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...and prices for the add-ons revealed

Having announced that its release was being brought forward in light of the Covid-19 crisis, Universal Audio have now unveiled LUNA, their hotly-anticipated free DAW for Mac-owning users of Thunderboltequipped Apollo and Arrow audio interfaces. LUNA promises super-tight integration with said interfaces – we’re assured that it enables you to record through DSP-powered UAD plugins with no discernible latency. There are also processing Extensions and dedicated Instruments, though in many cases, these will have to be paid for.

To give you some details, the Neve Summing Extension provides summing circuitry from the Neve 80-Series audio mixing consoles from the ’60s and ’70s and costs £229. Studer Analog Tape, meanwhile, is a tape recorder Extension that costs £260 (though it’s currently available for half price).

Moving on to the Instruments, you can purchase the Ravel Grand Piano – which models a Steinway Model B – for £229, while the

official Moog Minimoog synth comes in at £229 as well. However, you do get Shape, a workhorse samplebased instrument that offers keys, drums, guitar/bass, orchestral content and “real-time synthesis” for nothing.

There’s also the LUNA Spitfire Bundle, which includes Spitfire Audio’s Chamber Strings, Symphonic

Brass and Symphonic Woodwinds. This is yours for £449.

Whether the add-ons have enough to justify the extra outlay remains to be seen. We’ll bring you a full review of LUNA very soon.

LUNA isn’t entirely reliant on these add-ons though, as it can host your existing AU plugins as well as any existing UAD plugins in your library. You can also import projects from other DAWs via AAF format. LUNA currently runs on macOS only and requires a Thunderbolt-equipped Apollo or Arrow audio interface (FireWire or USB models aren’t supported). Users of those interfaces can download LUNA for free from the UA site now.