UA Blog

Discover the latest features. LUNA is our Digital Audio Workstation built for the future of music creation, giving you the incredible sound of an analog studio with AI-powered tools that make recording easier. We’re constantly improving LUNA with innovative features and quality-of-life updates based on your feedback — helping you unlock your creativity and sound like the records you love. LUNA 2.0 — October 21, 2025 Say hello to LUNA 2.0 — now with ARA support and more in our FREE DAW. Plus, the upgraded LUNA Pro delivers powerful features like Hardware Inserts, dozens of UAD plug-ins, and inspiring creative tools to keep your sessions moving and your mix dialed. Download LUNA Free Buy LUNA Pro ARA Support Edit and tune vocals with ARA plug-ins directly in LUNA’s timeline — no lengthy transfers or app switching required. Just open your ARA plug-in from the track’s warp mode menu and get right to work. ARA support is included free with LUNA, and if you upgrade to Pro, you get Celemony Melodyne essential and NoiseWorks DynAssist Lite — allowing you to correct pitch, refine timing, and shape vocal performances with pro-level precision. Hardware Inserts LUNA Pro now includes Hardware Inserts, so you can mix through your favorite analog gear just like a plug-in. Add hardware inserts to any track or bus, and LUNA Pro handles all routing and delay compensation automatically — keeping your trac...

Use the UAFX Ruby '63 and Woodrow '55 amp emulators, Del-Verb Ambience Companion, and Max Preamp &amp; Dual Compressor pedals for classic U2 tones. In this UAFX Tone Swipe, you'll learn how to create the tones and effects found on legendary U2 records like War , The Unforgettable Fir e , The Joshua Tree , and more — including amp settings, effects, and mixing tools.* Since the beginning of U2, The Edge has relied on Vox AC30 combos. As the decades wore on, he brought Fender amps in the fold — most notably tweed Fender Deluxe combos — hit with a hefty boost from a  Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay . This Tone Swipe aims to stay true to his classic recipes using UAFX Ruby '63 Top Boost Amplifier and '55 Woodrow Instrument Amp pedals. For these examples, a Fender Stratocaster was used, but The Edge also used a Gibson Explorer for many of his classic tones. Other pedals used for this Tone Swipe include the UAFX Max Preamp &amp; Dual Compressor and <a href="https://www.uaudio.com/pro...

Learn how UA captured the sound of this classic "piggyback" setup. The UAD Showtime '64 Tube Amp plug-in gives guitarists the iconic punch and clean headroom of a vintage 1964 Fender Showman Amp* right in their DAW. Known for its loud, sparkling cleans and later reputation as a "pedal platform" amp, the Showman has been the backbone of countless stage and studio rigs. Here, UA Senior Product Designer James Santiago walks you through what makes the UAD Showtime '64 plug-in different, and how mic and cab choices transform its tones, and why it’s just as good for bass and twangy baritone as it is for guitar. Get UAD Showtime ’64 FREE for a limited time! Learn more › "The Showtime '64 Tube Amp plug-in stays big, loud, and clean, so your guitars, pedals, and playing style dictate the tone," says UA's James Santiago.   What inspired Showtime '64, and how does it stand apart from smaller vintage combos? James Santiago: Showtime '64 was inspired by the big 100-watt heads Showman Amp head Fender made back in the mid-'60s. At the same time Fender had the Deluxe Reverb and Twin Reverb, but the Showman was a different beast. No onboard spring reverb, a solid-state rectifier, and a closed-back 2x12 or even 2x15 speaker cab. But what really makes Showman amp's unique is the headroom. You can crank the volume to five, six, even seven and it stays tight and clean. Smaller amps with tube rectifiers would already be breaking up by then. That’s why these amps are such great pedal platforms — they let the chara...

Learn how Apollo interfaces and UAD plug-ins define his textural, modern pop productions. Growing up in San Francisco, producer Jim-E Stack spent his days drumming in his high school jazz band and nights absorbed in music, alone in his room. After a stint in music school in New Orleans, he realized the real lessons came from making tracks, not sitting in a classroom. He later moved to New York, where he DJ’d and released solo work, but soon found that working in isolation left him searching for deeper artistic connections. That search eventually brought him to Los Angeles, where collaborations with producer/songwriters like Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan) and Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Charli XCX) lit his communal spark. Around that time, Stack got his first Apollo Twin and began leaning heavily on UAD plug-ins — tools that became central to his mood-driven, often minimalist tracks. Today, Stack has a string of hits with Lorde, Bon Iver, Dominic Fike, and HAIM, and an in-demand style that favors patience and intimacy over chasing trends. Here, he details the importance of time and space and why sometimes, you just need to go outside. “When the chords that hurt meet the drums that bang, that’s the sound that speaks to me,” says producer Jim-E Stack. How did music first show up for you? I played drums in garage bands and school jazz bands, so I always had that communal side of music and making noise with friends. But honestly, even before that, it was just me in my room...

Four award-winning producers on the lessons they wished they’d learned sooner. As music producers, we all remember our early struggles. Muddy mixes, over-compressed vocals, or just that nagging feeling that the sound in your head will never come out of the speakers. In this roundtable, you’ll hear from producers Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, St. Vincent), Jennifer Decilveo (Hozier, Miley Cyrus), Darrell Thorp (Beck, Radiohead), and Ariel Rechtshaid (HAIM, Vampire Weekend) as they open up about the hardest lessons they faced when starting out, and the tricks they’ve learned along the way.   When you started producing and mixing music, what gave you the most trouble? Meldal-Johnsen:  I’m a confessed maximalist, so I would endlessly stack reverbs without giving credence to EQ, diffusion, pre-delay, stereo placement, etc. But getting all those elements to live together in a mix was tough. I also didn’t understand dynamics well enough, which got me into trouble. I remember using a Neve channel strip to annihilate a drum bus, to the extent that it still makes me cringe when I hear it! It wasn’t the good kind of over-compressed, either. It’s very important to fail in order to learn. Decilveo: I found that my mixes, though dynamic, didn’t occupy all of the areas spatially that I wanted them to. I had difficulty getting that sense of width, or finding the tools to make it happen. Thorp: I am always striving to ensure that different elements of a mix can be heard. So for me, the hardest concept was clarity. For example, I would listen to parts of a production and think, “that’s bright enough” — though it wasn’t enough to give the entire mix more clarity. Producing is harder. You’re trying to listen critically to the music, while also being the cheerleader for the session. At ...

Out of hundreds of UAD plug-ins, these are the ones that are often overlooked.  If you record and mix music regularly, you likely have go-to effects chains for various tasks. Perhaps some of these plug-ins have been the saviors of past sessions — an EQ or compressor that got you out of a tight mix deadline, or that weird saturator that a client fell in love with on a synth track.  But what happens when you feel like shaking things up? We compiled a list of slept-on UAD titles that may fit perfectly into your plug-in rotation.    1. Cooper Time Cube  The Cooper Time Cube Mk II is a faithful recreation of one of the most unusual delays ever built. This mechanical “garden hose” system devised by Universal Audio co-founder Bill Putnam and engineer Duane H. Cooper in 1971 doesn’t rely on tape, like most delay systems of the era. Instead, the original hardware routed audio through coiled tubing to achieve a distinctive, short-delay doubling effect that became a studio secret weapon.  Our UAD plug-in captures this quirky, analog character of the original, with expanded controls so you can explore this eccentric delay unit in all its glory, right in your DAW. What makes it special: Adds width and urgency without phasey artifacts Makes vocals stand out without brittle top-end boosts Great on guitars, keys, and background vox that need some added motion   <img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0558/1724/0665/files/blog_forgotten-favorites-feature-2_d893d669-63b8-4df2-b601-9b6a3946...

Learn everything about UA's flagship USB audio interfaces for musicians and creators. Whether you’re building your first desktop recording setup, upgrading or expanding your existing studio, or building a mobile recording rig, selecting a new audio interface is no small task. Sound, versatility, and convenience all compete against a backdrop of price. With  Volt USB Recording Studios , you get a thoughtfully designed all-in-one option from Universal Audio that checks every box. News flash: There are countless affordable USB audio interfaces available on the market today, many of them ready to serviceably convert your mic, line, and guitar-level signals into clean digital audio on your Mac, iOS, or Windows-based recording system. What sets Volt interfaces apart, however, is their built-in analog studio processing, which puts inspiring Vintage mic preamp and classic compression sounds a single button press away. Married to a suite of UAD plug-ins and the LUNA DAW, Volt proves that you can sound legendary, without being a legendary sound engineer. This article will dive into Volt's key features in a bit more detail.  Get modern features with vintage tone from start to finish with Volt USB Recording Studios. Built-In Vintage Preamps with Colorful Tube Tone After your microphone, the next thing your signal h...

Learn how FOH Ken “Pooch” Van Druten gets studio clarity in stadiums with UAD plug-ins over Dante. Ken “Pooch” Van Druten’s career spans more than three decades and a who’s who of live music — from Kiss and Whitney Houston to Linkin Park, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, and now Iron Maiden. Known for his balance of technical precision and musicality, Pooch has made a career out of turning massive concerts into album-quality listening experiences. “I’ve spent my life chasing how to make live shows feel like records,” he says. “Now Apollo x16D gives me a way to finally bring the UAD tools I use in the studio straight into the live environment — and it just works.” Apollo X16D: From Studio to Stage, Seamlessly Before becoming a touring FOH icon, Van Druten cut his teeth in the studio. But "the guy behind the glass" perspective still shapes his live mixing approach. “I’ve always thought like a studio engineer first. I want depth, clarity, impact — not just volume. UAD plug-ins behave like the hardware I use in the studio, so when I pull up an EMT or Lexicon reverb, I know exactly what I’m going to get. "Apollo x16D makes this transition seamless," he continues. "I use the same plug-in chains I use in Pro Tools at home and drop them into a stadium mix. It’s the same tools, the same flavors, just scaled for 50,000 people instead of a pair of monitors!" “When I started, a good live mix meant you could hear the vocal," says Ken "Pooch" Van Druten. "Now people expect a concert to sound like the record." The Art of the Mix: Balancing Impact and Intelligibility “Iron Maiden is unlike any other band I’ve ever mixed,” says Van ...