for me, the patcher is more designed for creation than using 'live'.
ideally, for me, there would be 'presentation' view, where you could layout controls, like you can in both Max/Reaktor.
however, increasingly, I don't think this is the way forward, I actually the presentation/control interface should be separate from the patcher.
today, you can use something like Lemur, Max, PD (or numerous other tools) and build a custom interface that can interface with Axoloti via MIDI.
the advantage, is the UI could be anything, and could run on any platform (Mac, raspberry PI, iPad, iPhone), its not limited to the small range of controls provided in the patcher UI.
but, i accept, there are currently a few limitations:
- midi is limited (eg 127 cc) and not particularly efficient.
- its 'fiddly', you have to assign midi cc to anything you want to control, and then remember that mapping, this make interface design laborious.
so hopefully, when the parameters are exposed a little better from the axo board, we will be able to do something a little different... that will retain the advantage of this approach, but mitigate some of the inconveniences.
I will say though, this is very much my personal opinion, and its rather biased - I think of an Axoloti patch as a 'standalone' instrument/fx ... others I'm sure have very different opinions and also use Axoloti in a very different manner.