When I started I tried to avoid widgets (I thought they were just for real time tweaking synth settings). But, they are essential to use variations and avoiding duplicating plugins (wasting ram).
Now, on pretty much every rackspace, I add the amazing Awaken widget panel. It will probably give you every widget you need to set volumes (see audio faders too!) and buttons to bypass whatever you want. (I do not use the rackspace, I just use the widget panel).