Ok, I'm digging the console emulation in X2 and yes def worth the 50 buck upgrade I paid late last month but I've been digging around...researching the best way to use it and here is the problem.  In the manual it says to put the console emulation as the 1st module, this is the way I just used it with the last track I just mixed (and I must say, it is a real eye opener, a very musical sound as they say).  But on twitter this morn, The Cake put up a link to a Craig Anderton video and the way he used it was as the last module in the chain.  Now my belief is the 1st way is the correct way, although there is technically no right or wrong way but def if we were mixing there would be very few times that the channel/console sound would be the last thing the audio goes through, this is because you would feed the signal into the console, then it would go through the on board compressor/EQ then out to outboard effects.
 
Any opinions on this??
 
Ben

I agree with you about the order of modules. At the same time, the CE seems to make more of a pronounced change in sound if you use it last. And the more tracks you use them on, the more difference there seems to be. I wish someone would really take time to do an article on what the plug does and how it does it. I'm just not getting that WOW factor and I don't know if it's because I don't use the settings correctly. I do hear a change but I would have expected a bigger difference in sound between the consoles they say they are emulating. Maybe it is just so subtle a difference.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2674561

The CE is a love of mine.  I lean N type, but sometimes S is the stuff, and sometimes A makes my day.   Whether or at the beginning or end, I typically just try both to see.   If I want more subtle, at the beginning (as stated above).   If I want the effect exaggerated, it goes at the end.  What a sweet, convenient feature.
Use your ears.

I'm stupid and I just thought about something.... in the ProChannel, does the chain go top to bottom or bottom to top?

signal flows in from the top and out through the bottom

Learn How To Use The Console Emulator by Craig Anderton just came out on the Cakewalk Blog today as a YouTube demo video. Craig explains everything really well in this video. Basically, it is last in his chain. That is the way I have used it from day one and I really like the results of the CE done this way. Set the CE first and mix into it.

I use it last in the chain, except in the master bus where it comes before the limiter.
 
After the manual said put it first, most sources have suggested it works best last. Craig and Noel, to name just two.  I did a lot of research when it came out, including talking to the CE's developer.  Last does seem the most popular choice.
 
I liked Craig's point that compressing, etc, after the CE might exaggerate certain aspects of the emulation.
 
There was a very long thread about this that I was involved in at the time.  I haven't checked the link Scook put up, but if it's not that one, I'll post it up later, if I can find it.

I do the same on the Master Bus JB, don't want to take the chance of any overs.

This has been debated a lot around here, and there's been some interesting points made about it. I have discovered that I prefer to use it at the top of the Pro Channel on instruments like rythm guitars, pads, synths, single mic choirs etc. But I prefer it a lot at the end of the Pro Channel for vocals, lead guitars, some types of lead synth lines, voice overs etc. But there's also been times when I've put it in the middle of things!
 
My default pro channel chain has it on top, because that's what I use the most.
 
This is how I like it. Experimenting is the key here.
 
If you want to be very authentic about it, the correct place to put it is at the top of the Pro Channel since it emulates what traditionally have been the first part of a console that the signal hits, and the sound would be processed after that. Unless, of course, you would use guitar pedals, external preamps and such before the signal hit the console pre amps. But in this day and age, you're not limited to think like this, unless you want to
 
I love the Console Emulator - one of the coolest things in the world!