In this video for Production Expert, Technical Editor James Ivey talks to Senior Product Manager at Universal Audio, Lev Perry about their new LUNA Recording System. James gets a chance to ask many of the questions we have all been waiting to hear answers to like what are LUNA Extensions and can we use our existing plug-ins inside LUNA.

What Is LUNA?

UA stress that the LUNA Recording System is not just another DAW. It transforms your Thunderbolt Apollo or Arrow interfaces into an inspiring, fully‑integrated Mac‑based recording system with all the features you need to make music without the technology getting in the way.

The workflow is fast with no need for a secondary application to control features of the Apollo or Arrow interfaces.

LUNA is all about tone. With built-in Neve summing on the busses you get a rich console sound from your in the box mix. You can also warm things up with real-time tape emulation available on every channel.

No modern recording platform would be complete without virtual instruments and LUNA offers you an amazing recreation of the Moog Minimoog as well as Ravel, a sampled grand piano. As standard, you also get Universal Audio’s Shape instrument. Think of this as a toolbox of all the instruments and loops you need to get going on your next chart-topper or musical masterpiece.

If watching the full 20-minute video puts you off, check out the timings below to allow you to jump to specific sections of LUNA interest.

• 00:00 Introduction

• 00:20 What is the LUNA Recording System

• 01:00 Apollo and Arrow integration

• 01:45 LUNA Extensions

• 02:33 LUNA Instruments

• 05:05 LUNA Pricing

• 06:16 LUNA Layout and track types

• 07:12 Using UAD-2 and Audio Unit plug-ins within LUNA

• 08:00 DSP or host processing

• 09:40 Does LUNA replace the UAD Console II?

• 11:15 Tracking with or without plug-ins

• 15:04 Integrated tape machines

• 17:30 Neve summing

• 19:35 Wrap up.

You can find out more about the LUNA Recording System at the Universal Audio website.