I’ve dabbled a bit with using Ardour and FOSS synthesizer plugins lately. I’m no expert, have only ever been in the dabble stage (played around with FL studio 6 when I was a kid). But I have gotten the urge to try to use a hardware synthesizer after watching a youtube video of using an old DAW on an Atari to control a budget 80s synth. (Video for those interrested).

I like the idea of being limited to a certain set of hardware, as it can get the creative juices flowing, when I have a limited set of knobs to turn for example, to get the most out of it. So I’ve impulse-ordered a second hand Roland SH-32 desktop synth (still waiting for it to arrive), that I should in theory be able to have 4 instruments at the same time from what I’ve understood.

Does anyone here have experience setting up hardware synths with a DAW on linux? I have an audio interface with MIDI in and out, so I should be able to connect it to a DAW in theory. Wondering if it is possible for the DAW to set up the correct settings on the synth through MIDI, when I open the project in the DAW.

I know I’m a bit early to ask since I haven’t even gotten the hardware yet 😅. But I’m exited to try something new 🙂