First things first, basic notes on saving and an introduction to my Creamware Scope plug-in design process.

Part 1: saving and basics

Once I have a basic circuit idea patched together, I load the new design I'm working on, usually without any fancy graphics attached at all in the early stages, into my Scope project window and patch it in either via. the cables in the main project window or as an insert directly into channels of a basic mixer.

Often I have already attached some simple circuit controls like faders, text boxes to all the elements of the circuit so any tweaks or changes I want to make to the circuit design can be made as I work.

For example, say I'm adjusting the first stage of the circuit, usually the Input gain of the amplifier 'atom' (the little circuit modules that make up the Scope development software ), I make sure I have it's gain attached to a control on the surface so that I can tweak in the middle of a mix. The advantage of designing plug-ins for the Creamware Scope Fusion platform for me is that I can build and fine tune circuits during an actual recording or mixing session and make any changes to way they work in a real world situation and I don't have to 'compile' a whole bunch of code before I can try my designs.

I always work with a notepad open on the desktop so I can keep track of different things that sounded interesting, bad or just weird so I can go back over my notes at any stage and repeat the cool stuff.

Designing plugins is fiddly, time consuming and inherently unstable due to the complexity and the power the plug-in designer wields. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that tries lots of..."What happens If I do this...Oh that!" so just In case I do anything causing a crash, I do something I learnt in the early days with computers. I save constantly in numbered increments. That is, "Project 01, Project 02, Project 03" etc. An usually not just by saving over the project I have open with the 'Control-S' for PC or "Apple-S" keys on the MAC.

This ensures that I can go back to any version and see what I was doing at that stage. Also, If I do something wrong or something I don't like, I can always scrap that idea and go one step back by loading the number before. As an extra bonus, the exact time I saved each project will be listed in the file window of the operating system so It's simple to see when I did what. If I want to be more specific, I'll name the projects with a little more info. For example "project new surface 07, project better surface 08, project optimized 09 etc." which is very handy when months have passed and you've forgotten what you had in mind or were in the process of working on at the time. I always try to complete my current idea before finishing for the day or at least by making very specific notes so I don't forget. I also take screen grabs of my designs to remind me using a cool little program called 'Snag it' on the PC and I always save these screen shots into the exact folder where I save my design projects.