Would like to get synths and sounds via Mint 18 Program Manager because it is supposed to be noobie-safe. That’s where I got Ardour4. I installed a couple of guesses but Ardour4 didn’t find them. I am OK with playing Reason via my midi keyboard, and recording sound. Dunno Jack by I got it. How would I know which are synths and sounds that work with Ardour4? How would I get them if they are not available with Mint 18 program manager. Total noobie. No speak linux, but could try.
Please stop using Ardour 4. Ardour 5 was released 2 weeks agao, and 5.3 will be out today (bug fixes releases). If your distribution doesn't have it, it is always available from http://ardour.org/download
I'll leave it to others to comment on good potential synths on Linux Mint.
What sort of sounds are you looking for?
Sounds: Would like sounds I can weave into music. Maybe drums to start.
Synths: I have a bunch in Sonar6 running on my defunct WinXP box. How to I get some for Ardour?
Paul, like you said to, I installed vs 5.3.0. Thanks. It looks real good. Can record midi and sing into it. Otherwise totally mystified.
For GNU/Linux: http://linuxsynths.com/ has a non-exhaustive list of synths. Drums? http://drumgizmo.org/ rocks!
Ardour 5.3 also includes a-fluidsynth which can load .sf2 soundfonts (on all platforms)
FYI, adding the KXStudio repositories will make the installation of whatever synths or plugins you are looking for much easier.
Ardour now also seems to come with the setBfree tonewheel organ emulation.
You can also look at the Calf Organ and Monosynth, the “vee1” suite (synthv1, samplv1, drumkv1), and Hydrogen as an alternative for drums. If you want to look for more “real instrument” sounds, SFZs with LinuxSampler seem to be the best way to go on Linux right now. It’s a little bit difficult to get working with Ardour, but as long as you don’t really try to use it as a plugin, you can get great results.