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+<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...</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>
+
+{% children %}
+