3 title: Files and Directories Ardour Knows About
6 <h2>Configuration Directories</h2>
8 Ardour stores configuration files in two places. The system configuration
9 directory and the user configuration directory. The system configuration
10 directory is used for stock configuration files and is used by all
11 users on any one system. The user configuration directory is used by
12 Ardour to store configuration changes made in the GUI as well as being
13 a place the user can add control surface device files, scripts etc.
17 Ardour tries to use standard places for these directories for the platform
22 Linux is the most variable of the platforms mainly due to Ardour obtained from
23 a distro package. If Ardour is obtained from ardour.org as a ready to install
24 and run bundle, the system configuration directory will always be in
25 /opt/Ardour-major.minor.sub/share/ That is it will match the name of the
26 file you downloaded. If Ardour is self built and installed with the
27 default install path (yes you can change this) then system configuration
28 will be in /usr/local/share/ardour*/ where * is the major number such as
29 /usr/local/share/ardour5/ for Ardour 5.6. If you have installed Ardour
30 as a package from your distro, then distro policy will dictate where
31 it is installed. /usr/share/ardour*/ is quite common and a good place to start
32 looking. However, the Ardour development team does not support these
33 distro builds nor keep track of where they may put things.
36 The user configuration directory will be somewhere inside the user's
37 home directory. A normal place to find this is ~/.config/ardour*/ where
38 * is the major version. However this can be set by the system with the
39 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable to something else. If you can not
40 find ~/.config/ on your system try echo ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME} to see if your
41 distro is using something else.
45 maybe someone who has a MAC can complete this section.
49 This section also needs someone with real knowledge to complete it.
54 Plugins will be installed in various places, some by standard and some
55 by developer whim. Some are installed incorrectly by distro policy.
60 In linux there are 3 kinds of plugins Ardour can use. LADSPA, LV2 (LADSPA version 2)
61 or lxvst (VSTs compiles as native linux binaries). While it is possible
62 with some strange magic to run <a href="/working-with-plugins/windows-vst-support/">Windows VSTs</a>
63 on linux, their whereabouts would follow the Windows info below.
68 LADSPA plugins should be found in /usr/lib/ladspa/, /usr/local/lib/ladspa/
69 or in a directory mentioned in your LADSPA_PATH environment variable.
70 The most common mistake made by distro packagers, is to use a path
71 like /usr/lib/$ARCH/ladspa/ and find that Ardour will not find that by
72 default. The user can either add a link from this actual directory to
73 the standard directory or add this path to LADSPA_PATH.
78 LADSPA plugins should be found in /usr/lib/lv2/, /usr/local/lib/lv2/
79 or in a directory mentioned in your LV2_PATH environment variable.
80 The most common mistake made by distro packagers, is to use a path
81 like /usr/lib/$ARCH/lv2/ and find that Ardour will not find that by
82 default. The user can either add a link from this actual directory to
83 the standard directory or add this path to LV2_PATH.
86 <h4>Linux VST or lxvst</h4>
88 They are typically installed in /usr/lib/lxvst, /usr/local/lib/lxvst or
89 a directory mentioned in your LXVST_PATH environment variable. However,
90 this is not a standard and the VST plugin developer may install the plugin
91 just about anywhere. Therefore Ardour allows the user to set extra VST
92 paths in the preferences GUI under Plugins>VST.
97 On the Mac, plugins are expected to be installed correctly Ardour uses
98 the system tool to scan for AU style plugins and LV2s should be in the right
99 place. LV2 should be in $HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2
100 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2
103 If an AU or LV2 plugin does not show up on a Mac it is probably
104 a development fault with the plugin and the plugin will not work with anything.
105 Ardour in Ardour 5.6 has support for native VST plugins. That is VST
106 plugins built for OSX. I am not sure if these have a standard place to
107 be, but as with other VSTs the search path can be edited at Plugins>VST.
112 The most common plugins on Windows are VSTs. However, LADSPA and LV2
113 plugins are available for windows as well. In fact Ardours built in
114 plugins are LV2s. The biggest advanatage of LV2 plugins is that they are
115 the most likely to be cross platform and therefore allow the same Ardour
116 project to be worked on in Windows, OSX and Linux.
121 As with other platforms, VSTs on Windows do not have a standard place
122 to reside. Ardour Preferences>Plugins>VST allows setting the VST path
127 The LV2 standard for Windows is %APPDATA%/LV2 or %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%/LV2
132 While there are LADSPA plugins for Windows, I have been unable to find
133 the standard path for them... perhaps someone knows?
136 <h2>Project Directory</h2>
138 Ardour places a project directory where the user tells it to. This
139 directory is chosen when creating a project. In most cases the user
140 does not need to know about the files inside of the project directory.
141 However there are a few subdirectories worth noting.
145 This is the subdirectory where exported files end up.
projects / ardour-manual / blob