Have also seen this problem and did some reading about it. Here’s a summary of what I found.
Certain manufacturers of plugins use more ‘slots’ than others (UA, izotope, fabfilter etc) and the number of ‘slots’ available for VST modules that have been compiled in a certain way is limited (by windows). Other manufacturers (eg Steinberg) compile the modules in a different way that does not have this shortcoming. You can load as many Steinberg plugins as you want, for example, without encountering this problem. Solutions appear to be varied. Encourage plugin manufacturers to release modules compiled in such a way that they do not encounter this problem, run jbridge which apparently encapsulates the module in its own process, use Steinberg plugins etc.
Add my 2 cents as well… is this a VST developer issue or a Cubase issue? There is an extensive thread on the UAD forum about this issue in Cubase. From what I gathered, it is more a UAD issue than a Steinberg issue but either party can create the fix for these type of plugins (UAD isn’t the only mfg with the issue).
One thing I noticed yesterday was that it was much worse in 9.5 that 9.0.
I opened an older project in 9.5 and many UAD plugins silently disappeared (usually the effect send channels appear to have their plugins removed as I think they are loaded later than the track channels and group channels).
Opened the same project in 9.0 and all plugins are present. The project was originally created and mixed in 9.0.
So changes made in 9.5 have worsened the problem, which is consistent with what I have seen, I did not notice this problem until 9.5 and so I have stopped using 9.5 until it is back to at least the ability of 9.0.
The plugins I have seen affected are UA, Izotope and Fabfilter so far. Also some VSTi’s fail to load when the limit is reached.
Have had to move back to Cubase 8.5 now, after having similar problems with C9 on a project with many plugins (VSTi’s and VST’s). Cubase 8.5 handles it with no problems.
This is Cubase issue. Ableton is free from these problems. People say that PreSonus Studio One is free from these problems now.
I would think so, yes.
One large project currently being mixed in 8.5 is fine. Drops a few plugins in C9 and is completely munted in C9.5.
I had not seen this issue before C9.5. It is much worse. So something that was done in C9/9.5 has caused this to become significantly worse to the point where it is no longer usable for mixing.
Upgreded to 9.5.21 - same issues with RAM.
Yes I also have this problem and I live in country next to Germany, but we cannot open SB support ticket, we have to use this forums only!!!
This is a known major issue for a few years now:
Download and install the FLS checker (see top of forum). It tells you how many unique plugins you have left to instantiate on your system in a nutshell. If you use many of the same plugin you can use as many as you like. Some plugin vendors use more of the open system static linking slots that others
Steinberg are carefully moving to help resolve the issue but it also lies at the door of the plugin manufacturers and moreso Microsoft
I had this for years too
steinberg has dropped their ball with fixing stuff lately. shame.
I had this for years too
steinberg has dropped their ball with fixing stuff lately. shame.
Its not just Steinberg its a Windows issue. Everyone affected needs to make separate complaints to the worst offender plugin vendors (UAD to name but one) to change the way their plugins fundamentally allocate their resources in a nutshell. Without doing that it will never be fixed!
Hi All
Sorry to spam threads, but I want to make sure everyone hit by this knows that a solution is in the works, and is currently available in the latest Windows 10 Insider build.
The per-process FLS slot limit used to be 128 going back at least to Windows Vista. PCs have gotten more powerful, though, so folks are really starting to run up against that limit before running out of CPU / memory. Additionally, some more recent and complex plugins use quite a few of those slots themselves. So to unblock musicians, we’ve rewritten the code that does FLS allocation and bumped the slots up to over 4000.
Technical folks who want to test on a non-critical PC are encouraged to do so. For the rest: if there are no issues found, this update will be in the 19H1 release of Windows 10 later this year. DAW and plugin developers do not need to do anything as this change is in the OS.
Official post:
Synthtopia asked me a bunch of questions about it and therefore has more technical details for those of you who want a more in-depth explanation:
Pete (Microsoft)
Looking forward to that update (I usually don’t) - this will be liberating!
Wow, someone from Microsoft directly replies to my thread which is now open for a long time.
And with awesome news, too. Thanks Pete!
Happy day today!
This is amazing news Pete.
Great news, Pete! Thanks for posting and more importantly, thanks for pushing this at Microsoft and getting some real, tangible results. Looking forward to the release!
Hi there. How did you solve this problem by using Jbridge? i have same problem on Pro 8.5
Could you please tell me ? I have already jbridge and what should i do?
Could you please tell me how I can solve this limitation by jbridge? I have it and what should I do? I have only 64bit plugins.
Is there anyone who can tell me how can I solve this issue temporary by jbridge? Should I convert all x64 VSTs to jbridge x64 then scanning, adding them to in Cubase? And use jbridged VSTs ?