also, is it possible to use take lanes to record multiple takes of GROUPS like say 7 tracks of recorded drums?  where you can edit and comp them all as one track?

dubdisciple, i gotta change my avatar 8/

Bub..i hear ya lol. I just had nothing else to say since the OP declared it "end of story". An overly broad statement deserves an overly simplistic reply.

Blix..even more odd than us having the same avatar, i grew up 10 minutes from your location. I'm blue devil!

I grew up about 45 minutes from Cinnaminson on the Jersey side.

Small world.

JERSEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
or were you PA dub?

jersey. was born in riverside and raised in Burlington

BlixYZ


also, is it possible to use take lanes to record multiple takes of GROUPS like say 7 tracks of recorded drums?  where you can edit and comp them all as one track?

Go to Preferences--->Project----->Record and turn on "Group clips across tracks". Now when you record all the clips will be "clip grouped" and editing one will edit them all (including in take lanes).

Takes can be removed from clip groups by right clicking on the clip and selecting that option. Clip groups can also be created after the event using the same right click method with all the clips selected.

I seem to think take lanes are not very well designed, but maybe I just don't know how to use them, so let me ask. I want to use additional lanes for keeping alternative takes, so I only want the clips in the current lane (if there's such a thing) to be displayed when the lanes are collapsed. How do you hide the clips in other lanes? 
Also, is it possible to copy a clip in one lane and then paste it directly to another lane by using shortcut keys? It seems Ctrl+C and Ctrl+(Alt+)V can only paste the clip to the source lane. Drag and drop is the only way? Dragging from the first verse to the third chorus would be a long journey...

Believe it or not, my BIGGEST problem with Lanes isn't that cut/paste is unforgiving, Mutes are relatively unpredictable, you can't see JUST the Lane you want (solo'd) when the Lanes are collapsed as Jlien asks about, but I seriously get lost in them! It's so incredibly messy how they're laid out, even if logical. They just add more clutter, rather than make it easier on your eyes and your project orientation. It's VERY easy to confuse a Lane for a track on a larger monitor. Worse, if you leave Lanes expanded, then shrink the track to minimal height, the track prior to the one with Lanes showing might be mistaken for the track your Lanes are actually on. 

They're just "Greasy" to me. I still feel they were "slapped" on to X2 rather than really worked during Beta. 
Let me add something here about Beta testing that I'll bet even Beta testers aren't always trying: "Stress" testing. Double-meaning. How many Beta testers routinely try out new features or new releases with a stop-watch? For example, Create 5 tracks with 3 Lanes each, label them, take Track 5 and move it to Track 2 and re-label it to Snare Drum, arm all tracks to record. Record three takes of each. Then take three snare hits and move them from one Lane to another.

This is the kind of Professional Beta testing I was trained years for. This is where you discover what features REALLY work well and which ones simply get in the way. I doubt many developer-type companies do these types of trials.