manual/include/working-with-plugins.html

<p><dfn>Plugins</dfn> are bits of software that get loaded by Ardour in order to:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Create various audio or MIDI effects
  </li>
  <li>Generate audio by functioning as "software instruments"
  </li>
</ul>

<p>Ardour does not come with any built-in signal processors of its own
  (other than volume faders) but does ship with a small group of
  plugins starting at Ardour 5.0. The shipped plugins are listed as authored by "Ardour Team"
  and named with "a-" as the start of the name (Like a-EQ) or Authored by
  "Ardour LUA Task Force" in which case they are example (but still useful)
  LUA scripts. The included plugins are LV2 or LUA scripts and use
  Ardour's generic GUI. They work on all supported platforms so that
  projects started on one platform will sound the same on another platform
  if they use just these plugins or other plugins that
  are cross platform.
  They are written by 3rd parties, though we do provide <a href="/working-with-plugins/getting-plugins/">some
  information on how to get them</a>.
</p>

<h4>
Ardour supports a variety of different plugin standards:
</h4>
<dl class="narrower-table">

  <dt><abbr title="Linux Audio Developers' Simple Plugin API">LADSPA</abbr></dt>
  <dd>An early, simple, lightweight plugin <abbr title="Application
  Programming Interface">API</abbr>, audio effects only,
  plugins have no editors/GUI of their own (Ardour provides one, however).</dd>
  <dt><abbr title="LADSPA Version 2">LV2</abbr></dt>
  <dd>An extensible, full-featured plugin API, audio and <abbr
  title="Musical Instrument Digital Interface">MIDI</abbr>, plugins can provide their
  own  <abbr title="Graphical User Interface">GUI</abbr>s but may use the
  one Ardour provides instead.</dd>
  <dt><abbr title="Audio Unit">AU</abbr></dt>
  <dd>OS X only, full featured, audio and MIDI, plugins can provide their own GUI</dd>

  <dt><abbr title="Virtual Studio Technology">VST</abbr></dt>
  <dd>Plugins using Steinberg's VST plugin standard. Varies by platform:
    <dl>
    <dt>on Linux</dt><dd>(native) Linux VST plugins fully supported (VST2.4)</dd>
    <dt>on Windows</dt><dd>(native) Windows VST plugins fully supported (VST2.4)</dd>
    <dt>on OS X</dt><dd>(native) macOS VST plugins fully supported (VST2.4) since Ardour 5.5</dd>
  </dl>
  </dd>

  <dt>Windows VST Plugins on Linux</dt>
  <dd>VST plugins for Windows, but being used on Linux. <em>Not
  supported by normal builds of Ardour. <a href="/working-with-plugins/windows-vst-support/">Read
  more&hellip;</a></em>
  </dd>
</dl>

<h2>Adding/Removing/Copying Plugins</h2>

<p>Within Ardour, plugins are just another type
of <dfn>Processor</dfn> and so the techniques for
adding/removing/copying/moving processors apply to plugins as
well. These techniques are covered on
the <a href="/working-with-plugins/processor-box/">Processor
Box</a> page.</p>