diff --git a/libs/ardour/sse_functions_avx_linux.cc b/libs/ardour/sse_functions_avx_linux.cc
index 6ab2f1731f..e6e8d64ad2 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/sse_functions_avx_linux.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/sse_functions_avx_linux.cc
@@ -137,7 +137,13 @@ x86_sse_avx_compute_peak(const float *src, uint32_t nframes, float current)
 	// zero upper 128 bit of 256 bit ymm register to avoid penalties using non-AVX instructions
 	_mm256_zeroupper();
 
-	return vcurrent[0]; // _mm256_cvtss_f32
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ < 5)
+	return *((float *)&vcurrent);
+#elif defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ < 8)
+	return vcurrent[0];
+#else
+	return _mm256_cvtss_f32 (vcurrent);
+#endif
 }
 
 /**