How to List LADSPA Plugins in Ecasound

This article provides a concise guide on how to display all LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API) plugins installed on your local host using the Ecasound digital audio utility. It covers the primary command line option, how to read the output, and how to verify plugin search paths.

To list all LADSPA plugins available on your local system, run Ecasound with the -el option in your terminal:

ecasound -el

When executed, Ecasound scans your system's LADSPA directories and outputs a list containing three primary fields for each detected plugin:

• Unique ID: The numeric identifier used internally and by host software.
• Label: The short, machine-readable string identifier for the effect.
• Name: The human-readable descriptive name of the plugin.

If you need detailed information about a specific plugin—such as input and output audio ports, control parameters, and valid value ranges—use the query option -eli: followed by the plugin's label or numeric ID:

ecasound -eli:plugin_label_or_id

If the -el command returns an empty list or is missing specific plugins, verify that the LADSPA_PATH environment variable includes the directories where your .so plugin files reside. Standard locations typically include /usr/lib/ladspa, /usr/local/lib/ladspa, or /usr/lib64/ladspa. You can update this path by setting the variable in your shell session:

export LADSPA_PATH=/usr/lib/ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa:$LADSPA_PATH