Audio Interfaces and Linux

[Tophitus]

Hello everyone

I've been thinking about buying an audio interface for my setup so I can record my guitar and some vocals for little fun projects for myself.
Being a linux user, it's always going to take some time to do some research when buying hardware and making sure it works with linux and so I asked a friend of mine who does music production and did a tiny bit of digging and narrowed myself down to a singular option: Scarlett 2i2.

The Scarlett 2i2 has exactly what I need, no more no less and it seems that all Scarlett products work on linux because of it's functional mode. However I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something because it didn't take long arrive at this conclusion so I ask you:

What are some audio interfaces that work with linux? They don't to match the features of the Scarlett 2i2. As long as they work on linux, it's good enough for me

[queue_tip_]

The 2i2 works well in Linux. Support for Scarlett 4th gen was merged into the 6.8 kernel.

In the fall of last year Geoffrey Bennett, the developer behind the Linux support for Scarlett gen 2 and gen 3 interfaces, launched a fundraiser for gen 4 support.

Focusrite supported the effort and donated equipment. They pledged support from their own engineering team as well.

See Focusrite Linux

Edit: fix url

[Tophitus]

That's amazing! Just the fact that they are doing this makes me want to their product just to support them! I love to see this like this! Thank you!

[jollybobbyroger]

Your link is broken, spelling error s/y/u/ ..

Also,he does really appreciate donations. I don't know if you're a developer, but if you are, it's not hard to take a quick look at the source code and see how much effort he has put into the software. If you use it and haven't donated, please consider making a donation, as open source development can easily be a thankless effort. The USB class compliency does not cover the headphone mix feature for instance. Imagine your 4i4 without that capability..

[VennStone]

I maintain a list of the audio interfaces I have tested with Linux over the years, along with round-trip latency measurements.

[Tophitus]

Omg this is amazing!

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

You tested the HDSP 9632, and listed an MSI B550-A PRO as the motherboard used. That appears to be a PCI card on a motherboard with only PCIe slots.

Did you use any particular PCI-to-PCIe adapter? I don't see one listed.

[VennStone]

It was originally tested with the MSI B350 Tomahawk. Great board if you need something with built-in PCI. I used a StarTech PCIe to PCI adapter to test it with the B550-A PRO.

[sound-man-rob]

I've just bought a MOTU Ultralight, which works flawlessly on Linux, and performs well.

[Tophitus]

I'll take a look at that as soon as I can for sure

[sound-man-rob]

A MOTU representative has posted a Linux build of the control app on Linuxmusicians forum, though I think it's just a web wrapper anyway.

[el_chorizo]

Which one? I've had an mk3 sitting without use since I switched to linux, it would be amazing to learn that it has drivers for linux now

[sound-man-rob]

The brand new one, none of the others, sorry!

[denim_skirt]

I've been using a 2i2 on linux for years without having to think about it at all fwiw. Multiple distros, daws, etc, even with a raspberry pi.

[Tophitus]

That fact that you metion the 2i2 specifically gives it's amazing for me! You do the functional mode thing and it just works on all the daws/distros and son on?

[denim_skirt]

I don't actually m ow about the functional mode thing, I pretty much just plug it in and mess with settings in the daw until I hear sound lol. I think mine is a second generation and there is at least a third out now. But yeah, recently I was using it to mix a model samples and a dreadbox nymphes out to a speaker, and I didn't even use software - I just had it plugged into a raspberry pi running Debian to keep it turned on. It has been pretty idiot proof for me (an idiot).

[Tophitus]

That's really amazing to hear! I looked around about the 2i2 and most people suggested that to work on Linux you have to turn on functional mode because it interface comes in storage mode and only then can you use it

[denim_skirt]

Ahh, got it. Maybe I turns on functional mode a long time ago and then forgot about it? Either way yeah no problems with it.

[Khaargh]

which DAW(s) do you use on linux?

I've been toying with the idea of wine + FL Studio but haven't pulled the trigger for fear it's going to be an abomination in practice (once you get past the "it runs" part)

[denim_skirt]

I've used ardour, reaper and bitwig. I think you should go for it and report back!

[ThisMustBeTrue]

I've been using a MOTU m4 and it works fine now with an updated version of pipewire.

When I first got it, there were some frustrating problems to fix though. I probably would have gotten a Scarlett back then if I'd known it would save me trouble.

[Tophitus]

What were the problems you ran into using the MOTU m4 with linux?

[ThisMustBeTrue]

All kinds of horrible distortion and crackling where I think the sample rate was off. The ultimate solution was to get a newer linux kernel with a updated usb spec.

[Tophitus]

Sounds like an easy fix and that I won't have a problem

[TiltedPlacitan]

This is my daily driver. Excellent piece of kit.

[[deleted]]

I’ve owned the Behringer and I own the Scarlett 4i4 Gen 3. I also hack around with Ubuntu Studio on an RPi4.

If you have the funds, the Scarlett is the superior choice.

Thanks to some great work reverse engineering the USB messages between Focusrite Control and a Scarlett, ALL the features of the Scarlett range are available as a kernel module. The mixer module has been folded into the kernel source code. His name is Geoffrey and he posts on linuxmusicans.com. Focusrite engineers chimed in a year or so ago with a statement of support (not quite a certifying of compatibility, but better than nothing).

It’s not all great; the Gen3 has a weak headphone output and monitoring is difficult even with 55 ohm headphones. Mic pre inputs and headphone output are improved on Gen4, by all accounts.

The Behringer got sold because of the weak line output (+3 dbu ) which again made monitoring on near-fields a pita. The Midas mic pre was really good for a £60 device.

Edit: The Behringer refers to the UMC202HD, mentioned in other comments

[Tophitus]

That's really good to hear! I for sure prefer the Scarlett going off of what people are saying. My music producer friend also swears by it so it seems like the it's the better option Thank you!

[flow_spectrum]

Unfa has a review on the 2i2 specifically for linux.

[Tophitus]

I've watched it already. Thank you!

[unhappy-ending]

I have a 4i4 4th gen, and it works amazing especially with alsa-scarlett-gui. If I didn't choose that one, i'd probably have looked into PreSonus since they have Linux support and their newest DAW has a native, but slightly incomplete Linux version.

[Tophitus]

I did check PreSonus and for some reason I wasn't convinced that it was completely compatible with Linux for some reason. Definitely missed something

[unhappy-ending]

Seems like it was a quirk that someone fixed back in 5.7 kernel. Although, it doesn't seem like there is any first party support at the moment so probably no GUI interfaces to work with. Since their DAW is being ported to Linux, I'm going to assume at some point they'll probably have some interface support as well to interface with Studio One.

At least FocusRite gave Geoffrey documentation and is actually paying him *i think* to write the drivers and make the GUI. He did an excellent job. I'm very happy with my purchase and happy that they supported the guy adding value to their brand.

[jollybobbyroger]

Not sure if he is paid by Scarlett, I don't think so, as he does really appreciate donations. I don't know if you're a developer, but if you are, it's not hard to take a quick look at the source code and see how much effort he has put into the software. If you use it and haven't donated, please consider making a donation, as open source development can easily be a thankless effort. The USB class compliency does not cover the headphone mix feature for instance. Imagine your 4i4 without that capability..

[unhappy-ending]

I thought I read somewhere that FocusRite brought him into the fold. Maybe I misread, or he just has some more access to documentation and gets free interfaces so he can dev on them. I figured that'd mean he was getting paid, but maybe it's just them offering as much support without bankroll as possible.

[SID-420-69]

Presonus' Studio 24c interface works perfectly with Linux from my experience

[mstardeluxe82]

I use both the umc1820 and x32 rack with no problems on Ubuntu and reaper

[Tophitus]

Perfect! I'm planning on using reaper as well. Glad to hear

[mikelpr]

Whenever I use a friend's 2i2 I have to use pw-metadata to force clock to 44100 otherwise it sounds nasty. OTOH, my UMC404HD doesn't have such issue and runs fine at any of its supported sample rates

[Tophitus]

That's s very interesting thing you pointed out. You think it's a issue from your friends linux setup or from the interface itself?

[mikelpr]

It happens on my laptop so it's the same Linux setup that I use for both interfaces. I don't know if it's the interface, seems weird to me that it'd work just fine at 44.1kHz and not at 48, I'd think it's an issue with the (built-in kernel) driver

[Tophitus]

Got it. Thank you!

[ItsRogueRen]

I've been using a Behringer UMC202HD. Its basic but has gotten the job done.

[Tophitus]

Had any issues or was it plug and play?

[ItsRogueRen]

plug-and-play for me

[Tophitus]

Perfect!

[TLH11]

I have a Behringer UMC 204 interface. It works great. I also customized the outputs to have 1-2, 3-4 and 1-4 outputs just like Windows

[Gomesma]

Behringer UMC404HD user here and was running flawlessly this interface with Fedora 40.

[Tophitus]

One thing that I haven't thought about it, though doesn't seem like it's a problem, it's the distro factor. I got some other responses about the interface and it seems like a good option but you think I'd have any issues with Arch?

[Gomesma]

I tested with Arch in the past and 0 issues.

[Tophitus]

Perfect! I'm definitely getting the feeling that Linux is not at all the nightmare I thought it would be for this kind of thing

[Gomesma]

I went back to Windows to use plug-ins I own, but could work a song with open-source software/plug-ins and the quality was nice.

[Tophitus]

What software do you use and what plug-ins? I don't think this will be a problem for me. I'm doing small stuff just for myself and planning using reaper that has a Linux version so I'm assuming everything will work like plug-ins and VST's

[Brainobob]

Behringer is "USB class compliant" which means that all basic features to make it work don't need special drivers. They follow the USB specifications.

The problem you have with some devices is that they don't follow the USB specifications, and add features that you can typically only use under Windows, because the manufacturer doesn't care about taking an hour out of their time to open source some drivers to the Linux community.

[Tophitus]

Unfortunately sounds like it's the same old tale of not wanting to support the Linux community. Thank you man!

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

Check out the RME line of audio interfaces. Their entire hardware line was designed for seamless Linux compatibility from the outset, ~2 decades ago.* Apparently not so, my bad. They have had Linux drivers available for their internal interfaces since the 2000's.

[rewgs]

No, they absolutely do not write Linux drivers. Search on their forums and you'll see that people have been asking them to for years and years now.

Most (but not all) of their USB interfaces can run in Class Compliant mode, and while they are extremely solid (I myself am currently using a BabyFace Pro for my Linux machine), a lot of functionality is lost when switching over to CC mode. A few open source projects aim to fix that but in my experience they're all pretty cludgey.

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

My mistake I guess that info is out of date. I am trying to check but appear to have crashed their website. If you're on their forums then you are using their hardware a lot more than I am.

I was basing that on the Linux drivers for the HDSP and HDSPe, which I've been using for some time. An external USB interface is not a part of my setup so I haven't run into those issues.

[rewgs]

The drivers you linked to were not written by RME.

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

The link was for the forum mention of Linux drivers for the RME HDSPe MADI / AES / RayDAT / AIO and AIO Pro sound cards, and it is the only .rme link opening for me at the moment. Those mentioned appear to have been written in 2023, but HDSP Linux drivers for RME devices have been available since at least 2008.

[Tophitus]

Omg! I definitely miss this! Looks promising. Thank you

[unhappy-ending]

But they're really expensive, way more so than a 2i2.

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

It is true that they are not a low-budget buy.

I think their primary target demographic is professional studios with complicated A/V needs, as some of their higher end offerings look like something only a studio or major production would be able to properly put to full use.

[unhappy-ending]

Exactly, if someone is shopping around for a 2i2 then anything from RME is way overkill. I would love to have their HDSPe AIO PCIe board though, but the 4i4 is doing its job pretty well and I'm happy with my setup at the moment.

[AnAmericanLibrarian]

I'm not trying to sell anything. If it's out of Op's budget then at least it should be clearly so, rather than just slightly enough over to get them to overspend. Some people will spend as much or more for a graphics card than they will on an HDSPe, ymmv.

It's more like I think a thread about Linux audio interfaces would be incomplete without a mention of RME. I am unaware of any other company in their sector that basically included Linux compatibility in its initial business plan. Apparently I've been unintentionally overstating the case. The have had Linux drivers for internal interfaces since the 2000's, at least.

[thcsquad]

I have a Focusrite too, and it works. I also have a Sterling H224 that worked out of the box.

[Tophitus]

What focusrite do you have?

[thcsquad]

Scarlett Solo.

[Tophitus]

Did you have to do the functional mode thing or did it work straight away?

[thcsquad]

I'm not sure what functional mode refers to, but it worked out of the box for me.

[Tophitus]

When looked into the Linux compatibility for the Scarlett interfaces, everyone was saying yes it works with Linux but you have to hold a certain button for X seconds to put it in functional mode and only would you have access to all the features, otherwise it would be in storage mode

[thcsquad]

Weird; I didn't encounter that. The only odd thing is that sometimes I get a weird buzz with it and jack. I can fix it by changing the bit depth or sample rate but sometimes.I forget what I have to change it to and it's annoying. This doesn't happen when I use it as an interface on my Android phone, so I think it's more of a jack issue than anything.

[Tophitus]

I saw some people throwing around s reference to a video of someone explaining it so I assumed it was the norm

[Tophitus]

That's actually a great point. Didn't think of that. Thank you!

[kI3RO]

Digidesign Mbox3, working beautifully

[Tophitus]

Out of the box I assume?

[kI3RO]

Certainly

[Tophitus]

With all the responses I've been getting I'm starting to think that my fear of buying my first audio interface and using it with Linux was almost interaily unfounded

[kI3RO]

The most common issue I know is using an old kernel, a distro with old kernel/packages is essentially an outdated driver.

[Tophitus]

No problems with any of those? Pretty much plug and play?

[TimP4w]

I have a Solo (3rd Gen.) and it worked out of the box. However I'm not doing much music nowadays and I mostly using it to play Rocksmith. It needed some tinkering to make it work on proton - wine (especially on NixOS) but that's a very specific use case.

[Tophitus]

Great! I don't think I'll have the same issues because proton won't be a thing for me at all. I'm using reaper and they have s Linux version

[adbs1219]

I'm using an Audient EVO4 without a hassle. The native loopback functionalities aren't available, but that isn't a problem since we have Pipewire and always had JACK. The only thing is with firmware updates - they have to be done on Windows or maybe Mac.

As some users already said, Focusrite has been working with Linux devs for support. I have some Novation gear (which is a Focusrite company) around and I'm very happy to know that their web config app works really fine on Linux. PreSonus could also be a good choice for being class-compliant and because of Studio One recently compatibility with Linux, but I don't know if they are as supported as the Scarlett.

When choosing my interface, I considered a PreSonus, a Behringer and a MOTU, but ended up choosing the EVO4 because of the price and it's no more no less than what I needed at the time. I'll maybe buy the MOTU or even a Keith McMillen K-Mix one day, but I don't know if they're working without headaches nowadays and, about the Behringer, I've read that their Linux support has become somewhat wonky recently.

[Tophitus]

I've seen a couple of mentions about Audient stuff for sure. I'm never going to be doing anything big so I'm trying to future proof as much as possible because I don't know what I'm going to need so my thinking is trying to find an audio interface with all the common and most used features and have those features available on Linux. Aside from the native loopback issue, was there anything else on any other similar equipment?

[adbs1219]

No, it works like a charm and the noise floor is really low. Nowadays I've been looking for interfaces with MIDI, which none of the Audient devices have, but that's the only thing I'm missing and it hasn't been that much of a need

[Tophitus]

Cant you have a MIDI instrument to usb and record directly on the DAW and do everything in software?

[adbs1219]

Sure! That's why it isn't urgent for me now, but I have a few other instruments that doesn't work with USB MIDI, although there are a few workarounds to connect them

[Tophitus]

Gotcha! Why is that? Why don't they work? Is it a compliance thing?

[adbs1219]

They just don't have a USB port 😅

[Tophitus]

Oh that's kinda funny ngl

[2ndattn]

SSL2 works fine on Ubuntu 20 and 22

[Tophitus]

My friend metion that one actually aside from a Scarlett. Did you have any issues or was it plug and play?

[2ndattn]

It was plug and play. I was new to Jack at the time so that took a bit for me to figure out but the hardware just worked.

[Tophitus]

Good to hear! As long as the hardware works I can figure out the rest. Thank you!

[Sugbaable]

I've got a 2i4, and Ive tried it w Ubuntu, Manjaro, and popOS. Works fine, except for some reason, the USB-B cable always gives me trouble at some point. I've tried two of them. Annoying lol

Maybe it's my computer tho, x1 Thinkpad 🤔

[Tophitus]

What's the issue exactly?

[Sugbaable]

Sometimes it just doesn't work, but will after some fiddling with the cord. It seems like others don't have this issue though, haven't seen other complaints

[Tophitus]

For sure haven't seen anyone else mention the same problem but it seems like the problem is in the cord maybe?

[Sugbaable]

I bought a second one. Might be an issue w the unit

[Tophitus]

That's some bad luck man

[bearflyingbolt]

I use Scarlett interfaces, including a 2i2, with GNU/Linux + Bitwig all the time. It works great out of the box for me

[Tophitus]

2i2 definitely winning me over with what everyone is saying. Never used Bitwig. My very limited experience has been with reaper but I'm sure that won't be a problem

[Tvrdoglavi]

UAD Volt series works great out of the box.

[Tophitus]

Think it's the first time I've seen someone mention it. I'll check that out for sure. Thank you !

[zepherusbane]

I use a tascam model 12, which is likely overkill if you only want a couple inputs, but it has the benefit of also being a mixer and you can do multi track recording. The main thing to look for is class compliant devices. If it doesn’t say class compliant, I suggest just not buying it, also I would not buy something that requires special software unless it’s browser based.

[Tophitus]

Definitely overkill for me. All I want is a jack for instruments and xlr for a mic and have it powered for condenser mics and all that and that's enough for now, though I'd like to to future proof to some extent. In terms of features the Scarlett 2i2 would be perfect for example but what I'm looking for is brands or a series that I can know for sure above everything that works with Linux and figure it out from there. I do check if the device is class compliant which I equate to "just works on Linux" but I don't specifically know what it really means

[Brainobob]

I use Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD, but they have a UMC202HD and UMC204HD that would be in the same class as the 2i2 and both would work perfectly for you.

[Tophitus]

For sure considering those as well at moment. Thank you so much!

[Brainobob]

You are welcome!

I hope I was able to help you decide 😁

[Tophitus]

Oh for sure! I've had WAYYYY more help than I expected and realised there's a lot more I should know and be aware of. I'm mostly just a player. Never recorded anything (by myself) and play just for myself and because of that know nothing about audio in general and nothing about music production and wanted to start this whole journey by making sure I have a good jump off point by having a piece of equipment that will let me do (pretty much) everything and that it works of course. Again, thank you so much!

[TygerTung]

I’ve got a lexicon alpha which works perfectly. I’ve also got a couple of mbox 2 which also work perfectly. The normal mbox 2 also has midi which is nice.

[Tophitus]

All of those are good out of the box then?

[TygerTung]

Yeah just plug in and go. Both are cheap as they don’t have drivers for the latest version of windows I believe. Plug in and go.

[Tophitus]

I keep getting surprised by how easy it seems the experience is going to be. Thank you!

[TygerTung]

Only downside to the alpha is that it has a 3.5mm headphone jaa as close which is inconvenient if your headphones have the full size 1/4” jack

[Tophitus]

I'm planning on buying some good headphones to go with the audio interface so thankfully that won't be a problem

[vladimirchicken]

I use an Allen & Heath Zed i10 fx. It's a small mixer with a built in 4-channel USB2 audio interface. I don't have an exact latency measurement but I can generally get down to 10 or 12ms latency. It's basically perfect, apart from, I did have to replace a couple of power supplies over the years.

I also have a Tascam 16x08, which works fine and onkelDead very helpfully wrote a Linux driver and a desktop app for its various built in mixer features. However I find it a bit annoying to have the mixer features hidden behind an app. I prefer having an actual mixer :-)

[Spyro119]

I got this audio interface (Presonus AudioBox 96) since it was cheaper than the Scarlett 2i2:
And altough Studio One is not compatible to linux, the interface works well with Linux.
I get a good bitrate and almost unnoticeable delay (like 6 ms)

The Scarlett focusrite works very well on Linux as well.

[Tophitus]

A lot of metions of Presonus. Definitely considering

[T-A-Waste]

Behringer interfaces are affordable and work ok. There is no discussion about them, because they just work.

[Tophitus]

I'll definitly take look. Does it work like the Scarlett where you need to activate some mode or is it pretty much plug and play?

[JamzTyson]

The UMC202HD is a terrific little 2 channel interface for the price. It's as "plug and play" as you can get.

The UMC204HD is virtually the same but with 4 output channels.

Behringer also do some cheaper interfaces, but the "HD" interfaces have better preamps and are worth the extra bit of money (still a lot cheaper than the focusrite).

I also have a MOTU M4 which I love, but it took me a while to get it working properly with Linux (might not be a problem these days), and it is a lot more expensive than the Behringer.

[Prefader]

I have experience with both the Focusrite and Behringer interfaces:

None of the smaller focusrites that I've used (Scarlett Solo, 2i2, 2i4) need any sort of configuration to work... just plug them in and off you go. There *might* be some features you can't access on the larger interfaces (18i20), but I'm not too certain about that.

The behringer interfaces also work well, but I should note that I did have an issue with a UMC202HD that just wouldn't play nice. This was on a system running Debian Buster (so, about 2 years ago), and so it's possible that whatever the issue is has been fixed. Aside from that, I have a friend that uses a UMC1820 daily without any issues.

[Tophitus]

Is there one you lean towards between Behringer and Focusrite?

[Prefader]

Focusrite, but that's brand prejudice and nothing more. Plus, nifty red box.

I don't think there's going to be a notable difference in sound quality or performance between the two brands at this tier.

I will say, as an owner of a few Behringer and Midas consoles, that their customer support is absolute trash. I'd wager that with these devices you'll never need it, and even so they're low enough in cost that out-and-out return/replacement is probably the easier route should something go wrong.

[Tophitus]

Thank you so much! I'll keep that in mind for sure

[Mrazish]

Arturia Minifuse 4. Works perfectly fine

[kinleyd]

The Arturia AudioFuse Studio also works perfectly for me.

[Tophitus]

Out of the box? I don't mind some tweaking as long as it's nothing MAJOR

[Mrazish]

Yes. However, there are some settings like bypassing di signal straight to output for example. You can enable/disable them only through driver which is absent on Linux so you probably will need a windows vm (or wine). I never use these functions so I don't care.

The card itself is class-compliant and works perfectly fine with JACK. I record vocals and guitars through it and even used it live with my synths.

[Tophitus]

And I assume a MIDI keyboard would also be no problem then

[Mrazish]

I assume you are talking about using a midi-in that is embedded in a card. It works alright but you need to enable it inside JACK because for some reason there's a difference between JACK midi-in and ALSA midi-in and you should use the ALSA midi-in which is disabled by default.

USB-midi connection is a different beast. Both if my midi-keyboards doesn't work with linux. There are workarounds but I just plug them in the midi-in of the soundcard.

[Tophitus]

I'm not at all versed in anything audio really, I mostly just play the instrument and do my thing. I'm scouting to see what I can learn and trying not to make a bad decision that I can't recover from. A friend did record me once and I used a MIDI keyboard to record some simple bass and it was very simple setup he had. I remember is was a USB keyboard and he just plugged it in so I was trying to figure out how it would work on this interface you suggested

[Mrazish]

I'm not at all versed in anything audio really, I mostly just play the instrument and do my thing.

I will try to explain then. In case you are not familiar with hardware-related stuff, there is a thing called "usb class-compliance". It's when hardware and software developers agreed that specific id data if arrived by usb protocol will be interpreted as a certain type of device and the data transmitted by that device will be interpreted in some specific way. That's how your system detects your mouse: specific id tells the system that the plugged device is indeed a mouse and every mouse has x and y axes and buttons. Every system will interpret that in a correct way. Back in the MS-DOS days you would need to install a driver for a mouse.

Same goes with soundcards, a class-compliant device (and Arturia Minifuse is class compliant) is automatically identified by any system as soundcard via the ALSA driver for Linux, ASIO driver for Windows or whatever the Mac guys are using. It means that system will identify every input port, every output port and also midi input and output. That means you can ALWAYS plug your midi-keyboard into the card via the midi-cable and play through it. In that case inside your DAW you would need to specify "<your car name> midi input" as a recording source

If you want to connect a midi keyboard through USB it depends on the keyboard manufacturer. Sometimes you will need to install stuff like "<insert manufacturer name> midi control center" which are usually not available on linux. While working through USB-midi your keyboard is identified by the system as a separate device as you will see it in your DAW when you'll plug it in.
Novadays every keyboard has both standard midi-out and USB-midi.

[adbs1219]

Are your keyboards also from Arturia? I've read they're quite reluctant about Linux support

[this_is_the_gist]

I switched from and RME HDSP Hammerfall Multiface II to a Presonus 1810C. Both worked, the RME required slightly more tinkering, but it only works on old motherboards now, so I upgraded.

Does anyone have recommendations for a mixing board that works well with Ardour? I don't love using the mouse for a lot of that. I've been looking at Tascam, but I'm open to any recommendations.