Each effect in Audacity comes with a predefined set of values that you can change and save according to suit your needs and workflow.
When you select an effect to apply to your audio (for example Effect > Noise Removal & Repair > Noise Gate...) Audacity will show you the effect settings window where you can change the different values according to your needs.
After you find the settings that best suit your needs you can use the Presets & settings button to save your settings for future use:
Click the Presets & settings button and select Save preset...
After saving your presets you can recall them the next time you need to apply the same effect. Click the Presets & settings button, select User Presets... and select the name of the previously save presets:
To restore the factory default settings select Presets & settings > Factory Presets > Defaults
You can download various plugins here:
Most plugins get automatically activated once you install them on your system.
Caution:
64-bit Audacity can only run 64-bit plugins, and 32-bit Audacity can only run 32-bit plugins.
Additionally, Apple Silicon (arm64) Audacity cannot run Intel (x86-64) plugins and vice versa.
"Instrument" versions of plugins (VSTi, LV2i) are not supported.
If a plugin doesn't get found by Audacity, or doesn't come with an installer, move the plugin files to one of the following locations:
You can access the Common Files folder quickly by hitting 🪟 WINDOWS key + R to launch Run and typing %ProgramFiles%\Common Files
VST2: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2 or C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins
VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
LV2: C:\Program Files\Common Files\LV2
Note: Always copy the complete .lv2 folder
LADSPA: C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Roaming\audacity\Plug-ins\ Note: You can quickly access this folder by hitting 🪟 WINDOWS key + R to launch Run and typing %AppData%\audacity\Plug-ins
Vamp: C:\Program Files\Vamp Plugins\
Nyquist: See below
All Plugins can be installed per-user (~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/...) or system-wide (/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/...). In following, only the system-wide path is named
Audio Unit: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
VST2: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
LV2: ~/.lv2 or /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2,
Note: always copy the entire .lv2 folder
Vamp: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp
Nyquist: See below
LV2: ~/.lv2, /usr/local/lib/lv2 (for 32-bit) or /usr/local/lib64/lv2 (for 64-bit)
Note: Always copy the entire .lv2 folder
VST2: ~/.vst or /usr/local/lib/vst
Note: Many VST effects are Windows-only
VST3: ~/.vst3 or /usr/local/lib/vst3
LADSPA: ~/.ladspa or /usr/local/lib/ladspa
Vamp: ~/.vamp or /usr/local/lib/vamp
Nyquist: See below
To install a Nyquist Plugin, follow these steps:
Download the plugin(s) in question.
Open Audacity, and go to Tools > Nyquist Plugin Installer
Click Browse and locate your downloaded plugin(s)
Click Open, then Apply and finally OK.
Restart Audacity.
The plugin should now be available in the corresponding Generate, Effect or Analyze menu.
Go to Tools > Plugin Manager
Select the plugins or effects you want to deactivate
Click Disable.
To re-enable a plugin, select them and click Enable.
Click OK to close the Plugin Manager and save your settings.
Audacity comes with 4 themes preinstalled: Light, Dark, Classic and High Contrast. You can switch between themes by going to Edit -> Preferences -> Interface (macOS: Audacity -> Preferences -> Interface)
Once you have chosen a theme, click OK to close the preferences dialog and load the new theme.
Custom themes commonly are distributed as files called ImageCache.png. You can find some custom themes here:
To install a custom theme, place the ImageCache.png in the following folders. You may create the folders if they aren't present.
Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\Theme\custom\
MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Theme/custom/
Linux: ~/.local/share/audacity/Theme/custom/
Then,
restart Audacity,
open the Preferences -> Interface page,
select Custom as the theme and
press OK.
Be aware that custom themes may break from one Audacity version to the next.
