KVR Audio

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:47 pm

I am a UAD user. Have been probably for the past 15 years (when the UAD-1 was branded as a Mackie card). There are many things I don't like about it, but many things I do like (like their 1176 and the LA-2A's etc...). I am not like many uad users under the incorrect impression that they are still quality wise miles ahead of native options.

The Luna is not for me...I can't possibly see where it would help my workflow.
The world did not need another DAW. It is more work for Developers to have to deal with yet another DAW with its own idiosyncrasies.
It is also taking away development time for UA itself (from making more plugins, mk2 upgrades and for christ sake finally fixing their stupid installer (so you can choose what you want to install my #1 gripe with UAD), or making it a hybrid system where the dsp tasks can be shared by both their dsp chips and native), unless they hired a new set of people to do LUNA stuff exclusively.
To announce it before a Windows version can be mentioned is also ridiculous.

However I am not sure why this would make me stop using UAD-2 stuff. I will just ignore it for the most part and continue what I have to do. I am curious why you think it will make them lost customers.
rsp

electro · Post by **electro** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:00 pm

Jim Roseberry wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:23 pm Reinventing the wheel...
It'll be 5+ years before Luna is anywhere close to the full feature set of top-tier existing DAW applications.
Mac only? Seriously?! That's just incredibly short-sighted.

UA is using their same "unison" technology.
As was mentioned above, there's no such thing as zero-latency.
With "unison", you can run UAD plugins at ~2ms round-trip latency (which is great).
Of course, you can do this with an Apollo and any DAW application (albeit slightly less integrated).

With Presonus Quantum and a fast machine, you can run sub 2ms round-trip latency with any (non-latent) plugin.

Luna is a good follow up idea to unison and someone suggested to view it through the same lens as RME's total mix (front end for a full featured DAW ie: Cubase). What remains to be seen is the RTL latency of the entire system. There is a chance for UAD plugins to be running native like the summing engine, but in the coming years RTL latency (having the same instant response as a full analog studio) is going to be the final test. Sound quality is already there in 2020.

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:43 pm

A DAW named "LUNA" already existed in the dark mists of time.

It used to be "MUTOOLS LUNA".

If my memory serves correctly it disappeared one day never to be seen again.

https://www.kvraudio.com/news/mutools_r ... ase_5_6527

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:09 pm

I think Jo just changed the name to Mulab.

rasmusklump · Post by **rasmusklump** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:29 pm

electro wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:00 pm Luna is a good follow up idea to unison and someone suggested to view it through the same lens as RME's total mix (front end for a full featured DAW ie: Cubase).

ehm... no. What you describe is the Console that is already out for years....

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:00 pm

jonljacobi wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:09 pm I think Jo just changed the name to Mulab.

Ah, yes, it was "Muzys" that disappeared and later re-surfaced in a new incarnation as "LUNA" .

And now UAD has bought out a new "LUNA" which is nothing to do with the DAW which used to be called "LUNA".

And by the way, I have just found an old 2007 CD with "LUNA free" on it which in turn is nothing to do with the brand new 2020 UAD "LUNA free"

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:10 pm

It's hard to believe there's a new DAW and people are already bashing it without ever having a chance to play with it. At the very least it's another choice for UA users. And a free one at that.

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:13 pm

Creamware released the Luna card back in the day.
They were a direct competitor with UAD back then, only their platform is way better as its still works with modern OSs and runs both effects and synths. The technology is still rollded out under other guises, besides those ancient cards still being supported. I have 2 Pulsars and a Luna myself.

fese · Post by **fese** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:53 pm

I wonder whether they developed their new DAW from the ground up (which is quite some undertaking) or did they go the Harrison mixbus route and Luna is actually a brushed up version of Ardour (although Ardour is licensed under gpl2, so taking the open source code and mixing it with proprietary closed source code is a violation of the gpl imho. I’d really like to know how Harrison solved that)

musicdoc · Post by **musicdoc** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:28 am

Long time UAD user here. The quality of plugins is top notch and really convenient to have most of your bases covered under one roof. I picked up a bunch of my stuff during the conversion between UAD 1 & 2 when there was a way to get plugs at 20% of cost..

Nowadays if starting again I really wouldn’t bother. Quality even with Cubase stock plugins pretty good. And if one subscribed to Native Instruments stuff a bunch of plugs come there too. Give me a console 1, a select few Fabfilter plugs and I’m good.

UAD has a problem in that they are releasing all these guitar effect modeling plugs that need little latency and possibly wanting to get into the vsti market all while trapped in a high latency system.

Their solution is to develop their own ecosystem. I guess that could solve their latency problem but it will be many years if ever before they catch up to the big boys in the DAW world as pointed out by numerous posters.

Most likely in the meantime LUNA will be used for tracking by folks and then exported elsewhere for more complex stuff. Whether it’s worth the added aggravation of more layers of software remains to be seen.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 7:01 am

Just watched a more in depth demo. It’s actually quite impressive for a 1.0. A relatively clean interface as well.

rmacattack · Post by **rmacattack** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:27 pm

Besides the engineering side, what does this have to offer for music producers/songwriters on the creative side? What if someone is on a PC? Looks like all mac based to me.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:42 pm

Alas, for the moment you're SOL with Windows. From how they seem to be handling things, Luna seems highly dependent on the speed of Thunderbolt. You might not see it at all on Windows, or they might do something when USB4 becomes widely available, or...

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:46 pm

It also seems to have decent editing. I didn't see anything beyond that. It's not Bitwig/FLS/Live, if that's what you're referring to in terms of creative. It's meant to compete with Pro Tools and sell more interfaces. That's my interpretation anyway.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:57 pm

jonljacobi wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:46 pm It also seems to have decent editing. I didn't see anything beyond that. It's not Bitwig/FLS/Live, if that's what you're referring to in terms of creative. It's meant to compete with Pro Tools.

Did I read well? - "It's not Bitwig/FLS/Live"... "It's meant to compete with Pro Tools".

So you are placing Pro Tools below Bitwig/FLS/Live?

Are you sure it can compete with Pro Tools in terms of editing features?

Universal Audio announces DAW LUNA