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Element

Plug-in Chainer / Rack Plugin by Kushview
MyKVRFAVORITE73WANT38
Element
Element Patch Bay Element Graph Editor Element Embedded as AU Plugin
Element by Kushview is a Virtual Instrument and a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin and an Audio Plugin Host and a Software Application for macOS, Windows and Linux. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin, an AAX Plugin, a LADSPA Plugin and a Standalone Application. It can host VST Plugins, Audio Units Plugins, VST 3 Plugins, LADSPA Plugins and LV2 Plugins.
Product
Version
0.46.0
Windows 7 or Higher
Product
Version
0.46.0
Mac OS X Catalina or higher
Product
Version
0.46.0
Mostly tested on Ubuntu, but should run on any modern distro.
Instrument
Formats
Effect
Formats
Can Host
Instruments
Can Host
Effects
Other
Development Tool
Copy Protection
None
Open Source
GPL
My KVR - Groups, Versions, & More
126 KVR members have added Element to 12 My KVR groups 150 times.
Not In Your MY KVR Groups
(or group limitation prevents versioning)
+12 in private groups

KVR Rank

Overall: 253   200   251   40

30-Day: 268; 7-Day: 248; Yesterday: 1549

Element is a modular AU/VST/VST3 audio plugin host for live performance and the studio. Chain plugins together into effects racks and instruments.

As an Instrument: Play virtual instruments by loading synth plugins. Use multiple graphs to switch programs instantly.

As an Effects Rack: Chain effect plugins in parallel or series. Route audio from anywhere to anywhere.

Runs in your DAW: Element is a standalone plugin host, but can also run as a plugin in your DAW. Open a new pipeline between you and your tools.

Current Features:

  • Play virtual instruments and effects live.
  • Chain Multiple Effects Plugins together.
  • Create nested sub-graphs.
  • Run in your DAW as an AU/VST/VST3/AAX Plugin
    • Function as Plugin Wrapper.
    • Run VST and AU plugins in Pro Tools.
  • External Sync w/ MIDI Clock.
  • Graph Importing and Exporting.
  • MIDI Mapping.
  • Flexible connectivity via Patch Bay and Graph Editor.
  • Internal DSP building blocks.
  • Loads all major plugin formats AU / VST / VST3.
  • Placeholder Nodes. When Plugins are missing, this passes the audio through.
  • Built in Virtual Keyboard.
  • Route plugins to each other any way you want by enabling points on the grid.
  • Draw cables between nodes to make connections.
  • More....

Feedback

Want to report a bug or request a feature? See the Element issue tracker on Github.

Compatibility

Because Element runs on both Mac and PC, and all major plugin formats AU/VST/VST3.

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 3.33 from 9 reviews

Element
Reviewed By manukatche
May 23rd, 2023

Doesn't work on my Asus VivoBook, windows 11.

All seems to be well set, but signal doesn't enter into the first plugin, no matter which plugin is.

Once this issue fixed, this VST host will be great.

Read Review

Element
Reviewed By ben303
March 29th, 2023

it is still in beta, and as such, has many bugs:

- VST3 plugins do not receive pitch bend
- VST plugins with a data entry popup get frozen (window hidden under source window)
- no popup to find a VST plugin if it is missing on the system when sharing presets
- point above happens if you share presets with a freind and he has a VST installed in different location. Element just stores a list of absolute paths instead of plugin IDs

in the end I decided it is basically not usable until these bugs are fixed.

Read Review

Element
Reviewed By Gwugluud77
June 16th, 2022

This dev wasted my time. "Free as in free to create, not free as in free beer", you discover right as you're ready to download. I don't appreciate being insulted, and I don't appreciate lowlives' attempts to deceive me. KVR need to move this to the paid plugins section; this doesn't belong in the "free" section. "Free but not free as in free beer, just 'free to create'", I smell man-buns and confusion about which public restroom to use re the designers of this.

Response from kushview from Kushview on September 18th, 2022

Try again please: https://kushview.net/element/download/

Read Review

Element
Reviewed By PSR B1257+12
February 6th, 2022

Element is exactly what I've been looking for. A host that I can use to combine and play plug-ins (VST, VST3 or AU) and optionally live sound, for playing live and experimenting without the overhead of a full-blown DAW.

I've used Audiobus on iOS and was using Minihost Modular from Image Line on macOS. Minihost Modular is 64-bit, but is getting long in the tooth; a number of plug-ins no longer load or work properly for me, and it seems to have been abandoned (last updated 2014).

Element looks like a great replacement for me. It has a number of nice features, including over 25 plug-ins that come within the package. Like Audiobus and Minihost Modular, it lets me wire together plug-ins and save sessions that preserve plug-in settings, preset choices, etc. for the next time I open them; almost like building custom instruments for live play.

I'm still learning to use the application, and there are some workflow and interface challenges, but so far I have been able to use it for live playing and have mapped a MIDI controller to the Element-supplied Wet/Dry control for dynamic control of effects.

I'm quite happy with it so far and will be investing more time in using it and providing feedback to the developers. I'm giving this a 4 star for now, as I haven't explored all features (or using it as a plug-in in a DAW), I've run into a few minor glitches and the workflow and user interface are a bit awkward at times. Also, the current 0.46.3 release (including the latest tag on GitHub) dates back to July 2021. There is some recent activity in GitHub, so I hope there will be a new release soon.

Read Review

Element
Reviewed By HarmonicD
August 9th, 2021

great potential, yet it miss important features when it comes to workflow.

it is super stable and support VST 2 and VST 3 and great preformance.

I bought it twice already but I don't use it a lot because it miss lots of important features that kill my workflow..

It doesn't have Parameters learning mode, (not even last touched parameter), so it is kinda hard to find the right parameters that you want to automate in your DAW. - Not to mention that it allows only 8 parameters to be controlled.

the GUI isn't so good when it comes to organization.

when using the search to find plugins it doesn't hide all the unrelated folders, so you need to scroll down a lot...

the preset system also need a better GUI per plugin and per group of plugins, to make more fast chains..

it is still far from being good for my workflow, but I still recommend this if you need a stable chainer.

the updates are not as fast as I expected. so I'm afraid it will take a lot of time till all those features will be fixed.

Read Review

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Comments & Discussion for Kushview Element

Discussion
Discussion: Active

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED

lucknow13
lucknow13
28 November 2017 at 6:51pm

Has Potential. At the moment It does not recognize several plugins. There is also no way to load banks or preset .just the default bnks are available. No running engine so that Instruments that depend on that do not workd-like Rps or Blue arp or PM2. lso crashes from time to time. Still I like it and think it will provide a good daw in the future.

kushview
kushview
9 January 2018 at 5:18pm

You should try the most recent version which is much better than what you describe above.

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED

YoddYarmonics
YoddYarmonics
2 November 2019 at 1:22am

Yesterday the hold function of the MIDI keyboard worked like it should, today its just not holding the note.

this is one very important functionality of this software for me.

How does one go about fixing that?

kushview
kushview
5 November 2019 at 5:02am

Weird it'd just stop working. Bugs can be reported @ https://github.com/kushview/element/issues if I don't get to it first.

Atalantia
Atalantia
26 July 2020 at 3:00am

Great slim piece of software. I use it on a macOS 10.13 with soundflower to have a global equalizer/effect chainer. It saves presets and all in all it's very handy software.

ben303
ben303
29 March 2023 at 10:15pm

it is still in beta, and as such, has many bugs:

- VST3 plugins do not receive pitch bend
- VST plugins with a data entry popup get frozen (window hidden under source window)
- no popup to find a VST plugin if it is missing on the system when sharing presets
- point above happens if you share presets with a freind and he has a VST installed in different location. Element just stores a list of absolute paths instead of plugin IDs

in the end I decided it is basically not usable until these bugs are fixed.

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