Ableton CPU Overloading - How to use with crappy PC?

[pwolly]

My PC specs aren't great and I can't continue using ableton with the stuttering and crackling and popping... I remember I saw an interview with Wolfgang Gartner, I am a big fan of hhis music and I think he is a fantastic producer, in the interview he said he used and old crappy low spec PC that stuttered all the time too.. he said "I don't care how many times I have to bounce stuff down to audio" so I had been working on a track and it got to the point where these stutters were happening and I exported the loops to audio but when I brought the audio into a new project even the F%*king audio had mixed down with the cracks and pops.

Does anyone have any suggestions? If not I'm going to switch to FL studio which I know is more CPU friendly.

Thanks.

[DSPI]

I use Live on a crappy old laptop and there are ways to help the CPU load.

First of all, check out Tarekith's guide to optimizing a PC. Some good tips there.

As for sets, I try to use native devices as much as possible and keep effects on return channels.
ClyphX is also a great way to control everything, especially devices (such as turning off unnecessary FX and MIDI instruments that you're not using at the time).
Other than that, I keep the track number to a minimum (I only use 8 tracks when playing live - because of my APC20) and use audio as much as is humanly possible (when playing live I only use audio).

Hope that's some help. I know it ain't easy!

[DSPI]

Also, don't forget that saving many different versions of one set takes up almost no space at all, so when you're happy with a MIDI track - save that version of the set then freeze and flatten the MIDI track to get perfect audio