I just received Komplete 9 Ultimate and it's loading - this is a lot of stuff. Anyone know of any secrets using it with X2 that I should know? Thanks, Greg

Here the best secret of all: have fun with Komplete, you're going to love it.

Regards,

don't bother creating instrument banks in kontakt it does not respond to program change messages in sonar.  if you are going to enable midi out on any of the synths (like in battery 4 you can record pads hit via the interface to a midi track) only do one at a time because even if they are on different channels they will record to any armed midi track.  program changes work fine in absynth, reaktor, massive and fm8.  update battery 4 right away there was weirdness with the initial version.  monark in reaktor can get stuck notes sometimes if you're playing a long note and stop playback before note off is hit.  
that's about it off the top of my head...

Most important, you need to run everything in standalone mode before running as plugins.

A lot of the synths have a reputation for certain genres of music.  Absynth for soundtracks, Massive for edgy EDM, Razor for dubstep.  If you look through the presets, you will find that they are a lot more versatile than their reputations.

If you are using any of the Reaktor synth ensembles regularly, be sure to make a track template for each loaded ensemble.  That will save you from having to load Reaktor and then load the ensemble.

For GR5:

• you should make sure you understand the advanced controls.  They really can make a difference.
• Do the Craig Anderton EQ trick after speaker simulations.
• Pay attention to your gain staging
• Don't be afraid to try multiple amp and mic combinations.
• For traditional guitar sounds, I prefer either Reflektor or Vintage Reverb over Studio Reverb.
• The advanced controls on the MXR phaser clone make it a bit more versatile than the original Phase 90.
• If you don't like the chorus sound on the chorus/flanger, try using the modulation feature of the Memory Man clone.

mumpcake
 

Most important, you need to run everything in standalone mode before running as plugins.

I didn't have that experience but be warned, if you insert a synth as a plugin the first time you use it there is a wait time while it builds its patch database.

I hadn't had that problem either, but then again, if a plugin installs a standalone I usually go to that first.  I know the manuals say to do that and people often report problems when they don't.