Just wanted your various opinions (experienced & inexperienced):

When producing do you think that midi is easier to manipulate or audio?

Do you effectively make lots of loops (with no FX) and then sequence them and apply FX individually?

I'm wondering if an overhaul of production technique might save some CPU power (which is at a premium) on my system...

I think I misread your post... I thought you were looking to upgrade gear instead of technique.

When I make loops sometimes I play around and experiment but most of the time I know the sound that I want to get and record the base of the sound the way that I know will turn a good final product.  Then I generally add most of the delays, reverbs and filters once the loop is sequenced.  Most other effect are applied before hand.

I used to apply the effects to the actual audio files when I recorded vocals and live instruments in my multitrack software but now I create fx busses and do it all live.
Kind of got used to doing that in protools and it makes sense to me.
I've built a real powerful computer so if my CPU starts taxing out.. it actually is a good production point to think... "maybe I should simplify the sound of this song"

I use almost all internal midi with Logic.  I arrange the entire track, automate it, mix it, etc, with all effects on, then run out to a buss compressor and EQ, then record stereo file.  Lots of people work with audio as well, I may add some audio here and there with vocals, or added drum parts.  Get a macpro Quad core and do whatever you want... 

yeah, a mac pro would be nice, just got a slight issue with cashflow atm. i`m about halfway there tho...

Gee I'm running a 400mhz Pentium 2 with a wopping 128mb's of ram and I never run into any problems adding effects to my buses.

;-D

yeah thats what i`m finding. maybe ill do what you`re doing. what if you need to change a loop or characteristic of an instrument? that must be pretty long winded!

I save various versions as I work though and load the previous version that still had the midi or less edited loop. This is useful in two ways as it means I can go backwards if the idea goes in the wrong direction as well as just make a change to a part takes just a couple of minutes to load the old version change it and print a new audio track.


8-10 tracks works if you are only using loops but I seperate out all the drums and have several different sets so I'm over that as well as adding stacked pads individually so that I can adjust the balance between them over time that all goes towards my sound which is quite full.
Also all the tracks wont be playing simultaneously so there is less going on at any one time than thenumber of tracks implies

yes there is... and I'm doing it wrong.