NAMM 2025: Universal Audio has just announced Luna v1.8, with some big updates to a DAW that was already free. So how much more of a bargain do you want? There's got to be a catch, right?
Luna is Universal Audio's free DAW, although UA doesn't really like us using the term 'DAW'. That's because Luna offers a near latency-free recording environment, very much based on hardware studios of old, with a slick vintage feel and one of the most seamless recording experiences yet.
Yes, it is pushing the UA ecosphere and plugins, but the base version is free, no longer requires you to partner with UA hardware, runs third-party plugins and records unlimited tracks. To our feeble brains, then, Luna has enough qualities to call it… a DAW. An attractive and slick one at that.
There is, of course, a more fully-endowed, paid-for version of Luna should you wish to part with some cash, but the v1.8 updates apply to the free version as well so all the new goodies are yours for nowt, and these include some worthy additions.
Yes, many of these you might already find in your (very likely) much older and mature DAW, but Luna is very much the new kid on the block - a mere five years old, compared to some DAWs which have been around for decades - so we can forgive these features not arriving until now.
First up there's Bounce in Place, allowing you to render your tracks to audio at the touch of a button. A once essential practice in the old days of slow processor speeds, this enables you to free up CPU headroom by losing active plugins.
Track presets, meanwhile, enable you to save plugin chain setups and routing configurations for easy recall and time saving. An enhanced browser - very much 'the thing' of many recent DAW updates - is also present and correct, with Browser Tabs enabling you to home in on sounds and plugins.
Various bug fixes and workflow enhancements have also been included in the 1.8 update, so should you be heading over to the UA website for the freebie version?
Well, that free version gets you unlimited tracks (OK, limited by your processor grunt), full analogue summing, Tape Machines recording, plus channel strips, bus and parallel compression built into the Luna mixer. Needless to say, it's very easy to buy UA plugins to fit into the Luna environment - which UA would obviously love you to do – but the free Luna option does deliver a very pleasing and slick recording environment.
The Pro version (above) adds a bundle of over a dozen classic UA plugins to effectively recreate a vintage studio in your DAW. Think Pultec, API, Ampex… you can almost smell the reel-to-reel tape. The Pro Luna bundle usually retails for $399, but as part of the 1.8 Luna launch, you can currently get it for just $99.
Which only leaves us to insert some puns featuring the words 'sheer lunacy!', which thankfully we've resisted. Head on over to the UA website for more (information that is, not lunacy).
