LUNA. Inspired by Analog Workflows to End Latency.

When we tout the benefits of analog, it's not just about sonics. It's also about the classic analog workflow — plugging into hardware and directly monitoring through it in real time — that has shaped classic recordings for decades.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with digital recording, which adds a noticeable delay (“latency”), which can vary according to workload, caused by your signal being processed in your computer.

Inspired by the fast realtime workflow of analog recording, LUNA Recording System gives you music recording, editing, and mixing with analog immediacy — and without any of the drawbacks of analog.

Why is this low-latency workflow important, and how did LUNA crack the code?

What is Latency?

Latency is everywhere. Stand four feet away from your guitar amp and play a chord, and you'll experience about 4 ms of latency — that’s the speed of sound. Push a key down on a concert piano, and depending on your playing dynamics, the key travel time is anywhere between 160 ms and 230 ms.*

In these cases, latency does not affect the performer or the performance — it's expected by the performer, and our brains are accustomed to the small sonic delays caused by the laws of physics.

But when recording in the digital world, these sonic delays caused by computer processing can be incredibly unnerving, and will often affect performance in a decidedly uncool way.

Enter Apollo and the Console App.

When UA released Apollo interfaces in 2012, its raison d'etre was its game-changing workflow letting you insert and control UAD plug-ins as well as route and monitor audio through the Console app directly to your DAW of choice, with near-zero latency. This was made possible through Apollo's onboard DSP, which runs UAD Powered Plug-Ins in real time.

This workflow allowed hundreds of thousands of Apollo owners to create in the moment, quickly shaping sounds and focusing on music, not computer settings.

Still, in this scenario, you'd often find yourself adjusting the buffer size for your computer in your host audio application. And if you chose to simply monitor through UAD plug-ins without printing them, you'd be stuck replicating identical plug-in chains in your DAW, just to hear the sounds you'd originally tracked with.

LUNA Recording System — the Giant Leap Forward.

Seamlessly integrating with your Apollo interface, LUNA Recording System lets you capture audio through DSP-powered UAD plug-ins and native LUNA Instruments with no discernible latency.

The key to this workflow is LUNA's Accelerated Realtime Monitoring,^™ which uses Apollo’s onboard DSP to deliver deterministic, sub-2ms recording latency — from input to output.

LUNA's single, elegant interface puts real time recording at your fingertips. No more toggling between the Console app and your DAW to track through UAD plug-ins in real time, or messing with buffer settings.

Musicians and artists will instantly feel more connected to the music thanks to LUNA's Accelerated Realtime Monitoring.

LUNA Recording in Action

UA worked with multi-Grammy nominated Fab Dupont (Jennifer Lopez, Shakira) and multi-Grammy winner Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings of Leon) on two of the first LUNA recording sessions, with some very interesting results.

King tracked indie rocker Cass McCombs and his band at United Recording in Los Angeles, entirely with LUNA Recording System. His feedback?

"LUNA is super low latency. In fact, when I tracked Cass and his band, I simply asked the musicians, 'How does it feel when you're playing? Do you notice anything different?' The answer was a distinct 'no.’”

"LUNA is a digital system, so sure, there is technically some latency," he continues. "But it's so small, your ears just can't perceive it, so it doesn't impede the workflow."

Dupont, on the other hand, has been using LUNA Recording system on a host of recent projects. Like King, he finds its lack of latency — as well as its sonics — more fun and inspiring than other recording systems.

"LUNA's integration with my Apollos lets me forget that I'm using a computer to make music," says Dupont. "The crazy-low latency workflow of LUNA has further blurred the line between production and mixing for me — with LUNA, I can just make records."

No other digital recording software can rival the fast, inspiring workflow, classic analog sound, and deep Apollo integration of LUNA Recording System. A major revelation for anyone who has not recorded music on a DSP-assisted recording system — or tracked in an all-analog studio — LUNA delivers authentic analog sound at the speed of light.