Working With Plugins

[Plugins]{.dfn} are bits of software that get loaded by Ardour in order to:

• Create various audio or MIDI effects

• Generate audio by functioning as “software instruments”

They are usually written by 3rd parties, though a few come bundled with Ardour (some are only available in official builds distributed from ardour.org). The sources for plugins are many and varied; see here for some information on how to get them.

Ardour supports a variety of different plugin standards:

[LADSPA]{.abbr title=“Linux Audio Developers’ Simple Plugin API”}	An early, simple, lightweight plugin [API]{.abbr title=”Application

  Programming Interface"}, audio effects only, plugins have no editors/GUI of their own (Ardour provides one, however). |

| [LV2]{.abbr title=“LADSPA Version 2”} | An extensible, full-featured plugin API, audio and [MIDI]{.abbr title=“Musical Instrument Digital Interface”}, plugins can provide their own [GUI]{.abbr title=“Graphical User Interface”}s but may use the one Ardour provides instead. | | [AU]{.abbr title=“Audio Unit”} | OS X only, full featured, audio and MIDI, plugins can provide their own GUI | | [VST]{.abbr title=“Virtual Studio Technology”} | Plugins using Steinberg’s VST2 and VST3 plugin standard. |

Adding/Removing/Copying Plugins

Within Ardour, plugins are just another type of [Processor]{.dfn} and so the techniques for adding/removing/copying/moving processors apply to plugins as well. These techniques are covered on the Processor Box page.