UA to release free Mac-based production environment with their Thunderbolt interfaces Two views of UAs Luna application, the software at the heart of this new recording environment that unites recording software, interfacing hardware, virtual instruments and processing plug-ins, and DSP.
We first received some sketchy details on UAs new Luna recording system in December, enough to write a short advance item for the News section in Sound On Sounds February print edition. But one of the things that puzzled us was that UA were reluctant to the point of inscrutability to describe their system as a DAW, which rather threw us. From the little we knew, Luna was computer-based, could record and mix multiple channels simultaneously, and could host virtual instruments and processors. Frankly, we thought, if it looks like a DAW and works like a DAW... then surely there was an existing three-letter acronym that would describe it quite nicely, beginning with D and ending with AW?
Video of Universal Audio Luna - NAMM 2020
Well, Luna is here at last, and clearly, it IS a DAW. But as Universal Audio explain in the detailed interview conducted by SOS Features Editor Sam Inglis at NAMM yesterday (linked above), there is a little more to it than that. Firstly, its designed to work solely with UAs existing Apollo and Arrow DSP-enhanced Thunderbolt audio interfaces, with the exception of the older Apollo FireWire and Apollo Twin USB. In fact, from later this Spring, Luna is going to be shipping with every single recent Apollo sold, completely free. Because the application will be completely tied to UAs own hardware, the integration between the software, hardware, the interfaces DSP and UAs existing armoury of well-regarded plug-ins promises to be extremely tight - something which isnt always the case with other DAW systems composed of software, hardware and processing from completely different manufacturers. As a further result, UA can also claim that recording with Luna is an analogue-style experience, because Luna users can now benefit from the low-latency recording approach already offered by UAs DSP-enhanced interfaces.
The Minimoog emulation - one of the first Luna instruments to be made available for the new Luna environment.
So whats in it? Luna is a full production environment which offers non-linear recording and editing with a fairly standard-looking DAW tracking window. It will record, edit and output MIDI, has built-in mixing and routing, and will host and run virtual instruments - a first for the company, which has always been highly regarded for it emulated processing plug-ins, but has never supported VIs per se. Luna, however, not only ships with emulations of analogue tape and Neve summing circuitry - so far, so 2010s - but also comes with Luna-specific instruments which run not on the UAD DSP, but natively on the host computer, although they will not be usable by third-party plug-in hosts. At launch, the so-called Luna instruments amount to Minimoog and grand piano emulations, and Shape - a multi-layered virtual instrument plug-in offering real instrument sounds based on samples, an emulated synth engine, and orchestral content from Spitfire Audio. Theres plenty more detail on the composition of the system in the linked video interview above.
Ravel, the grand piano Luna instrument announced alongside the Luna system.
Can this prove popular? Is it madness to launch a completely new DAW in 2020? Well, the biggest objection weve heard about Luna so far at NAMM 2020 and on forums since the launch (aside from the fact that theres no news on any kind of PC version - certainly at launch Luna will be Mac-only) is that established users wont want to unlearn their existing favourite DAW and start from scratch with Luna. This will undoubtedly be true for some people, but UA are clearly hoping that their attractive plug-in offerings and cleverly designed DSP interfaces will swing such users over time, now that they are all integrated into one production environment. And we think it likely that UA are also playing a long game. Offering such a versatile system for free with the interfacing hardware new users have to buy anyway is likely to be an irresistible proposition for many; we can imagine that lots of teenagers who are just getting into audio production on a computer in 2020 will be immediately attracted by the idea of obtaining a complete software production environment and instrument host free with their audio interface. And in (say) five years, those users could form a significant slice of UAs future customer base.
Of course, the success of Luna will depend on the user experience, about which its difficult to form a lasting judgement at present. We look forward to trying out the system in a few weeks!
http://www.uaudio.com
Most recent headlines
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
UA to release free Mac-based production environment with their Thunderbolt interfaces Two views of UAs Luna application, the software at the heart of this new recording environment that unites recording software, interfacing hardware, virtual instruments and processing plug-ins, and DSP.
