Here's my track in Ableton (my music and vocals playing). Now here's the same track through Luna with Neve
summing and Oxide tape (my music and vocals playing). Luna is the free recording system software by Universal
Audio. It's currently only compatible with Universal Audio interfaces and Mac
but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be paying attention to it. In this video
I'll give you five reasons why and I'll let you hear demos of my mix and the
instruments in Luna. And if you're new to music production I'll explain things in
simple terms. It's fun to geek out on gear but music is why you're really here.
Hey, that rhymes! this is not a sponsored video I bought my own Universal Audio
gear and plugins. If you're new around here, I'm Sanjay C. I have tons of
information on music production and the latest gear reviews here on my channel.
Consider subscribing and check out my news reports for the latest updates in
the music gear world. Here are the 5 reasons you should pay attention to Luna.
First of all, Universal Audio is industry-leading
and I'll put my money on them continuing to develop Luna into a cutting-edge
recording system and they'll probably extend it to Windows- that's my guess.
At some point in your music career you're going to encounter Universal
Audio gear. They've built and acquired the license to some of the most iconic
gear in the industry! If you make music on a computer you can't escape them or
just the temptation of their Apollo interfaces and plugins. Luna just came
out a few days ago. It's a digital audio workstation or daw, which is software that
works hand in hand with the Universal Audio interfaces to create music and do
some cool stuff. You plug in your mic or an instrumented to the hardware
interface and it sends sound digitally to your computer where
Luna helps you sculpt it into a song. Universal audio interfaces also provide
computing power for the plugins they run. the Universal Audio adds some unique
features to Luna which I'll get to later. Next, Luna is free and full-feature!
Almost. But is it right for a bedroom producer. You can record a song start to
finish with it. There are no limitations on the number of tracks- so you can
record or the time limits or anything like that. It's not like Ableton Live
light which caps your tracks only to lure you into upgrading to their full daw.
But wait a second. Universal Audio still packs an upsell. They've dedicated a full
tab on Luna promoting add-ons that you have to pay for at super steep prices. I
mean the piano plugin is 300 bucks the Moog synth is another 300. Those are not
home producer prices. But wait! They do allow you to use any other audio unit
plugin you own. So if you have Serum Native Instruments plugins or any other
effects you can still use those and if you wait for a sale on Universal Audio
plugins you can get a decent deal. In my opinion, it's something to work towards
as you develop your music career. By the way, what do you think is a fair price
for a plugin instruments like the ones they've included in Luna? What would you
pay? Leave a comment below. So far good stuff! But am I switching to Luna
I'll cover that in a bit now the third reason to pay attention to Luna is for
the Universal Audio plugins. I'm not just talking about the ones that you can
currently use with whatever daw you have. Luna gives you access to Neve summing
and tape plugins which fit into the Luna workflow really well. The tape plugins
add some saturation and that vintage tape sound to any one of your tracks. The
Neve summing plugin emulates the sound of a Neve desk. You can route individual
tracks to the Neve summing plug-in to give it that need desk sound which is
awesome. There are some features you don't have in your DAW. For example you
can now record your voice or instrument using a preamp modeled after some of the
best in the world right in the Luna recording software. You've never been
able to do this before with your daw. It makes the process seamless and the tape
and summing plugins are easy to apply and sound great.
Let's compare Ableton with Oxide on each track versus Luna with
Oxide on each track. Let's hear the Neve summing plug-in. In Luna that sounds good
if you ask me. But is it $300 good? The fourth reason you should pay attention
to Luna is the software interface. Now this is subjective but I think they're
off to a good start. It's definitely geared towards people who are used to
hardware mixers or Pro Tools but Logic users will probably find it easy to
navigate as well. Everything looks good and the workflow is pretty intuitive. But
there are some issues. While I like being able to edit MIDI right in the window
like this. A secondary window makes it useful to make intricate changes. You
don't get that with Luna and there are some glaringly missing features. There's
no count in there's no way to hit record and give yourself a 1 bar count in. How
is this possible in any daw or recording system? The last reason you should be
paying attention to Luna is for the instruments. The included instrument
called Shape comes with sounds that are just amazing. Better than your average
daw. Take a listen (keyboard music playing).
Wow! If they keep adding sounds of this quality, I'll be really happy. But if they
keep pricing them at $300 - not so much. What's important to note, is the caliber
of companies that they're collaborating with. They're offering
orchestral instruments by Spitfire and a Moog license synth. I'm super hopeful for
the future for the instrument add-ins.
So am I switching from Ableton to Luna? Not yet. This first version of Luna is a
good start but they need to improve performance, add that count in, and man
those add-on prices! Some of the best reasons to make the switch are just out
of my price range right now. But I could see myself considering a switch in the
future. Which is why I'm keeping an eye on Luna developments and so should you.
If you have a question leave it in the comments below. Keep Making The Music YOU Love
and I'll see you guys later!