UA Luna

[row]

Anyone want to comment on UA’s Luna? I’m a logic user myself and was trying to ask my much more knowledgeable recording-partner-in-crime what made it appealing? Built-in tape emulators and the modeling of classic instruments? “Neve summing”?

I’m a thirty-something dude, kind of inbetween pure millennial-mentality-lifestyle/hipster-isms and what may be an older-school approach. Is Luna some hipster stuff? I’m serious but also being a bit facetious.

[crow]

I haven't seen any mention yet of any features that differentiate it from other DAWs other than the tape emulation and Neve summing, which unless there's something I'm missing, can be done "a la carte" with plugins. Add to that the fact that you have to use UAD hardware, and it's Mac only, sounds very Pro Tools circa 1998... there must be something I'm missing.

[drumsound]

Honestly, I heard something new was coming, and when I heard it was a DAW I checked out. I literally have zero interest in trying to learn more software.

[crow]

If I were a Logic user (I was for about half of 2009) or a PT user, and if I were using Macs, I miiiiiight check it out, but I'm so happy with REAPER that I have no interest in another DAW. One of the main reasons I even started fooling around with REAPER in the first place was because I wanted to record remotely without risking losing my irreplaceable Nuendo dongle, so I certainly don't want to get back in the dongle game. Then, while checking it out, I fell in love with it and never looked back.
I do love some of my UAD plugins but extremely rarely feel the need to purchase a new one, and have a native equivalent for most of them. I try to not rely on them so that I can work on projects on the studio PC, workshop PC and my laptop. Couldn't resist getting the Capitol Chambers though. And the Marshall JMP sim sounds great.

[dave watkins]

The NAMM roll out was a bit ridiculous, but there's a couple features they mentioned that i do find attractive. Definitely like the idea that adjusting gain and so forth within the DAW is also 1 for 1 adjusting the gain of the preamp itself. Also like that the monitoring controls are just simply part of the DAW (instead of the having your DAW to record within, AND having your interface's app to do monitor mixes) and also the ability to commit or not commit effects and while tracking with no noticeable latency (so they claim). I'm coming at this from almost 2 decades of using cakewalk sonar, and who knows how long bandlab is actually going to continue developing it, so I'm sort of at a place where I'm considering trying something new, an honestly could see how using Luna and an Arrow or one of the more affordable UA Thunderbolt 3 Apollos could be pretty excellent for personal songwriting, and doing remote tracking and overdubbing. Definitely have done some remote work with solo artists in the past where I didn't need much more than two inputs and being able to give a full blown latency free monitor mix with compression/reverb happening without needing to use anything more than a laptop and an interface would have been amazing. Obviously there's tons of other ways to do that (usually involving more equipment), but streamlining things the way Luna appears to seems pretty ideal compared to other workflows. Had to get a new Mac Book Pro for work (I work for a dance company where i have to use QLAB which is mac only) recently so I'm strongly considering getting an Arrow and giving Luna try later this year as I start working on a new solo record. We'll see how it shakes out.

[Recycled_Brains]

the fucking channel strips in the mix window have polarity switches!

Goddamnit, why doesn't PT have that!?

that's all I got.

[drumsound]

the fucking channel strips in the mix window have polarity switches!

Goddamnit, why doesn't PT have that!?

that's all I got.

That is wonderful. I have a friend who does some consulting for AVID and have mentioned this to him. A polarity reverse button near the fader somewhere would be AMAZING.

[digitaldrummer]

A polarity reverse button near the fader somewhere would be AMAZING.

Pro Tools 2026...

[Recycled_Brains]

the fucking channel strips in the mix window have polarity switches!

Goddamnit, why doesn't PT have that!?

that's all I got.

That is wonderful. I have a friend who does some consulting for AVID and have mentioned this to him. A polarity reverse button near the fader somewhere would be AMAZING.

Kind of mind blowing this isn't a thing right? I often have to check polarity after recording the drummer for a bit, because I do stuff without a control room (or a proper control room anyway) almost every time. I don't have proper isolation to accurately tell the differences. I'm always fumbling with EQ1 or trim plugins on every track just to check it. This would make that process at least 50% more efficient.

[drumsound]

the fucking channel strips in the mix window have polarity switches!

Goddamnit, why doesn't PT have that!?

that's all I got.

That is wonderful. I have a friend who does some consulting for AVID and have mentioned this to him. A polarity reverse button near the fader somewhere would be AMAZING.

I have to do the same thing when I'm tracking myself. Record a bunch, put trim plug on the drums, check everything. Make sure the console matches with the dummy take, THEN remove the trim plugs and get to work.

Kind of mind blowing this isn't a thing right? I often have to check polarity after recording the drummer for a bit, because I do stuff without a control room (or a proper control room anyway) almost every time. I don't have proper isolation to accurately tell the differences. I'm always fumbling with EQ1 or trim plugins on every track just to check it. This would make that process at least 50% more efficient.

[crow]

It is crazy that PT makes it so hard to invert polarity. Just plain crazy. Which got me thinking that this might be a genius move on UA's part, since PT has set the bar soooo low for DAWs that a sizable number of UA users who currently use protools will try it out, be pleasantly surprised, and suddenly not feel so inclined to play Avid's financial extortion game. Also, by the screenshots I've seen, Luna looks exactly how I would want a DAW to look. Simple, clear, fairly dark, with just a bit of vintage equipment styling.

That said, I'm so happy with REAPER (which has polarity switches among other groundbreaking features) that I won't be switching to Mac to try Luna, but I might take advantage of REAPER's theme-modding options to make my REAPER look a bit Luna-esque...

[Calaverasgrande]

I would have been interested in this when I was on Logic 9. Logic X fixed a lot of the timing bugs that would creep up on you when mingling MIDI and audio workflows. I don't think Luna has any MIDI? It does have 'instruments' according to the email I got from UA this morning, so maybe they have just been holding back info about the sequencing side. I can't imagine you would have a software Minimoog and expect users to play it 'to tape'.

I wish them the best of luck with it. I'm in a committed relationship with Logic these days. But the right sexy DAW with the least amount of baggage may get my eye to stray.

[Nick Sevilla]

I might crossgrade from Logic Pro 9, if they offer this option. Otherwise, I'll crossgrade to Cubase of Nuendo at some point.

Oh, and I still will be using PT... most of the time. LOL.

[kslight]

I might crossgrade from Logic Pro 9, if they offer this option. Otherwise, I'll crossgrade to Cubase of Nuendo at some point.

Oh, and I still will be using PT... most of the time. LOL.

I didn’t think there was any licensing fee to it, just contingent on owning a thunderbolt UA device?

[Nick Sevilla]

I might crossgrade from Logic Pro 9, if they offer this option. Otherwise, I'll crossgrade to Cubase of Nuendo at some point.

Oh, and I still will be using PT... most of the time. LOL.

I didn’t think there was any licensing fee to it, just contingent on owning a thunderbolt UA device?

No idea. I own one of their CPU units. If I have to buy one for their converters, well then no. LOL. Pro Tools "deluxo" is cheaper for me to upgrade one of my older TDM licenses than this.