Scanning for Plugins

Zrythm will scan for plugins on startup and will remember those plugins until it is closed. Zrythm supports CLAP, LV2, VST2, VST3, LADSPA, DSSI and AU plugins.

SFZ and SF2 instruments are also supported, and they are treated as instrument plugins.

Tip

Plugin scanning can be disabled by setting the ZRYTHM_SKIP_PLUGIN_SCAN environment variable.

Scan Paths

Zrythm will scan for plugins in the plugin search paths specified in the preferences. If the search path is left empty, Zrythm will scan for plugins in the standard paths according to the specifications of each plugin format (if any).

Hint

You can use environment variables (e.g., LV2_PATH) when specifying search paths in the preferences. The allowed syntax is ${ENV_VAR_NAME} where ENV_VAR_NAME is the name of the environment variable.

Plugin Cache

Zrythm will remember scanned plugins and save this information in the cached plugin descriptors file.

New plugins will be scanned on each start-up, and you can delete or edit this file to force a re-scan of previously scanned plugins.

AU Scan

On MacOS, AU plugins will be scanned at their standard locations at /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components for system plugins and ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components for user plugins.

SFZ/SF2 Scan

SFZ and SF2 instruments will be scanned in all directories and subdirectories specified in the preferences.

About Flatpak

When using Zrythm as a Flatpak, only Flatpak plugins should be used (i.e., plugins using the Linux Audio base extension).

Warning

While Zrythm allows the user to use plugins not packaged as Flatpaks, this is not recommended and we do not offer support if it causes issues.

Note

Flatpak builds have no access to /usr so it is not possible to use system plugins, even when using the environment variables above.