What I've found is that if you have the CE on the master bus driven up all the way, and you have a strong kick drum sounding over, say, a clean sustained synth chord, the kick will distort the synth when it hits. It's like the sound of a blown out, rattling speaker. Even if I turn the master bus way down I can still hear the rattling noise. It also happens whether or not I have CE on the kick track. I can only identify it clearly with a sparse arrangement like this, but it's making me reluctant to turn the drive knob any further than 2 or 3 dB lest it introduce all kinds of distortion across the whole mix that my less than perfect hearing isn't picking up. 

It seems to be more prevalent on the N-Type and A-Type settings, although still a problem on the S-Type setting as well. 

What is everyone else doing in terms of that drive knob? All the way, a little way, or not at all? 

I kept it in the middle. I didn't go in with a microscope or anything but yeah... cranking the drive made things sound undesirable like a crappy dirty worn out board. However I'm assuming cranking it up for more subtle stuff like acoustic instruments, light vocals or the like might produce some nice sounds. I'll be playing around with that kind of thing soon enough.

Do you have a favorite CE type Beepster? At first I was hovering between the N-Type and A-Types, but am now beginning to think the S-Type works better for electronic music. 

I'm digging the N-Type for my metal stuff. I used it on that track I posted downstairs on the master bus and I think my rhythm guitar busses. Couldn't be bothered applying it to the whole project an I have a feeling I would not have liked the results even though it's supposed to be a cumulative effect. Looking forward to trying it on some more organic stuff like acoustic guit and vocs but that will have to wait for now.

It's definitely more pronounced if you put it on both the tracks and the master bus. 

Yeah. I don't think I'm going to pile it on as recommended because a) to my ears I'd rather use it subtly and b) having it all over the place is just one extra thing to consider while mixing. I am quite glad they included it though because IMO it just gave a tiny little bit of extra sparkle to my guitars which at the moment are completely sim based. Between the console EMU and TH2 being included in X2 I don't seem to have to worry too much about anything else in regards to my heavily distorted guit tracks. 

Very happy I didn't piddle around waiting to upgrade. Cheers.

One thing they recommended was to put it on all of your tracks and the master bus from the get-go, so that you're mixing into it from the start rather than worrying about how it's going to affect things if you slap it on top of something that's already been carefully mixed. Although like everything else, it's down to the individual I suppose. Just one more creative tool at our disposals!

I did actually apply it to some of my tracks at the very start of the mixing process and really didn't like what it did from the get go so I bailed on it it until the end. It wasn't as subtle as much of the info says but I think that's due to the aggressive nature of the tracks in question. It was very much like you described and what I detailed earlier... like an old analog console that needed a cleaning/repair. But yes... definitely a nice tool for the kit and everyone should be able to benefit from it one way or the other. I would however NOT apply it blindly to the entire mix. Seems the type of effect that should really be approached thoughtfully and carefully.

Just my thoughts on the matter. Cheers.

one of the best gain staging tips i ever heard was to dial your kick drum peak at -14db to -10db and then build all the other layers around that.  

Dude... you don't know how much I needed that insight. Cheers.