Thanks for the reply. I've just sent you a PM.
As regards the SMC-Mixer, it's not a bad little thing at all, and as you say it's incredibly cheap. I don't know how responsive more expensive control surfaces are, but the only time I ever noticed any lag was when I was monitoring MIDI messages via the included app. Maybe other control surfaces are much better, but for someone like me who just likes to dabble and doesn't want to spend too much money, it's perfect.
Or I should say, it's perfect with AZ Controller. When I first tried it with Cakewalk's built-in Mackie plugin (which is what the manual suggested), strange things kept happening (sometimes buttons would repeat, sometimes the sliders would act like a pitch wheel), but with AZ Controller it's been absolutely rock solid.
I've been learning how to use AZ Controller by trying to recreate the basic out-of-the-box set-up in AZ Controller, which I have just about done, and have started adding my own customization. It's just amazing how much is possible with your programme! Once I've finished testing everything I will upload my basic preset to your forum in case anyone else wants to use the SMC-Mixer with Cakewalk. I'm really happy with it, but again, this is all thanks to AZ Controller.