Reason 12+ to UAD Luna

[amanitamix]

I was looking for DAW software to replace Reason and discovered UAD's Luna. Luna sounds and works great. The software is user-intuitive and easy to figure out. The manual is well-written and addresses anything you might encounter or want to do. I have most of the native UAD plugins already so I did not need to upgrade to the pro version.

https://www.uaudio.com/luna.html

[Loque]

...Luna sounds and works great....

Finally a DAW without the Reason sound...

[spacepluk]

I tried LUNA for a little while and I thought the midi editor was terrible... so I went back to ProTools/Reason... Yeah... I think ProTools is better at midi

[selig]

I don’t need MIDI in LUNA, but found it perfectly workable for all the basics. Never did like PT for MIDI…
I’ve been mixing in LUNA exclusively for a few years now, super happy camper!

[spacepluk]

Interesting, maybe I should give it another chance!

[jam-s]

mac only = hard pass

[Theo.M]

Wow OK, it's my least favourite DAW that is currently in active development - even though I am on Mac and use Apollos as my interfaces (which I know aren't necessary anymore), I honestly don't like it at all.
I guess just another example of different strokes!
My advice is, if you really are preferring it that much to Reason, well, best of luck with it and enjoy! I hope it fulfills you and helps your workflow in the ways Reason couldn't!.

[selig]

Wow OK, it's my least favourite DAW that is currently in active development - even though I am on Mac and use Apollos as my interfaces (which I know aren't necessary anymore), I honestly don't like it at all.
I guess just another example of different strokes!
My advice is, if you really are preferring it that much to Reason, well, best of luck with it and enjoy! I hope it fulfills you and helps your workflow in the ways Reason couldn't!.

I’m not the OP, but for me LUNAs strengths are about the “analog” way of working, and the fact it operates similar to Pro Tools which I relied on professionally for many years. The way you can so easily get a multi-track tape workflow (including setting up the ‘tape’ machine like IRL), you have a Console mode so you can see EQ/Dyn/Input for all channels at once (like in Reason!), and the summing plugins/workflow.

I don’t see myself starting songs there, but that’s always been Reason’s strength for my way of working. And Reasons’s weakness has always been the finishing part of production, which LUNA excels at IMO. So after trying for years to find “the one DAW to rule them all”, I’m back to a 2-DAW workflow (and not hating it).

[selig]

mac only = hard pass

Not like you have a choice if you are not mac based!

[amanitamix]

Wow OK, it's my least favourite DAW that is currently in active development - even though I am on Mac and use Apollos as my interfaces (which I know aren't necessary anymore), I honestly don't like it at all.
I guess just another example of different strokes!
My advice is, if you really are preferring it that much to Reason, well, best of luck with it and enjoy! I hope it fulfills you and helps your workflow in the ways Reason couldn't!.

I don’t see myself starting songs there, but that’s always been Reason’s strength for my way of working. And Reasons’s weakness has always been the finishing part of production, which LUNA excels at IMO.

Yep, I mix only. I like LUNA significantly more than Reason for mixing. The list for my move from Reason to LUNA is long. One significant example is all VST and VSTis load quickly and flawlessly with LUNA and several VSTs and VSTis do not load and/or show up in Reason.

[Theo.M]

Wow OK, it's my least favourite DAW that is currently in active development - even though I am on Mac and use Apollos as my interfaces (which I know aren't necessary anymore), I honestly don't like it at all.
I guess just another example of different strokes!
My advice is, if you really are preferring it that much to Reason, well, best of luck with it and enjoy! I hope it fulfills you and helps your workflow in the ways Reason couldn't!.

I’m not the OP, but for me LUNAs strengths are about the “analog” way of working, and the fact it operates similar to Pro Tools which I relied on professionally for many years. The way you can so easily get a multi-track tape workflow (including setting up the ‘tape’ machine like IRL), you have a Console mode so you can see EQ/Dyn/Input for all channels at once (like in Reason!), and the summing plugins/workflow.

I don’t see myself starting songs there, but that’s always been Reason’s strength for my way of working. And Reasons’s weakness has always been the finishing part of production, which LUNA excels at IMO. So after trying for years to find “the one DAW to rule them all”, I’m back to a 2-DAW workflow (and not hating it).

I LOVE Pro tools, I genuinely love it. I left everything I ever knew and switched overnight with a few hours demo. All I have Logic installed for now are to convert old songs.

So as said, different strokes.

I don't like Luna's midi or the way to work with audio and stretching - elastic time is a big part of my workflow, and now with Radius, Serato AND Z Plane elastique options, nothing does it better than Pro Tools.

Pro Tools also will audition ANY wave file to tempo in time to project, and guesses it right 99% of the time, whereas Cubase usually gets the bars wrong by double hence even though it has the feature, it's not so usable as you have to manually adjust the bar length and/or tempo on every file you click to preview.

I also think PT has the cleanest GUI in the biz, I never get overwhelmed with info no matter how busy the project, and its freeze/offline bounce is only second to Studio One's track transform, which is admittedly incredible.

The performance on Apple Silicon is other worldly, even at 32 buffer with 16 tracks armed, there is no cpu spiking, nada, which can't be said of the windows or previous Intel version.

Reason rack works *brilliantly* in Pro tools. I even trialled using tapefunk on every track as a tape effect with Reason as an insert and it worked seamlessly like any other AAX.

And that's my only issue with PT, I wish a lot of the plugins I love were AAX.

They are really focusing on improving midi now also, which is great.

What really makes PT for me overall are 1) Inline Midi 2) Audio editing 3) The Mixer, which I truly adore mixing in.

YMMV.

[spacepluk]

Yeah, +1 to everything you said about Pro Tools it gets a lot of hate but I like it a lot because it’s simple and it works great.

I gave Luna another shot this weekend but to me Pro Tools (and also Reason) feels a lot more tactile and faster. With Luna I feel like I have to do a lot of mousing around to do stuff.

The UAD integration is super neat though and I can see why people like it.

EDIT: My workaround for plugins that don’t have the AAX version is to load the VSTs in Komplete Kontrol. It works like a charm

[Theo.M]

Yeah, +1 to everything you said about Pro Tools it gets a lot of hate but I like it a lot because it’s simple and it works great.

I gave Luna another shot this weekend but to me Pro Tools (and also Reason) feels a lot more tactile and faster. With Luna I feel like I have to do a lot of mousing around to do stuff.

The UAD integration is super neat though and I can see why people like it.

EDIT: My workaround for plugins that don’t have the AAX version is to load the VSTs in Komplete Kontrol. It works like a charm

Firstly to everyone else, sorry I veered it a bit OT. I hope it's ok because my reason is (NPI) that it's always interesting to compare other DAWs in a DAW topic.

I tried Luna again last night and the GUI still doesn't work for me. I can't use such a black GUI, it hurts my eyes, I use PT classic and the Reason middle blue.

RE AAX, my solution for that is blue cat patchwork which I have used since 2019 and initially switching over, however then I had that big break from music but it's been updated to apple silicon and works great, you know, it's just that little niggle wishing something was "aax native". But most are, thankfully. But yeah, workable.

[selig]

Yeah, +1 to everything you said about Pro Tools it gets a lot of hate but I like it a lot because it’s simple and it works great.

I gave Luna another shot this weekend but to me Pro Tools (and also Reason) feels a lot more tactile and faster. With Luna I feel like I have to do a lot of mousing around to do stuff.

I actually like LUNA for it's lack of "mousing around" as compared to Reason (it's almost exactly the same as Pro Tools for me). At first things were slower, as always. But once you learn the workflow it got super fast (for me). Things like naming multiple tracks without having to close the name dialog, or being able to adjust multiple channels plugin settings at once, creating sends, dropping/naming markers on the fly, not having to switch tools (full stop!), not having to enter an "edit mode" for MIDI, being able to add the same plugin to multiple tracks in one go, adding sends to multiple tracks in one go, being able to "trim" automation from the fader (and do it accurately, looking at you REASON!), not to mention obvious things like edit groups and direct entry of values (should be in every DAW IMO).

That said, I still love starting ideas in Reason more than any platform hardware or software, and I don't see that changing any time soon. So for me it's Reason PLUS LUNA, not Reason+ TO LUNA!

[spacepluk]

It must be user error then!
I'm definitely keeping an eye on it in case I feel the need to leave Pro Tools

[selig]

It must be user error then!
I'm definitely keeping an eye on it in case I feel the need to leave Pro Tools

I wouldn't necessarily think that, I'm suggesting it's a case of what you're used to plus what your natural preferences lead you to. You CAN learn to work in an unnatural environment, it just takes longer because some things won't be intuitive. There were some Pro Tools key commands that took FOREVER for me to learn correctly (kept getting things backwards from where I felt they should be). BUT, once I locked those in (and because I sat at PT just about 24/7 for quite a spell) I could FLY. Like, to the point other PT users asked me to slow down and show them what commands I was using! And this was on a platform less intuitive to me than I would typically like.

Every DAW I've used (almost 10 now in my life) had some things I loved and some I hated. There are things that bug the crap out of me in Reason, but I still trust it with new ideas more than any other DAW I've ever used. When switching DAWs you embrace/celebrate the positives, and grit your teeth as you try to figure out the workarounds. I just went through this once again when learning LUNA. Keep wanting to flip the rack or make a quick adjustment in the "Inspector".

I had a break through one day when I was struggling to incorporate a Mackie HUI into my PT workflow. I kept dismissing it for days, then would get curious again only to dismiss once more. Finally I decided to try something different. I FORCED myself to use it for one full week. I put the trackball and keyboard on the slide out under the desk, and started to make post it notes for things I was struggling to remember. By the end of the week I had completed the "conversion", and was able to FLY on that thing second only to the dedicated ICON series I moved to next.
But at first I struggled, not from "user error" but simply from habit. And habits can be broken, you just need a little time and patience…

[spacepluk]

oh, I didn't mean it in a bad way!
I tried to give it a fair shot but as you said habit and familiarity are hard to shake off

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've done quite a bit of DAW jumping myself and I can only agree with everything you're saying. I've found my happy place in Reason+ProTools but I like to take a look at other DAWs from time to time to check how green the grass is over there

[ksniod]

mac only = hard pass

Not like you have a choice if you are not mac based!

The open beta of the Windows version has just been released

[jam-s]

The open beta of the Windows version has just been released

Thanks, I'll take a look, as it might be just the thing to replace the discontinued Ozone standalone for my mastering projects.

[Mataya]

Tried it on win10 here. Hangs on scanning vst's ...anybody had some success?

tx
M

[crimsonwarlock]

I didn't even get to downloading it. I don't mind setting up an account, but when I need to install Pace to run a free program, I'm out

[MuttReason]

I use LUNA sometimes. I love the skeuomorphic UI, it's like Reason's twin sister in that sense.

And for audio the workflow is really fast IME, plus the integration with UAD hardware (Apollo X4 in my case) and DSP-powered plugins is great.

Downsides are its MIDI handling is pretty bad, and it's not possible to scale/zoom the UI which is a showstopper for me (my eyesight isn't great) as so many of the controls are absolutely tiny on a 4k ultrawide monitor. I'd use it more if I could actually see it properly...

[rupfox]

I was so excited to give Luna a try earlier today, and then I discovered that its MIDI editing UX is aggressively bad, as if they don't want you to edit midi, because it would take effort to make it that bad.

Imagine if you double clicked a midi clip in reason and instead of opening a full midi editor it stayed just like that but now you had to move the little black lines around.

Other than that it seems like it would be a PERFECT home for the reason rack plugin, the Luna mixer is basically reasons mixer but upgraded.

[Mataya]

I've managed to get it up an and running on my laptop and was not really that impressed. Customization would be my main issue. There isn't any really. Clean design and interface...I don't know, maybe I should spend a little more time with it.

M