LADSPA is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API. It is an

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

(API) standard for handling

audio filter An audio filter is a frequency dependent circuit, working in the audio frequency range, 0 Hz to 20 kHz. Audio filters can amplify (boost), pass or attenuate (cut) some frequency ranges. Many types of filters exist for different audio a ...

s and

audio signal processing Audio signal processing is a subfield of signal processing that is concerned with the electronic manipulation of audio signals. Audio signals are electronic representations of sound waves— longitudinal waves which travel through air, consist ...

effects, licensed under LGPL-2.1-or-later. It was originally designed for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

through consensus on the Linux Audio Developers Mailing List, but works on a variety of other platforms. It is used in many

free audio software This comparison of free software for audio lists notable free and open source software for use by sound engineers, audio producers, and those involved in sound recording and reproduction. Players Audio analysis Converters DJ software ...

projects and there is a wide range of LADSPA plug-ins available. LADSPA exists primarily as a

header file Many programming languages and other computer files have a directive, often called include (sometimes copy or import), that causes the contents of the specified file to be inserted into the original file. These included files are called copybooks ...

written in the programming language C. There are many audio plugin standards and most major modern software synthesizers and sound editors support a variety. The best known standard is probably

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It als ...

Virtual Studio Technology Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional r ...

. LADSPA is unusual in that it attempts to provide only the "Greatest Common Divisor" of other standards. This means that its scope is limited, but it is simple and plugins written using it are easy to embed in many other programs. The standard has changed little with time, so compatibility problems are rare. DSSI extends LADSPA to cover instrument plugins. LV2 is a successor, based on LADSPA and DSSI, but permitting easy extensibility, allowing custom user interfaces, MIDI messages, and custom extensions.

Competing technologies

* Apple Inc.'s

Audio Units Audio Units (AU) are a system-level plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio in Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. Audio Units are a set of application programming interface (API) services provided by the operating system to genera ...

* Digidesign's Real Time AudioSuite *

Avid Technology Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It specialises in audio and video; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video edi ...

's Avid Audio eXtension *

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

DirectX plugin In computer music and professional audio creation, a DirectX plugin is a software processing component that can be loaded as a plugin into ''host applications'' to allow real-time processing, audio effects, mixing audio or act as virtual synthesize ...

References

External links

ladspa.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladspa Application programming interfaces Free audio software Free software programmed in C Music software plugin architectures Linux APIs Audio libraries