UAD Luna is Universal Audio’s new recording platform

Introducing UAD Luna – Universal Audio’s new integrated recording solution, which they’re trying very hard NOT to call a “DAW”.

In almost every sense of the word, Luna is a Digital Audio Workstation, it has all the features you’d expect in a modern DAW, however, the key factor is that it’s designed to be in symbiosis with a UAD Apollo interface.

UAD Luna is designed to expand the capabilities of the interface and create an intuitive all-in-one recording system.

The system offers very deep integration with the Apollo series, allowing you to store and recall various of the DSP settings within your project, furthermore, you’ve got direct control over the “Unison” preamp system, allowing you to recall settings down to your preamp controls – to maintain a standard sound every time you open your project to record.

Another big feature in the new Luna platform is what they’re calling Luna Extensions, these are add-ons that are built into the inner workings of the DAW, for example – one extension is a multi-track tape emulation which shares unified settings across the project for much more traditional recording experience.

You can buy a Neve Summing Luna Extension which sounds pretty exciting.

Pros and Cons…

For the first time ever, UAD Luna introduces actual instruments to the UAD line-up.

For a long time, UAD has been highly-renowned for their modelling capabilities. For the time being, they’re announcing three instruments – Minimoog – which is, of course, a model-D emulation, Ravel – a Steinway Grand Piano and Shape, a multi-sample based instruments with a ton of presets built-in. The bad news is that all of these instruments are designed only for use within the Luna application, no VST or AU support.

UAD Luna is free for any UAD Apollo or Arrow owners, it comes with the Oxide multi-track Tape extension and Shape, everything else seems to be a paid addon.