manual/_manual/11_working-with-plugins.html

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title: Working With Plugins
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<p>Plugins 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) and it also generally doesn't ship with any
plugins. 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>

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

  <dt>LADSPA</dt>
  <dd>An early, simple, lightweight plugin API, audio effects only,
  plugins have no editors/GUI of their own (Ardour provides one, however).</dd>

  <dt>LV2</dt>
  <dd>An extensible, full-featured plugin API, audio and MIDI, plugins can provide their own editors/GUIs</dd>

  <dt>AudioUnit</dt>
  <dd>OS X only, full featured, audio and MIDI, plugins can provide their own GUI</dd>

  <dt>Linux VST</dt>
  <dd>Plugins using Steinberg's VST plugin standard but compiled specifically for Linux</dd>

  <dt>Windows VST</dt>
  <dd>Plugins using Steinberg's VST plugin standard but compiled for
  Windows. <em>Support for this plugin format is not available in
  regular builds of
  Ardour. <a href="/working-with-plugins/windows-vst-support">Read
  more...</a></em>
  </dd>
</dl>

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

<p>Within Ardour, plugins are just another type
of <code>Processor</code> 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/the-processor-box">Processor
Box</a> page.</p>

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