--- Ardour-8.6.0.orig/libs/surfaces/websockets/message.cc
+++ Ardour-8.6.0/libs/surfaces/websockets/message.cc
@@ -58,14 +58,14 @@ NodeStateMessage::NodeStateMessage (void
 
 		_state = NodeState (root.get<std::string> ("node"));
 
-		pt::ptree addr = root.get_child ("addr", pt::ptree ());
+		pt::ptree addr = root.get_child ("addr");
 
 		for (pt::ptree::iterator it = addr.begin (); it != addr.end (); ++it) {
 			// throws if datatype not uint32_t
 			_state.add_addr (boost::lexical_cast<uint32_t> (it->second.data ()));
 		}
 
-		pt::ptree val = root.get_child ("val", pt::ptree ());
+		pt::ptree val = root.get_child ("val");
 
 		for (pt::ptree::iterator it = val.begin (); it != val.end (); ++it) {
 			std::string val = it->second.data ();