Do you use Luna and what's your take on it?

The Lounge General Discussion
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I couldn’t find a dedicated thread for Universal Audio’s Luna, and I’m curious about it. As my Mac just went down the drain after many years of faithful service, I have to get a new one anyway. While I’m not into daws - at all - they don’t work with the way my brain’s wired, Luna really seems different. From the outside, it looks like it could fit my workflow.

Any experiences here you wanna share? I’m sure there’s more people than me wanting to know Luna experiences, given that it’s been around for more than a year now.

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Do you have an Apollo?

Luna is not so different from a linear DAW of the likes of Logic Pro, Pro tools, Studio One, Cubase I guess (it’s not Ableton Live or Bitwig) but with way less features (this can be a plus if you want a straight recorder though)

If you don’t use a DAW right now, I guess this could be great as it comes for free with an Apollo interface and should be easy to understand.

I’m used to Logic Pro and didn’t gel with Luna
but that’s just me.

What are you using to record and why did you feel Luna would be different from other DAWs btw?

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I don’t use a daw at all, but record directly into my 1010 Blackbox and then sum, mix and master through an SSL SiX, with outboard fx through the Blackbox multiple outs.

While I like that workflow, it’s a bit tedious if you’re limited in space like I am, and also, it feels like overkill when you’re an amateur like m’self. All that hardware hassle when I hardly know what I’m doing anyway.

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…luna makes only sense if u run uad hardware…and all u want is a pretty traditional digital tape machine…

focus on traditional…if ur into recording drums, guitars and stuff…and u use their dsp modelling clones from all the oldschool classics in compressors, eq’s, pre amps…
then, and ONLY then, luna is for u…

and as far as i know, up to now, they don’t get things straight in recording process when it comes to comping…which is exactly the ESSENTIAL huuge advantage of mocking tapemachines with computers…
so for now it’s a digital recorder that’s not really harvesting the facts of digital recording…
but they gonna get there for sure…
and if it’s a give away once u buy into their hardware and don’t need much of modern daw functionality but solid taping to harddrives based on oldschool doubtless licensing agreements with not much hidden in small print…it’s defenitly a good choice…
but keep in mind…no open horizon here, that this thing is going to see a wider user base someday…it’s an addon software from a decent converter brand that tries to get it’s own eco system up and running…

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Sounds like it’s for me then :slight_smile:

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I see. You would need to buy an Apollo in order to use Luna. Depending on the number of I/O you need, it might not save much space. How many inputs do you record at once and how many outboard gear do you use with your SSL six?

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Well, it would be a different process, one that I think might work better for me.

Here’s how I do it now -
I record all my stuff into the 1010 Blackbox. I build the track there. I use the three stereo outs from the Blackbox, into the three stereo SSL SiX ins. So all Blackbox outputs go into all SiX inputs. I apply some send fx from a Chase Bliss CXM 1978 on the SiX tracks, and of course the SiX EQ on ch1 and ch2 and the g-bus compressor on all SiX tracks. I record the stereo outs from there, and that’s my final mix.

But I’m very particular in how I build my tracks within the 1010 Blackbox. I enjoy the control over all samples, all sequences, to tweak, adjust, move back and forth. I lose that control entirely when I move to the SiX, which is liberating in a way, but it’s becoming frustrating as well.

So with Luna, I figured I’d do it like this -
Build the track within the Blackbox, like before.

Record each track separately into Luna, through an Apollo Solo. It’s not uncommon I have up to 10 or 12 tracks going.

Once done, all that is within Luna, and I can now work on the mix and master with the same level of detail and attention, as I can when I write the actual song.

I know, any daw can do this. But I haven’t geled with any workflow of the logics and abletons and whatnot out there. I’ve tried. They just don’t speak to me.

So I’m thinking, maybe Luna will. Because I actually want that level of control. I just can’t get it to work for me, when it’s in a daw. And Luna seems different, somehow.

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so basically you want to shortcut the SSL Six?

Apollo solo has 2ins/2outs (+headphone).
So you would record 2 tracks at a time (or 1 at a time) and then send the stereo outs of the solo to the ins of the CXM 1978 and its outs back into the ins of the Solo to record the verb as a send track?

do you have an OB enabled Elektron box?
(I use my DN/A4 as input extensions to my Twin, that is useful)

As for Luna, what kind of editing do you intend to do? EQing each track and master compression?
I ask because the Apollo solo has only one DSP (I think) so UAD plugins will use it up very quickly unless you have other non-UAD plugins you can use.

As for Luna, the workflow is not really different from other DAWs but perhaps you will gel with it more.

I think it’s cool you’re doing everything OTB though. You’re free from OS updates and bugs, that’s not negligible!

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Thanks for the input. No, no Elektron boxes. I struggle to finish tracks on those. I can write something complete on the Blackbox or the Deluge in only a day or so if I got flow, so I click with those kind of instruments.

Basically, I want more control over the mix than my current workflow allows. Eq, pan, volume, fx, compression per track, for example. I’d like to be able to tweak the mix as I’ve tweaked the song. Daws allows this, but I’ve tried and I can’t get along with them. Luna just seems … different?

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I’m a bit worried the Apollo solo will be short of DSP power for mixing duties. I think it comes with the Classic Analog bundle which is basically the old “Legacy” plugins that use very little DSP so if you stick with that, you should be fine:

https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/215262223-UAD-2-DSP-Chart

All the plugins with the word Legacy are old but use nothing in term of DSP.
But say you want to record one track with the Neve 1073 plugin, one instance will eat up 40% in mono and 70% in stereo but these plugins are an extra buy.
But then Luna can be used with non-UAD plugins too so you could leverage that.

I assume the SSL Six non linearities and compressor add some mojos you might not be able to recreate. I don’t have a SSL Six but was curious about it so I’d love to hear your take if you buy an Apollo!

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I tried a Luna sleep aid one time and I slept past my alarm. This DAW is probably different than that.

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Yeah, the SiX compressor is like its own entity, very much alive and reacting to even the subtlest changes. I’m sure I won’t find anything like it.

But that’s one part of it. The overall control and ability to just manage the entire mix with that precision, I know for a fact I can’t do that now. And I’m not a hoarder, so if one system enters, another one goes. Though they exist in parallell for awhile, to compare.

Usually, things end with me keeping what I got and returning what I tried before the trial period ends :slight_smile:

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Jokes aside, I would consider not losing the Six. I know of artists who are all into in the UA atmosphere, but still use an analog front end to record. That part is still important. And of course, it doesn’t have to be the Six, but just something to consider.

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i tried it for about 5 seconds once before realising it wasn’t for me. it might be for you. but it made me see that there are communities and cultures that surround a DAW. if ie ‘classic studio sound’ ‘analog emulation in digital’ etc is a thing that appeals to you, that seems to be UA’s bag, then i say dive right in. to me, UA seem really geared towards ‘muso’ musicians… sessions dudes, studio artists, big time etc. that’s cool and fine, but i realised it didn’t align with my interests really. that might not matter to you, you just want the tool, the surrounding material doesn’t matter, but once you start following their socials or getting newsletters and what have you, looking up tutorials, it’s all geared in that way and it all seems irrelevant to my interests. alternatively, the community and culture around ableton always continues to inspire and provoke me. that’s something worth investing in, i think. but if you just want a recorder then i suppose this is irrelevant, its just my take.

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Thanks. It certainly matters, whether one wants to say it doesn’t or not. I don’t use much Elektron gear right now but I enjoy this place because Elektron attracts the kind of people I respect and appreciate, and I also feel the same about Elektron as a company. There’s the intellectual side of things, and then there’s the emotional part of it. We make decisions with emotions and then we do our best to frame those decisions in logic and reason. Works sometimes. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

Right now, the emotional part of me says don’t get Luna. You don’t want computers and audio interface. The intellectual part of me says, get Luna. It’s what you need for that control you want. And it’s not as daw-ish as some you’ve tried.

I tend to listen to my gut, tho, so right now, Luna’s losing :slight_smile:

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well, i use a UA interface anyway. they have some pretty compelling offerings, just barebones, simple. but i don’t use the DSP stuff much, likewise Luna, I just use Ableton. Computers and audio interfaces are amazing. It’s about approach really. People always trip out about DAW’s having too many settings or abilities or whatever, but you can set your own limitations any day. lately i just say ok, i’m only allowed to use 16 tracks. it keeps it minimal and tight. getting off topic maybe. anyway. If i had my choice again I’d buy the new RME box, ucxii. thing is about ableton though, it really is geared toward looping people. funnily enough, there’s no way to have default, straight, unwarped recordings as starting point. you always have to switch that off if you want clean recordings. So maybe Pro Tools or Luna are better for you. Depends what you want i suppose. I have a love hate relationship with ableton, but that’s just coz i’ve used it for so long. It’s like having an old car you keep doing mods to. a new one would be nice, but you keep fixing up the old, you like its character. sometimes i think there’s a real space for a new type of DAW no ones done yet. that actually is a little bit like Elektron and modular combined, the freedom to quickly and easily create your own control surfaces and instruments, but with the pattern logic and performance macro approach of Elektron. (sorry off topic again lol)

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But a lovely off topic all the same :blush:

Setting virtual limits never worked for me. If there’s cigarettes on the table, I’ll smoke. Or think about it more than what’s healthy.

THAT is the kind of daw I’d love to see :blush:

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Perhaps the nicest part about Luna is, if you buy one their interfaces, it’s free. That’s a pretty sweet deal

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I’ll drink to that!

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Just curious if anyone’s dived in since this thread. I’m a longtime UAD user, so I’ve got almost all of their wares and the Apollo x8p. They had a very aggressive sale on the LUNA plugs, so I grabbed a few things like the API channel strip, which I can work with very fast. I was thinking it would make sense post-tracking for a more formal mix stage where external summing would normally be useful for making mixes gel more easily, especially the low and low-mids.

Anyhow, if you’ve actually incorporated this into your workflow at all I’d love to hear about it.

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