After a I add a track -audio/midi
and add an instument should n’t the instrument load??
How do I load the gui for the instrument/synth?
Does Ardour3 now support linux VST’s??
What about LADSPA ? how do I load those??
A3 supports native linuxVST plugins e.g. VSTs that have been built specifically to run on linux. A linux VST plugin will normally be a single file called e.g. plugin-name.so similar to the way most windows VSTs are plugin-name.dll ( .so files are the linux equivalent of .dll files)
For Ardour to find the plugin, you need to copy its .so file to the /usr/lib/lxvst folder. You will likely need to be root (admin) to do this. From a command line terminal you can do:
sudo cp my-new-plugin.so /usr/lib/lxvst
where ‘my-new-plugin.so’ is the name of the plugin you want to install.
Restart A3 and the plugin should be found in the plugins menu.
Thanks for the reply, but unfortunatly i do not have a /usr/lib/lxvst folder, should I create one then have ardour look in that folder?
I am using the bianry of Ardour 3.
Ok thank you. 
Im having the same trouble with Linux VST plugins not showing up.
Ive created the directory /usr/lib/lxvst
Copied the .so file to that directory, restarted ardour, and still no plugin showing up.
Im running KX studio and theres a bunch of plugins that dont show up in ardour. Theres a great plugin with many usefull instruments that show up in the midi programs (rosegarden and Muse) but not in ardour. I think those plugins are DSSI-VST’s
The Linux VST plugin im trying to get to show up in ardour is the KR Reverb plugin.
@veda_sticks: I believe the KXStudio build (if not also the Ardour.org build) has changed the default location for linuxVST plugins (I think it is now /usr/lib/vst although you should probably check with the KX devs, for all I know, it could have changed again…) you can also define it (at least, you could when I submitted the original code, but that may be different too depending upon which custom build you use and from whom) by setting an environment variable (LXVST_PATH I think). I can see the sense in them changing it to /usr/lib/vst, however it was originally chosen deliberately not to be this because this was already the default location for Windows VSTs if A3 was built with Win VST support.
Think its actually the particular plugin i was trying to use, and that in ardour that in the plugin manager it names vst plugins LV2, i was looking for it to say VST>
I installed a bunch of MDA plugins and most of them show up, despite some loading errors in the logs complaining about missing name or something.
So i guess its that particular plugin.
Im using the ardour 3.3 from here and not KX studios builds since ive paid for ardour through donation.
Ive got the plugins in 2 locations so im going to remove the lxvst folder.
Oh and im not trying to use windows VST’s yet until i actually have some decent ones, so im only trying Linux VSTS and so far the mda plugins while not having nice GUIS actually are pretty usefull and very good.
I have Kontact4 but not really sure if that can be run properly with ardour, ive got it installed in wine, and it loads not sure how i would load that in ardour since it comes with a samples database and there are 3 dll files.
If other linuxVST plugins load successfully then that does indicate some kind of compatibility issue. VST compatibility varies as it does with VST hosts / plugins on other operating systems. My original code was intended as a basis on which to build better / improved support linux VST (a lot of users were asking for linuxVST support and Ardour was one of the few hosts which didn’t have that ability). Plugins without GUIs tend to be more reliable (plugin UIs on linux, irrespective of the type of plugin, are more prone to some particularly nasty problems / compatibility issues, mainly as a result of some fairly deep aspects of the whole linux graphics / UI toolkit(s) stack rather than any specific host / plugin problem)
I wouldn’t recommend using Windows VSTs on linux except as a last resort - the particular combination of pugin, host and most importantly WINE version required is very fragile. In my opinion the best OS to use for running Windows VSTs / applications is Windows. Irrespective of criticisms people may have of it, you will still find that Windows applications running on Windows are far more reliable and will cause you less problems long term than Windows applications running on linux.