Is Universal Audio's LUNA any good?

Universal Audio released its DAW LUNA free to Mac users last November. I've been testing it for a while and these are my results. Should you try it, maybe even switch? Is it any good? Let's find out.
Songs Used: Vincent Klein, Easy Krohn
Performance: Vincent Klein
Mix and Master: Vincent Klein
Camera: Vincent Klein
Post Production: Vincent Klein
Shot on Sony Alpha 3 with Tamron 28-75

[@prodbyshadik]

Man your review was far my the best and easiest to follow. You get my follow for that. Wish it had markers tho.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Holy… I forgot to put the markers in… I’m sorry man, I’ll correct it tomorrow! Thanks, I’ve got a few long form videos in the pipeline, they take a while to do but one of them is a 6 month update including checking out LUNA on Windows!

[@prodbyshadik]

@@vincentkleinmusic Great stuff man. I ran into your channel by accident and yesterday and probably watched about 6 videos. The most ever from a channel in 1 day. I even watch the Guitar Center insight with the blurred mystery guest.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Thank you for your support! I’ve actually bought another mystery guitar recently, this time a Martin, script is done I only need to film it. Next video will be on KZbin blocking though, should be coming out on the 23rd.

[@pangloss9]

Excellent video and I just subscribed to your channel. I've been using Luna for several years (with UAD hardware) and I really like it...though I still use Logic on occasion as well. I work mostly with audio and I really like the work-flow Luna offers. IMO, Luna most definitely "has a sound", which I like, and I think it's probably due to the UAD summing architecture.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Agree on everything. The hardware is becoming a harder sell by the day though in my opinion. With UAD plugins now going native and the hardware getting on a bit the only thing they really offer is unison preamps. While those are great and the interfaces are sleek they’re also inconvenient. I’m looking at upgrading the studio and my current frontrunner is the RME UFX 3. 30 channels in one interface is great and as I’m hooking up external preamps anyway it’s just way cheaper. The only way to really achieve the same level of connectivity and convenience with UAD interfaces would be getting two X8 and a twin as a desktop remote. That’s about 7000 bucks. The X16 has also always been very weird in terms of value in my opinion as other than 16 D/A converters instead of 8 it basically only takes value instead of adding it.

[@pangloss9]

@@vincentkleinmusic I started using Apollo in 2012, right when the units came out but I stopped buying UAD DSP plugins a long time ago. I am happy with their Spark offerings and many of the DSP plugins I purchased are now in Spark. Regarding UAD interfaces, they are somewhat long in the tooth now (have an X6, an Apollo Twin X and a satellite I received for free) BUT all of mine still work. The optical connection gives me a path to improve converters and add channels should the need arise. In some sense, much like guitar modeling products, we've reached the point where the odds that one's converters are holding them back is probably NOT the issue. Some folks just have new-gear-itis...also new-plugin-itis...but I seem to have gotten out of that mindset. I do like the way Luna works and sounds, so unless I need something specific from Logic (AI drumming, synths & samplers...etc.) I just stick with Luna.

[@nunocosta6138]

Unfortunately the software still has a lot of bugs, the one that prevents me from using Luna are for example the completely autsync automations (Macbook Pro M3 Sonoma 14+apollo x4). I'm sure the UA people are working on improvements, such as adding multiouts (virtual instruments) and compatibility for the Windows platform. When these improvements are implemented, it will certainly be a great competitor to Pro Tools.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

I completely agree. It’s unfortunate that the software is buggy for you, that’s something I actually haven’t experienced. Otherwise LUNA is simply quite young compared to the competition and I think given a few more years it has a chance to become a major player. As for windows support I’d call that a maybe, windows always seems to fall a little by the wayside for UAD, but I would certainly welcome it.

[@craigwormack6924]

FYI, summing isn't unique to LUNA. Studio One has the feature through the MixFX.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Thanks, I was not actually aware of that but I’ll check it out!

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Alright after a quick check I can see MixFX is basically a console emulation that includes some summing bus behavior, but you cannot adjust individual summing buses, am I correct in that?

[@craigwormack6924]

You can make each bus a different console emulation. They can then be combined in the master bus with a different console emulation, if desired. It comes with Sphere+, or you have to pay for the set of console emulations.@@vincentkleinmusic

[@tri-unetrl3966]

Agree! 💯 AND Studio One looks more modern than Luna. Studio One is the FUTURE! 💪🏽🏆💯

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Interesting, I know a few people who like it but I might need to check it out myself then.

[@jcisme]

I preferred the Logic mix..

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Absolutely valid! Mixing is such a subjective thing, to me both had a different sound, neither of them felt bad to me though

[@evieruth01]

Any good templates yet for vocals ? On Mac ,it’s interesting so far.

[@vincentkleinmusic]

Interesting question, I don’t really work much with templates but usually I stick with the 550 EQ, take out one click of 500 and add a click of 5 or 7k depending on the vocalist. LA2A for compression and then sends to taste, often one echoboy and one reverb per part (so verse, chorus maybe bridge). I like it and I’ve stuck with it, there are a few hiccups which I’ll discuss in an upcoming video (I’ll be checking out the windows version)

[@lamasteve6905]

Blasphemy on Windows !

[@vincentkleinmusic]

It’s a pity that LUNA is currently Mac exklusive, I haven’t really tried Harrison Mixbus but it seems to be the closest alternative available on windows Edit: I was unaware of the Windows Beta but your comment makes a lot more sense now, I’ll leave my original comment up though. Let me know your experience with it if you have any.