If you've ever used Universal Audio's hardware interfaces and its UAD software in tandem, you'll know how well the two work together. The internal processors in interfaces like the Apollo Twins, with their Duo or Quad Cores, give you the processing power you need to run multiple iterations of UAD plugins like classic channel strips and compressors. But between your DAW and your interface, there's still plenty of opportunity for latency.
Universal Audio's Luna is the company's first-ever DAW, or what the company calls a full recording system, designed to give seamless integration between your tracking and your UA audio interfaces and plugins. It will also feature UA's first-ever software synthesizers and virtual instruments—made in conjunction with brands like Moog and Spitfire Audio.
Following in the footsteps of PreSonus and its Studio One DAW, the move from UA to branch out into DAWs is not unique. But just as it's built a reputation for best-in-class interfaces and plugins, Universal Audio is sure to be shooting for premium quality with Luna.
The DAW will free for both existing and new UA Apollo and Arrow Thunderbolt hardware users, offering the opportunity for home recordists and professional engineers alike to use Luna when mixing or otherwise making use of many plugin instances.
Features, according to Universal Audio, include:
- Deep Apollo Integration: LUNA Recording System's tight hardware-software integration allows quickly routing and recording audio through DSP-powered UAD plug-ins with no discernable latency via the new Accelerated Realtime Monitoring feature.
- Built-In Neve Summing: Offers precisely emulated audio summing circuitry from the Neve 80-Series audio mixing consoles designed by Neve Electronics in the 1960s and early 1970s, featuring the harmonically rich sound of the Neve 1272 summing amplifier.
- Integrated Multitrack Tape: Features integrated Multitrack Tape emulation via the included "Oxide" LUNA Extension—providing sonic qualities commonly described by audio engineers as "warmth" and "cohesion" on every desired audio or instrument track.
- All-New LUNA Instruments: Moog Minimoog—developed in partnership with Moog Music; Ravel grand piano—a breathtaking model of a Steinway Model B; Shape—a complete creative toolkit courtesy of Universal Audio, Spitfire Audio, Orange Tree Samples, Loops de la Creme, and more.
Luna will be available for download this spring (for Mac users only). Want to be able to use it? Get a Universal Audio Apollo or Arrow Thunderbolt interface here.
For all the latest gear news and new product announcements from NAMM 2020, check our ongoing coverage here.