I am new to both ableton and pure data, I have been trying to make my own plug ins etc. Could anyone tell me what the best way of doing this is? Ideally I'd like to use patches I've made like plugins, without having to have several programs running at once. is this possible on OSX? and if not is there a practical alternative for use in live/experimental electronics?

You can use jackOSX to route audio between Pd and Live, and you can use the built-in IAC drivers in OSX to send midi back and forth. jackOSX comes with a vst/au plugin that allows you to route audio from an effects slot, so you can treat Pd as a plugin that way.

that's great, many thanks for your help!
j