Have never known VP to crash. What are the PC's specs: RAM, disk free space, CPU, video. Upgrade to the latest video driver, if it is dated. Reinstall VP.
Gain reduction via the methods outlined above always succeeds here. But there's no provision in VP for DAW integration, AFAIK.
If possible, please upload a short project that exhibits these issues. Someone will look into them.
Here's how...
1. In Videopad click the FILE menu, then SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT AS. Save to any convenient folder.
2. Open the folder that contains the saved files and ZIP them all.
3. Upload the zip file to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like. It's free.
4. Make the uploaded file public (share it) and copy the shared link.
5. Paste the link into this forum.