>Step by step
2. Your first 60 minutes with LUNA (continued)
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The top Control Bar is the second area to focus on and contains Transport controls and a tiny, but vital, LUNA option (circled): to switch between the Timeline and Mixer (shown) views. Here you also get a third option to hide and reveal other main areas, including the Tracks and Monitor sections plus Focus which is a kind of summary of each track. 10
That is the job of the aforementioned Focus column, which is a cool inclusion as it acts like a channel strip of the main mixer. It allows you to select instrument, MIDI FX, insert and send effects, cue and output options and a Tape option that allows you to add the included Oxide tape simulator for a more vintage feel on your channel strip. 8
I’ll quickly cover the last two main sections of LUNA’s UI. First up is the Monitor section on the right which, like UA’s Console, covers all your output and monitor settings for your UA hardware so you can, for example, set up headphone mixes here. The final section is an info area at the very bottom which has project settings such as CPU load and sample rate. 11
There are several Timeline Rulers at the top of the LUNA UI, and these allow you to reveal various bits of information about the Timeline such as minutes/seconds, tempo and time signature. Hit the three dots (circled in the grab above) to reveal a menu to the left where you can show or hide all the options available. 9
Now I’ll have a look at each of the LUNA tracks in a bit more detail, and you’ll mostly be at home here. Each track has the usual Mute, Solo and Arm options, plus Pan, Level, In and Out, and you’ll note from the screen grab that the MIDI instrument tracks have a piano edit-style addition. However the actual instruments on each track are not detailed… 12
My 60 minutes are nearly up (actually two days including those updates!) so just time to revisit the excellent mixer, and here you can, naturally, install UA plugs with ease (and buy with ease). LUNA is proving to be a beautiful DAW, blending vintage-style processing with modern computer production, so much so that I’ll continue this exploration next time!
COMPUTER MUSIC