Effects Preferences

Peter 02Jan15: ToDo-2 If the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder is turned into the "Plugins" folder this page will need updating.

• Bill 03Feb2015: New dialog image needed.
  • Peter 04Feb15: Added 2.1.0 image - removed the P1.

Gale 12Aug14: I think it would be better if the Enable Effects types were links to the anchors in Effect Menu and if the note div then pointed that out.

• Peter 26Aug14: I provided links for all but VAMP - the only VAMP stuff I can find is on the Analyze Menu page - do we want to link there, as there is no reference at all to VAMP on te Effect Menu page?
• Gale 26Aug14: I added the link. Perhaps it is least confusing to move the note into the text (done)? LADSPA, LV2 and Nyquist plugins can also be generators but I don't think we want to get into that complexity.

Accessed by: Edit > Preferences... > Effects    (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences... > Effects)

Click on any of the other Preferences sections in the above image to go directly to that Preferences page.

Enable Effects

Put a checkmark in each box to enable each type of effect supported by your operating system. The links in the list below provide installation instructions for each type of effect.

• Audio Unit: Enable Audio Unit effects (Mac only).
• LADSPA: Enable LADSPA effects.
• LV2: Enable LV2 effects.
• Nyquist: Enable Nyquist effects.
• VAMP: Enable VAMP analysis effects.
• VST: Enable VST effects.

You must exit and restart Audacity for these changes to take effect.

Effect Options

• Effects in menus are:
  • Sorted by effect name: Effects are listed in one long menu, sorted by effect name, with built-in effects above the divider and plugins below the divider.
  • Sorted by publisher and effect name: Effects are listed in one long menu, sorted by publisher and effect name, with built-in effects above the divider and plugins below the divider.
  • Sorted by type and effect name: Effects are listed in one long menu, sorted by type and effect name, with built-in effects above the divider and plugins below the divider.
  • Grouped by Publisher: Effects are listed in sub-menus, with sub-menus for each effect publisher. Sub-menus for built-in effects are above the divider and sub-menus for plugins are below the divider.
  • Grouped by type: Effects are listed in sub-menus, with sub-menus for each effect type. Sub-menus for built-in effects are above the divider and sub-menus for plugins are below the divider.
• Maximum effects per group (0 to disable): This setting affects how the effects are grouped if either of the "grouped by" options are chosen. Setting this to a value other than 0 will create sub-menus of the sub-menus for each publisher or type, with each sub-sub-menu containing the chosen maximum number of items.

Plugin Options

• Check for updated plugins when Audacity starts: This option is enabled by default. When enabled, Audacity will check at next launch for any VST, LADSPA or Audio Unit (Mac OS X) plugins that have been added to any of the locations Audacity checks for these plugins. Audacity will list these added plugins in the Register Plugins dialog giving you the choice to enable them or not.
• Rescan plugins next time Audacity is started: This option is disabled by default because once plugins have been successfully loaded, Audacity caches their existence in the pluginregistry.cfg file stored in Audacity's folder for application data. When this "Rescan plugins" option is enabled, Audacity will display the Register Plugins dialog at next launch, giving you the choice to enable or disable each VST, LADSPA or Audio Unit plugin that the scan detects.

Currently, Nyquist, LV2 and VAMP plugins are always scanned for on each Audacity launch, so the above two options do not affect those plugin types.

Register Plugins dialog for LADSPA, VST and Audio Unit effect plugins

• Bill 15Dec2014: Trying the Register Plugins dialog here.
  • ToDo-2 Does this work here?
    • Gale 31Dec14: Not for me, at least as gut reaction, it's not part of Preferences. It was better where it was - length of that page apart.
    • Gale 05Feb14: I'll demote my "objection" to P2. I can see the sense of having this here now it will (eventually) register all plugins. But more ought to be said at Effect Menu#vst than just a link to here. VST/DLL installation (or its unexpectedness) is a big deal for some users.

Gale 06Dec14: ToDo We probably won't need the plugin search list here and in Effect Menu when Register Effects supports all plugin types.

When you use Audacity for the first time, Audacity will scan for supported plugins of all types. The Register Plugins dialogue lists all LADSPA, VST and Audio Unit (Mac OS X) plugins that are detected, with checkboxes to enable each plugin or not. On Windows and Mac, this first time dialog will list a minimum of hard_limiter_1413 and sc4_1882. Those two plugins are shipped with Audacity and you will usually want to enable them.

After OK'ing this dialogue, all detected Nyquist, LV2 and VAMP plugins (including the Nyquist plugins shipped with Audacity) will also load, along with the plugins chosen in the dialogue.

After first Audacity launch, the Register Effects dialogue only appears again at launch time:

• When Audacity detects new LADSPA, VST or Audio Unit plugins (if the check for them is enabled in Plugin Options)
• When a rescan of plugins is enabled in Plugin Options, which behaves like the "first time" scan above
• When you reset Audacity Preferences.

(removed ToDo-1) Is the 'advice' note still valid for VST on Windows?

• Gale 31Dec14: Not entirely, if you uncheck the two shipped LADSPA they now don't load.
  • Peter 05Feb15: Gale, are you saying that "just the two shipped LADSPA effects don't load if unchecked" or "any LADSPA effect that is unchecked will not load if unchecked, including the two shipped effects" ?
  • Gale 06Dec15: Any LADSPA unchecked will not load.

Gale 05Feb15: ToDo-1 Any 64-bit VST's on Linux probably are seen by 64-bit builds of Audacity, which needs testing.

On Windows and Mac OS X the Register Effects dialog may list VST instruments, 64-bit VST effects or VST 3 plugins. Audacity does not support any of these and therefore these will not load. On Linux the Register Effects dialogue may include VST or other SO ...

Bill 15Dec2014: ToDo-1 New image needed.

If you don't see the dialog as expected, you can use ALT + TAB to task switch to the dialog or press the "Audacity is starting up..." Windows Taskbar button. On Mac, use OPTION + TAB to task switch.

The names of the detected plugins will be listed alphabetically for each folder in the Path column. All list items have their checkboxes checked by default, the green checkmark indicating that the plugin will be loaded. To load all the detected plugins, just click OK then Audacity itself will launch. If you deselect some items by mistake, you can quickly re-enable the entire list by choosing the Select All button. The Clear All button lets you disable the entire list. This provides a quick method of then enabling only a few plugins in a long list.

To disable loading of a specific plugin, left-click the item's row or checkbox which removes the checkmark. Similarly, click to re-enable a disabled item. Using the keyboard, press Up arrow, Down arrow, Page Up or Page Down to navigate the list then press Space to check or uncheck the current item's checkbox. Finally, click OK to load the enabled plugins and launch Audacity.

The black arrow in the list (as in the image above) indicates which plugin is currently being loaded.

Providing you click OK and the enabled plugins load successfully, then next time you launch Audacity there will be no Register Plugins dialog. The plugins that you previously enabled in the dialog will appear in the Effect menu, ready to be used when you select them.

If you click Cancel in the dialog or if loading a faulty plugin causes Audacity to crash, the "Register Plugins" dialog will appear again next time you launch Audacity. If Audacity crashed you can therefore use the dialog to experiment by disabling plugins that may have crashed. Alternatively, before restarting Audacity you can look in the pluginregistry.cfg file in the Audacity folder for application data. This file will list which plugins Audacity had managed to load before it crashed.

Audacity looks in the following locations for plugins controlled by the Register Effects dialog

• VST:
  • Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux:
    • The Audacity plug-ins folder in the location Audacity is run from:
      • On Windows and OS X the "Plug-Ins" folder is in the directory where Audacity resides - usually C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) on Windows or the "/Applications" folder on OS X
      • On Linux you must add a "plug-ins" folder to /usr/bin/ (if you installed a packaged version of Audacity) or to /usr/local/bin (if you installed a self-compiled version of Audacity)
    • The "Plug-Ins" folder in Audacity's folder for application data.
  • Also on Windows:
    • C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins (or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VSTPlugins on 64-bit systems).
    • Windows Registry key HKCU\Software\VST\VSTPluginsPath
    • Windows Registry key HKLM\Software\VST\VSTPluginsPath
    • All paths specified by the "VST_PATH" environment variable
  • Also on Mac OS X:
    • ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
    • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
    • All paths specified by the "VST_PATH" environment variable
  • Also on GNU/Linux:
  • All paths listed in the "VST_PATH" environment variable
    • If no VST_PATH environment variable is found, the following are searched:
      • LIBDIR/vst (where LIBDIR is defined at build time)
      • /usr/lib/vst
      • /usr/local/lib/vst
      • ~/.vst

• LADSPA:
  • All operating systems:
    • The path specified by the LADSPA_PATH environment variable
    • The Audacity plug-ins folder
      • On Windows and OS X the "plug-ins" folder is in the directory where Audacity resides - usually C:\Program Files on Windows or the "Applications" folder on OS X.
      • On Linux, the "plug-ins" folder is in usr/share/audacity if you installed an Audacity package supplied by your distribution, or usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Audacity from source code. Optionally a plugin folder can be created in the home directory ~/.audacity-files/plug-ins.
  • additionally on OS X:
    • ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LADSPA
    • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LADSPA
  • additionally on Linux/Unix:
    • ~/.ladspa
    • /usr/local/lib/ladspa
    • /usr/lib/ladspa
    • $LIBDIR/ladspa

• Audio Units:
  • Mac OS X:
    • ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (user plugins)
    • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (system-wide plugins)