At this point I'm not sure of the differences between 1 & 2. There's several things I like about X2 - the pro-channel EQ and Compression are pretty useful. The channel presets for vocals are also pretty decent. I use the VC-64 Vintage Channel as well as the LP 64 Multiband Compressor for mastering. But I still put the tracks in Audition to finalize the average RMS numbers, meaning how loud the track itself is. We're finishing the mastering this week.
I usually use 2 screenshots, one for tracking, one for the console. Sometimes I route to buses, sometimes not, depending on how complex the instrumentation and vocals are. I will mostly likely upgrade to X3 a little later. I'm also interested in getting some other mastering plug-ins.
BTW, all the bass parts were tracked using a SansAmp Bass DI.
But yeah, no other overdrive than that.
My biggest regret is not contacting this friend of mine who lives in Brazil - really good drummer - we could've had live drums if I'd thought about it sooner. However, we did get a local guy who tours with the Commodores to do keyboards on 5 tracks. Man did THAT add some coolness.