Does Live limit the number of multi-out plugin channels?

[UltimateOutsider]

This is something I've run into at different times with both Live 8 and 9, and I was never sure whether it was a limitation of Live or something I'm just not doing right.

I'm running 64-bit Windows with 64-bit Live 9. It appears that Live only lets you access a maximum of 16 total output channels from a multi-output VST plugin, even if the plugin is capable of exporting more.

For example, Kontakt 5 exports up to 64 channels (12 stereo pairs, 40 mono channels). However, when I'm doing multi-output setup in Live, I appear to only be able to access 28 channels total (12 stereo pairs + 4 mono). The Audio To menu doesn't seem to let me select anything beyond that:



Whereas Cubase gives me the entire list of potential channels to choose from (note the scrollbar- we're only seeing about a third of the available channels in this screenshot):



Here's another one. UVI Workstation exports up to 17 stereo pairs (the "main outs" plus 16 individual instrument channels). But in Live I only have access to the first 16:



So my question is: Is this an actual limitation of Live, or is there some way I'm supposed to be able to see all channels a plugin exports? (And if there is, how do I do it?)

Thanks!

[outsidesys]

Not sure about the Kontakt limitation, but the UVI looks right.

Keep in mind that the channel/track with the instance of your VSTi uses the first set of outputs. Therefore, you cannot assign them to any other channels/tracks, which is why they're not listed.

[UltimateOutsider]

Not sure about the Kontakt limitation, but the UVI looks right.

Keep in mind that the channel/track with the instance of your VSTi uses the first set of outputs. Therefore, you cannot assign them to any other channels/tracks, which is why they're not listed.

Yes, the MIDI track that hosts the plugin gets the "main outs" of the plugin. However in Cubase, UVI Workstation lists output pairs 1-17, whereas in Live you only have access to output 1 on the host track and outputs 2-16 on External Instruments tracks. So Live only appears to give me access to 16 of UVI Workstation's total 17 possible stereo pairs.