LADSPA stands for "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API".
Many audio synthesis and recording packages are in use or in development on Linux. These work in many different ways. LADSPA provides a standard way for "plugin" audio processors to be used with a wide range of these packages.
For instance, this allows a developer to make a reverb program and bundle it into a LADSPA "plugin library". Ordinary users can then use this reverb within any LADSPA-friendly audio application.
If you wonder if VST plugins can be used on GNU/Linux, the answer is "yes"[1]. Some works and others do not. Please, keep in mind that VST plugins are far to be Free as defined by the Free Software Fundation. If you want some information about how to use them with GNU/Linux, please refer to the VST on Linux Gimpel's Webspace Howto.
Most of the applications described in this Howto[2] are able to handle LADSPA plugins.
You will find here informations for some well-known plugins. Feel free to visit the LADSPA homepage to find other ones.
First off all, to compile LADSPA plugins you will need to install the ladspa.h C header file in /usr/include/ [3].
I mainly use the following plugins:
Tom's Audio Processing LADSPA plugins. Download them here. After uncompressing the plugins' archive go to the main directory and edit the Makefile file to change the following variables like this:
INSTALL_PLUGINS_DIR = /usr/lib/ladspa/ INSTALL_LRDF_DIR = /usr/share/ladspa/rdf/Then just compile it like other software:
$ make $ su -c "make install"
| [1] | Using WINE. |
| [2] | Like Rosegarden, Hydrogen, Rezound, Ardour... |
| [3] | Of cource, you will have to rename it from ladspa.h.txt to ladspa.h |
| [4] | If you have problem on x86_64 architecture, just try to replace all |
| [5] | Note that those plugin will not build with a g++ version >= 4. To fix the problem, just edit the src/analogue.cpp and add a = b = c = 0; to the line 264 (just after variables declaration). |
| [6] | If you experience problem on x86_64 architecture, just add -fPIC in the Makefile file, line 48: $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -fPIC -I/usr/local/include -c $< |
| [7] | Note that with versions < 0.3.0 this plugin will not build with a g++ version >= 4. To fix the problem, download the following Mario Lang's patch and apply it like that:
$ cd /usr/src/ $ wget http://quitte.de/dsp/caps-0.2.3+gcc-4.diff $ cd caps-0.2.3/ $ patch -p1 < ../caps-0.2.3+gcc-4.diff |