How to remove plugins from Ardour?

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

I was wondering if anyone knows how to remove unused plugins from Ardour? Having all of those plugins is handy, and some are really excellent and “nifty”, but the majority of the time I find myself using a “core” set of plugins that get used over and over again, and I only seem to play with the rest on occasion, usually just for fun. I’d like to remove the lesser-used plugins to de-clutter my lists, and therefore my workflow. Any ideas? I’ve looked in the /Library/Audio/Plugins/LADSPA and /Library/Audio/Plugins/LV2 folders, as well as /usr/lib/ladspa, but it seems these are only some of the plugins listed in Ardour. I can’t seem to find where the rest are. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

System:
Mac OSX Server 10.5.7
Apple XServe Quad Xeon 2.8ghz
4 gb RAM
Ardour 2.8.3

#2

Unlike VST plugins where generally there is one .dll file per plugin, it seems some of the LADSPA plugins contain multiple plugins within one file (on linux - I guess its similar for the mac)

#3

Start the Plugin Manager and check the Fav boxes to the left of your favorite plugins.
The next time you right-click -> New Plugin they’ll appear in the Favorites menu

#4

Thanks for the tip!

I had actually thought of that, but I was concerned that even though I was not using them they would be loaded into memory. I’m not sure how that works. Maybe one of the dev guys could chime in?

If they are not being loaded into memory at startup, then no worries. I’ll just add them as favorites and I’m all set. :slight_smile:

#5

You should not be thinking about whether they are loaded into memory - this is highly specific to a particular plugin API (VST, AU, LADSPA and LV2 all differ in this area). What you need to know is that putting a plugin in your “favorites” list doesn’t change what Ardour does with it in any way. It just makes it easier for you to find and select that plugin when you want to use it.

#6

Fair enough, thanks for the info Paul.

I guess I was thinking that I could save some system resources by removing unused plugins. But it sounds like, as you said, that it varies between API and that it’s probably not going to save me much anyway.

I guess this is just the server admin within me being picky…haha :slight_smile:

Thanks guys.