Three plug-in types run on Windows: VST, LADSPA, and, Nyquist.

Steinberg’s Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is a plug-in standard invented by Steinberg for its Cubase line of MIDI and audio recording and production software. Steinberg licenses VST to third-party developers so they can create VST plug-ins for any host; consequently, VST is the most widely used plug-in standard. Audacity comes with a basic set such as Gverb, Tremolo, and Vocal Remover.

VST plug-ins have a .dll extension. The Audacity download page (http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net/download/plugins) has links to more, plus a directory of VST plug-ins known to work well with Audacity. Installing these means simply copying them to Program FilesAudacityPlug-ins.

You’ll also find LADSPA plug-ins that work in Windows on this page. Nyquist plug-ins work in Windows as well; again, just copy them to Program FilesAudacityPlug-ins.

The Internet is full of audio plug-ins, and you can use the plug-ins that come with other audio production software.