Scan VST/LV2 plugins on Linux with your favourite DAW

Nicola Landro
2 min readOct 21, 2021

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This article aims to explain how to refresh the vst2, vst3, lv2, ladspa plugins on each daw available on linux. Up to now I add some of the possible DAW usable on Linux in the future I will add more on this article.

List of DAW/Software with scan plugins guide:

Ardour

Ardour: go to Edit>Preferences and click on VST under Plugins, ensure that the ~/.vst path is present and after rescan for plugins (edit the path and after you close it, it ask you if you need to rescan or click on Plugins and click Scan for Plugins button)

Reaper

Reaper: go to Options>Preferences and click on VST under Plugins and click Re-Scan button

Carla

Carla: Click on Add plugin, after clickon refresh and in the end click on Scan

Carla is not a DAW but i use it to add plugins with Jack without DAW, for example in Live or when I use particular programs like LMMS to include all external vst/lv2.

Conclusion

Ardour is my favorite DAW open source but sometimes it is not perfect, Reaper is my favourite DAW for now, and I use Carla when I do not want to start a DAW.

Enjoy your music and use Linux.

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Nicola Landro

Linux user and Open Source fun. Deep learning PhD. , Full stack web developer, Mobile developer, cloud engineer and Musitian.