Maximum number of FX VST inserts reached??

[RedStoneRanger]

Hi all,
I am using KV Element in Davinci Resolve Fairlight on Windows 10. In my current project, I make extensive use of KVE, having currently 61 instances of Element FX inserted into tracks and busses. However, if I insert KVE number 62, Davinci starts to struggle, messing up my sound, muting busses, all sorts of chaotic behavior. As soon as I remove #62 everything is back to normal.
There's nothing special about #62, the issue even happens with a blank instance. Doesn't look like I reached a limit of DVR because I can insert other plug-ins on top, without problems.
I wonder if therer is any hard limit in KVE or maybe a buffer, which is not designed to handle so many instances?
I am using element-win64-0.46.6. Any idea or tip is appreciated.

[mfisher31]

There is no limit imposed by the plugin itself. Not sure what the problem would be.

[mfisher31]

Let me rephrase that then. I haven't imposed any limit on the number of instances (for any reason) through any code I have written. We're using the JUCE framework which provides all the plugin formats, maybe it's something in JUCE.

[RedStoneRanger]

Ok, makes sense. Do you think its worth trying the new Element beta? I am asking because it takes some effort to update my project.

[mfisher31]

Maybe it's not JUCE per-se, and is actually element. But not a Hard Limit. The graphing engine does have to allocate quite a bit of AudioBuffer objects in order to function. Do your instances have a lot of plugins on them?

I'd before trying the beta, see if you can add +61 instances of element with blank graphs.

[RedStoneRanger]

Thanks for your advice. My Element graph is rather lighweight. Audio In/Out (up to six channels) Midi In/Out and one plug-in. But the plug-in is a Bidule instance, which can contain several other plug-ins. This is some legacy stuff, which just works so I didn't touch it yet. Element is more or less a wrapper for Bidule because Bidules midi-management sucks.
I will do the blank-test you suggested over the weekend and come back ASAP.

[RedStoneRanger]

Hello Michael,
I did some tests over the weekend:
In a fresh project with 96 tracks and some audio to check the playback I inserted 78 blank instances of Element FX without any issues. After adding no79 audio stopped working. After removing no79 everything was back to normal.
Next, I did the exact same test but with BluecatsAudio Patchwork. I inserted more than 100 instances without any misbehavior.
In my previous post I wrote that audio stopps at arround 61 instances but this was with a full blown project with other plug-ins and more complex routing.

[RedStoneRanger]

Thanks Michael for your quick reply, even if it leaves me clueless. I might give the new beta a try and report back if this changed anything.

[mfisher31]

Ok, that makes sense then. every node added to the graph creates necessary audio and midi buffers. I bet if you deleted the IO nodes entirely you could get more instances... but that defeats the purpose. There isn't much I can do about this problem unfortunately. Buffers are needed to render the graph, and this is already optimized so that buffers are shared wherever possible in the DSP chain.

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On Mon, Nov 3, 2025 at 2:40 AM RedStoneRanger ***@***.***> wrote: Hello Michael, I did some tests over the weekend: In a fresh project with 96 tracks and some audio to check the playback I inserted 78 blank instances of Element FX without any issues. After adding no79 audio stopped working. After removing no79 everything was back to normal. Next, I did the exact same test but with BluecatsAudio Patchwork. I inserted more than 100 instances without any misbehavior. In my previous post I wrote that audio stopps at arround 61 instances but this was with a full blown project with other plug-ins and more complex routing. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#996 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAGW336ZLJQTGQGDI2NT7KL324BFNAVCNFSM6AAAAACKJMIJBKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTIOBVGUZDAMY> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[RedStoneRanger]

Ok - it is what it is. I spent a few more hours trying to get round the problem but without success. I am checking one more option but again did get stuck. If I insert Element FX into Davinci, I do get a MIDI-IN node that I can use to receive MIDI commands fgrom the host but the MIDI-OUT says no device and doesn't output any MIDI. I know I can configure a default MIDI OUT device in Element but this is not what I want. I want to access the VST MIDI-OUT. Any idea why this doesn't work? Am I missing something?

EDIT: Its the other way round. MIDI-OUT works fine, MIDI-IN doesn't (says No Device). I have no default MIDI ports mapped in Element because I want to intercept the VST MIDI-IN of Element FX but can't figure out how to.