Hello,
Ardour has exactly what I need if I can just get it to record any of the included ACE Fluid Synth piano presets. I can get sound output just fine from the Reasonable Synth, but nothing comes from Fluid. I’ve read several other posts here from over the years with this exact question, but none of them has an answer (or some do have answers, but it’s that the wrong filetype was being used. These are the default instruments so I would think that wouldn’t be a problem). Sorry if this is incoherent/rambling, it’s late and I’m trying hard to get this to work.
OK, I see that, thank you. I don’t understand, then, what is the point of all the included instrument options (ADA, ART, Access, Alesis . . .) if none of them has a soundfont file or anything?
These are not instrument “options”. They are ways to select a MIDNAM file to go with whatever instrument (typically hardware) is connected to/in the track. This allows Ardour to know patch/program names, as well as names for individual notes (e.g. for drum patches).
We are likely to hide this selector because of the confusion it causes so many new users, and the prevalence of software instruments (plugins) over hardware. In general, there are no MIDNAM files available for plugins.