Version 2.8.4 of Ardour is now available. If you use BWF files for anything, this update is critical, because a very serious error in the way headers for such files are generated has been fixed. As of this writing, this is planned to be the last release of Ardour 2.X before 3.0alpha is announced (unless there are any critical breakages in this release).

New Features:

• Plugin manager now has a "hide" option so that you can control which plugins show up in the plugin menus.
• New "by category" plugin menu, to complement the "by creator" one that already existed.
• If auto-play is enabled, defining or changing a range selection will immediately start playing it.
• New action, ToggleRollMaybe, which leaves loop play or range play mode but without stopping the transport (Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-space by default).
• PortInsert GUIs now have a built in hardware latency "ping" tester, modelled on Fons Adriennsen's jdelay. This can accurately measure the roundtrip signal latency of your insert and sets the latency that JACK sees. You can now use external h/w processing and get sample-accurate latency compensation within Ardour.
• New Region Layering Editor. This is accessed via the region context menu, and provides an easy way to modify the layering of regions at a given location (it will only show in the menu if there is more than one region under the mouse pointer). It can be used as an excellent tool for comping loop recording or overdubs in general.

Critical Fixes:

• Fix BWF header contents.
• Fix crash caused by auto-saving after unloading a session.
• Fix crash caused by using an audio interface without inputs or outputs.
• Fix crash caused by data overrun when generating peak files.
• Fix crash bug caused by having no outputs on a track or bus and more than 1 input.

Improvements:

• Make exported file name text entry "activatable" in export region dialog.
• Correctly continue to keep sending MTC when looping.
• Make display of files to process during import correct.
• Window titles are now consistent (and do not include "ardour").
• Show region sync point in the popup region editor.
• Fix copy-drag operations when in lock edit mode.
• Tidy up region gain line drawing so that it doesn't extend past the region.
• Improve audio file format names shown in the interface.
• Remove edit point clock.
• More vertically-oriented layout of toggle controls in LADSPA editors.
• Add key stroke (left/right arrow) and wheel (left/right, shift-down/up) scrolling in mixer window.
• Fix missing display of plugins in the plugin manager (corrupt plugin type information).
• Do not ignore auto-connect setting when it is disabled for a new session.
• Do not stop at session end if synced to JACK but not the time master.
• Save audio settings even when using FFADO.
• Don't reset panner or plugin parameter values when switching automation to Write or Off (avoids losing a manually set value).
• Fix "separate" edit so that regions created do not overlap by 1 sample.
• Provide host callbacks for AU plugins to get tempo, musical time and transport information.
• Make region "lower-to-bottom" and "raise-to-top" have persistent rather than temporary effects.
• Sort items in the region context menu to match order in the track.
• Cleanup of Mackie/Logic Control support to prevent it from stopping Session unloading from proceeding correctly.
• Save and restore seamless loop setting when changing transport slave mode, since no JACK doesn't allow seamless loop.
• When renaming tracks/busses/sends/inserts, scan everything to avoid JACK port duplicate names.
• Display an explanation if JACK shuts down due to backend issues (e.g. another application changes the sample rate).
• Updated Swedish and Italian translations.

Mac OS X specific:

• Add /Volumes to file browser, to make external drives more visible.
• Prevent the editor right hand side notebook from vanishing and being un-resizable.
• Left click on the error/status bar clears whatever text is displayed there.
• Send AU Event notifications when modifying parameters or presets - makes ALL AudioUnit GUIs update during automation or preset changes, rather than just the ones from Waves, PSP, etc.