Ardour v2.8.5 / 2.8.6 has been released. Mac OS X users of Ardour are STRONGLY recommended to immediately upgrade to fix a number of nasty problems that should now be gone. Similarly, anyone using MIDI control surfaces with a "Stop" transport button should upgrade NOW to avoid data loss when recording and using that button.

The changes below are for v2.8.5 which was replaced by v2.8.6 for Linux (source). There is only one one difference to 2.8.5 - VST-enabled builds for Linux are possible. There are no functional changes, and absolutely no changes for Mac OS X, hence the current version for Mac OS X is v2.8.5.

General changes:

• MMC (and other remote control protocols) no longer causes Ardour to discard recorded material when stopping transport.
• Fix latency compensation when punching in (which was a regression in 2.8.2)
• Fix crash when loading a session with certain kinds of crossfades
• Fix "crashes" caused by an endless loop of events related to the editor track "big text cursor"
• Don't cause clicks and/or possible plugin problems when editing while the transport is stopped
• Load plugin presets at the right time
• An implementation of "Save As" (result is still saved within the session folder)
• New option in editor track list context menu to show only tracks that have regions under the playhead
• Initialize the export folder name correctly
• Initialize system template folder name correctly
• Fixes for 64 bit build with some versions of gcc (ensures that assembler optimizations will be used)
• Plugin "favorites" file format modified for portability. We are sorry that you will lose your list of favorites (and/or hidden plugins) after upgrading.
• Updated translations for Italian, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian

Mac OS X only:

• Fix potential (and observed) crash in AudioUnit plugins caused by Ardour's incorrect setup of data buffers
• Fix crash when using AudioUnit plugins that use tempo/meter information from Ardour
• Fix discovery of AudioUnit factory presets
• Reimplement integration with the OS X main menubar
• Make all shortcuts work (Ardour used to ignore many or most Alt/Option- combinations)
• Fix issues with the cache of AudioUnit configuration data, and ensure that the file can be safely updated in the future.
• Fix display of AudioUnit GUI's written in Carbon (no more "white windows of death")
• Make international language support work on OS X (Ardour will try, and generally succeed) to follow the preferences you specify in System Preferences).