[Ardour-Dev] Ardour 2.7.1 released

[Paul Davis]

Its been a busy two weeks since 2.7 was released. Not only has there
finally been a working new release of JACK, but Ardour has also seen
several major bug fixes, a useful collection of new features, and many
smaller fixes that correct annoying behaviour. As a result, Ardour 2.7.1
has been released:

 http://releases.ardour.org/ardour-2.7.1.tar.bz2

OS X Intel users will find an Intel build at

 http://releases.ardour.org/Ardour2-Intel-4296.zip

and we'll have a PPC one ready as soon as possible. If you tried Ardour
2.7 on OS X and it would not start up for you, please give 2.7.1 a test.

NEW FEATURES & CHANGES

* option to preserve formants when stretching/shifting
* new option to control whether newly added plugins are active or not,
     enabled by default
* copy sends as well as plugins when doing copy/paste operations in
  the mixer strip
* copy send I/O configurations when copying sends
* remove height buttons from automation tracks
* new option to do cubase-style solo-overrides mute (off by default)
* ardour-build plugin GUIs are now "taller" rather than "wider"
* insert-time operation can now move markers too
* double-click on plugin/send/insert boxes now brings up plugin
  manager
* handle an instant.xml file (GUI state) that has been modified by
  ardour 3.0 (without crashing)
* shorten coreaudio's format text strings
* creating ranges from region selections now offers two different
  options: create 1 range spanning all selected regions, or create 1
  range per selected region.

FIXES

* fix OS X message display regarding missing installation of JACK

* actually delete commands from undo history when limiting depth of
  the history list. this fixes a massive memory leak in ardour when
  working with lots of regions and/or lots of edits.

* MAJOR fix for any situation where an audio track is playing more
  channels than it has output ports. triggered by a report about playing
  an 8-chn AIFF file via the auditioner
 
* set up folder/directory name correctly for range export

* drastically improve handling of Drag-n-Drop internally, avoiding
  memory leaks and potential memory corruption

* when using a top menubar (as on OS X), don't quit when the editor
  window is closed.

* prevent lockup/hangs when caused by editing a track name and then
  resizing so that the track name entry field is hidden

* select objects when clicking on them in region gain mouse mode, so
  that subsequent operations do not operate on unexpected objects.

* don't duplicate LADSPA plugins in plugin manager list

* items in region context menus that need a position (e.g. split) are
  desensitized if the edit point is "mouse", to avoid odd behaviour. 

* fix a bug that made certain prompt windows potentially able to cause
  crashes 

* make panner changes propagate into the panner GUIs even when the
  number of streams being handled is reduced

* do not crash in an xrun handler when there is no session

* lots of Session members now initialized in constructor, rather than
  being left to chance

* correct control surface track indexing (fixes a crash when using
  Tranzport and others to go to "next" or "prev" track)

* MTC message delivered internally when handling an MMC locate now
  contains correct FPS value, avoiding stupid error message from
  showing up.

* compile correctly even with NLS=0

* track names are now visible even with the "light" theme
 
CONTRIBUTORS

Colin Fletcher, Carl Hetherington, Lincoln Spiteri, Paul Davis

Thomas Vecchione provided valuable bug tracker review, forwarding on
many patches from Colin & Carl to me to look at and get committed.

Bent Bisballe Nyeng did some really fantastic work debugging the undo
list memory leak bug, allowing me to fix it relatively quickly.