<div dir="ltr"><div class="">The Ardour project is pleased to announce the release of
4.4. Like 4.2, this is primarily a bug fix release, but the list of fixes
is long. Stability and correctness with MIDI is much improved,
and most users will benefit in some way from the long list of
fixes.
<p>
The significant GUI changes we planned to include in this release
will now be in a soon-to-appear future version (or in the nightly
builds in the very near future).
</p>
<h3>GCC 5 Compatibility on Linux</h3>
<p>Linux distributions built with the latest version of the GNU C
Compiler (gcc5) have recently started to become available. There
are no issues for most users but if you use plugins written in
the C++ language then they must be compiled with the same version
of gcc used to build Ardour (or any other plugin host). Robin
Gareus has already done the required work to create gcc5-built
versions of Ardour, but for now they are available only on
the <a href="http://nightly.ardour.org/">nightly site</a>. A
future release will see them available via the official release
site. If you do not use these plugins, then any version of Ardour
will work on your Linux system, regardless of which version of
gcc it was built with.
</p>
<p style="margin:22px 0px 0px">
<a class="" href="http://ardour.org/download.html">Download </a>
</p>
<h2>Substantive Changes/Features/Fixes</h2>
<ul><li>Fixed solo logic in deep ways. Most notably this prevents
various "stuck solo" problems, but also a number of other
issues with solo when using complex routing between tracks and busses.</li><li>Fixed loop recording (inadvertently broken for several releases).</li><li>Added support for RF64 and MBWF audio file formats. These
are both 64 bit file formats, capable of recording impossibly
large amounts of audio. MBWF is the 64 bit version of
Broadcast WAV. .</li><li>When using either format, if recorded files are smaller
than the RIFF (WAV) size limit, convert the header to RIFF so
as to be compatible with normal WAV-handling software.</li></ul>
<h2>General Changes</h2>
<ul><li>"Save As" will refuse to write to an existing
folder/directory.</li><li>"Save As" now defaults to the current session name as the
name of the new session, making it easier to add suffixes or
otherwise tweak the name.</li><li>Allow export of loop range without actually looping.</li><li>Improve CPU AVX support detection.</li><li>Fixed locating to current wallclock time for large time
values.</li><li> Fixed an issue where if an audio region was locked and locked to video,
the audio-region always stayed put and the video could only be
moved forward.</li><li>Fixed various potential issues at session closing.</li><li>Improve error reporting from AudioEngine when trying to
configure audio hardware.</li><li>Provide more details if a sessions fails to be created.</li><li>Improve loading speed for large sessions (1000 tracks).</li><li>Fixed a deadlock when removing tracks/busses and using JACK1.</li><li>Prevent importing files with names like "Master" or
"Click" from causing session breakage. This also applies to
attempts to name tracks or busses with similar names.</li><li>Ensure that correct audio is heard when region layering is changed.</li><li>Use a single consistent method for computing DSP load on
all platforms, with all backends.</li><li>Avoid creating excessively short regions during Strip Silence operation.</li><li>Avoid possible endless loop while detecting silence.</li><li>Reduce chances of a bug in the OS X locale libraries from
causing crashes.</li><li>Fixed duplication of multiple selected regions.</li><li>Correctly and consistently initialize track/bus group properties.</li><li>Fixed crash during session region cleanup.</li><li>Ensure identical XML in session files if the session does
not change, thus allowing tracking state changes in a revision
control system (e.g. git).</li><li>Bring Ardour's Broadcast WAVE USID value into compliance
with EBU-R99.</li><li>Fixed install on systems where using su(1) changes directories.</li><li>Fixed broken onset analysis.</li></ul>
<h2>Plugins</h2>
<ul><li>Refuse to load LV2 plugins if their buffer size
requirements cannot be satisfied.</li><li>Do not list LV2 plugins that cannot be used because they
require a fixed blocksize.</li><li>Generally improve handling of missing plugins so that
sessions are not damaged by the temporary unavailability of
a plugin.</li><li>Fixed the position of cut/copy-and-pasted plugins.</li><li>Fixed AudioUnit port count, which allows loading various
Native Instrument plugins such as Reaktor 5.</li><li>Added command line option to completely disable plugins.</li><li>Fixed handling of VST audioMasterPinConnected callback.</li><li>Allow loading of huge (10MB) VST plugin state.</li></ul>
<h2>GUI</h2>
<p>
<em>
When describing keybindings below, "Primary" is used to
describe <code>Control</code> on Linux and Windows, and <code>Command</code> on OS X
</em>
</p>
<ul><li>Fixed waveform display issues when changing waveform shape
from rectified to normal or vice versa.</li><li>Added a reset option to the context menu for the shuttle control.</li><li>Allow creation of new points on a region envelope by
clicking on the envelope line.</li><li>Added column titles in the list of "Recent Sessions".</li><li>Alter "Stop" button in the Audio/MIDI setup dialog to
function as a "Start/Stop" button, and remove the "Apply" button.</li><li>Fixed issues where waveform display used the wrong data.</li><li>Cancel button for Import dialog is now a Close button.</li><li>Change OK button on Import dialog to "Import".</li><li>Correctly display plugin parameter values when dragging
automation points/lines.</li><li>Fixed log-scaled automation parameter display.</li><li>Visually indicate regions waiting for their audio peak
data to be generated.</li><li>Fixed inconsistent text sizing in the editing canvas.</li><li>Added avoiding GPU rendering to preferences
dialog. This is
helpful on some Linux systems with buggy video device
drivers. See <code>Edit > Preferences > GUI > Disable Graphics
Hardware Acceleration</code>.</li><li>Allow overriding lock-to-video when moving video or audio.</li><li>Fixed drawing of short cross fades.</li><li>Sort "Recent Sessions" by modification time.</li><li>Don't try to split a region when dragging.</li><li>Update Import dialog options when/if track selection changes.</li><li>Fixed marker display after a marker is removed.</li><li>When editing a clock display, swallow illlegal keys rather
than passing them onto the main window where they might have
some unintended effect.</li><li>Primary-Shift-click on the solo lock button now applies to
all tracks/busses, consistent with Primary-Shift-click on other buttons.</li><li>Avoid a case where the color of selected text was the same
as the background, making it invisible.</li><li>Correctly set waveform height when switching between
stacked and overlaid view modes.</li><li>Make all entries in the track list context menu actually work.</li><li>Fixed incorrect setting for "Import to Region List" on first
use of the import dialog.</li><li>Avoid duplicate shortcut folders in file browsers.</li></ul>
<h2>Windows</h2>
<ul><li>Drop the use of C++ fstreams to reduce issues with
non-Latin characters in filenames on Windows.</li><li>Option to install without WASAPI support, which helps startup on Windows 10.</li><li>Close all files before Session > Cleanup, so that it can
work on Windows.</li><li>Fixed MIDI Sysex I/O on Windows.</li><li>Fixed issues with onset analysis on Windows.</li><li>Added "Refresh Devices" button to the Audio/MIDI setup
dialog on Windows to pick up new
</li><li>Added a "None" device to the PortAudio backend, allowing
disabling either input or output, but not both.</li>
devices or external ASIO buffer size changes.
</ul>
<h2>Click/Metronome</h2>
<ul><li>Added an easy way to reset the click sound(s) to their
defaults.</li><li>The click sounds are now normalized to -6dBFS.</li><li>Allow enabling/disabling of the click "emphasis" sound.</li></ul>
<h2>MIDI</h2>
<ul><li>MIDI Tracer window now shows MSB of appropriate messages.</li><li>Fixed a subtle bug in ordering of MIDI events that caused
missing note-off messages.</li><li>Highlight notes based on mouse position on track header keyboard.</li><li>Exclude MIDI CC parameters with no data from being
displayed when "Show Existing Automation" is chosen.</li><li>Fixed issues with linked (cloned) MIDI regions on different tracks.</li><li>Fixed issues with de-selecting MIDI notes.</li><li>Handle a missing MIDI file without crashing.</li></ul>
<h2>MIDI/Mackie Control Surfaces</h2>
<ul><li>Save/restore generic MIDI control surface "motorized" setting.</li><li>New Mackie Control device files for configurations with 3 surfaces.</li><li>A substantial amount of work has been done on Mackie
Control support. There is no simple summary that would
describe all the changes, but suffice it to say that (1) it
works much better (2) it is easier to get started (3) has been
tested on an even wider range of equipment.</li></ul>
<h2>Developers</h2>
<p>
Robin Gareus, Paul Davis, Nick Mainsbridge, Ben Loftis, Len Ovens, Tim
Mayberry, John Emmas, Colin Fletcher, Damien Zammit, Guy
Sherman, André Nusser, Mathias Buhr, Todd Naugle
</p>
</div></div>