Comp mode, use the arrow keys to audition and choose the best for that section, etc... just like you'd do with a vocal track or something).
I'll listen back to the whole thing to make sure everything flows properly and my splits are in the optimal spots (like if there is a fill that steps over the measure line or something but I want to use it I'll make sure I get the whole fill and then correct it later). Once it's good I flatten it down, clone/archive/delete unneeded lanes so I am working with ONE lane again (BTW I hide those original tracks too so I'm always looking at the right tracks/clips).
After all THAT I pop open the clip in the PRV and comb through the whole thing moving notes, adjusting velocities, getting rid of double/bad notes, inputting missed notes, etc. (this takes can take a loooong time but is worth it because Quantize doesn't work on my chaotic stuff).
Now I've got a good, solid drum track to write/record my bass part over top of.
That's about as far as I've gotten so far with my current project (first one in X3) but my next plan is going to be either go back and redo the drums live from the controller again so they compliment the newly written bass parts even more or I might just use the same take and just do my revised drum track in the PRV (to save time but I probably will do it live stating the whole process over again).
I can't do double kick with the pK (it only allows for one "expression" pedal which I have but it's awkward to play) and I can only play it so fast before it starts dropping notes (as well as how weird it is playing "drums" on the thing and that I'm an "okay" drummer but not as good as the material requires) so there will be parts where I'll probably wipe out the double kick notes in the PRV and then do some finger double kick in Sound On Sound mode then bounce it into the original clip or simply input that stuff directly into the PRV (but that's not nearly as fun... lol).
It is definitely a LOT of work but when I consider how much time I used to spend in band practices 2-3 times a week, every week, to obtain middling results on my drum parts and NEVER being able to capture a decent recording even with hours of setting up mics, mixers, moving my DAW into the band room, etc then this way is actually WAY quicker and sounds a million times better.
The only problem is apparently when you use Comping to work on MIDI clips like this it REALLY strains computer resources because instead of like audio clips which all use the same file from the pool every time you split a MIDI clip it creates two copies of the original because it wants to treat them as a whole new clip for separate PRV editing. This can be avoided by switching off Non-Destructive editing but that doesn't work for me. So what started happening was because I'd be working with a dozen take lanes all chopped up into a dozen or so sections I ended up with... well... a LOT of MIDI clips all being read at the same time even if only one was audible (thank you scook for teaching me about that). This gave me frequent dropouts. The solution was to CRANK my hard disk buffers and to make sure to delete or archive any unneeded MIDI clips (thus the constant flattening/bouncing/archiving).
So yeah... convoluted? Weird? Crazy? Perhaps but this is REALLY working out better for my drum parts than I ever could have hoped and I'm just OCD enough to actually enjoy doing it.
Oh and another feature that rules is the "Archive" function. If that wasn't there even my ultra high powered PC would be brought to it's knees very early on in my writing process OR I'd have to constantly be ditching material that I may or may not want to use. I prefer to just go nuts on stuff until the part is written THEN go back and delete the crap. That way my creative flow isn't constantly being interrupted... at least not by that type of thing. Plenty of other interruptions in my life as it is.
And if you read all that... well... perhaps you are just as crazy as I am. lol