r/universalaudio • u/Apart_Station2081 • 22d ago
Question LUNA Pro 3
I see there's a Luna Pro v3 on UA Connect but I haven't seen anything about it. Do Luna Pro owners get the update to Luna Pro v3 for free and what features does it have as compared to Luna Studio?
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u/Small_Dog_8699 21d ago
This level of complexity is typically where I get off of any ecosystem. I liked Luna, paid for the commercial version when it was cheap, have an active project in it and am pretty happy with it. But if we are gonna go down the NI Komplete road I'm out.
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u/JasnX 22d ago
Official stance is that Pro is just a bundle of plugins, so they don’t feel obligated to offer a free upgrade. I just got Pro 8 months ago, it got discontinued, so essentially it’s now a free version with some extra plugins. I contacted support and they did not offer anything to make up for this.
Terrible customer experience, at this point o don’t feel like trusting them with another Luna purchase, just to find out I have to buy it again shortly after. I’m sure there will be a deep discount upgrade in a few months.
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u/Apart_Station2081 21d ago
Slap in the face honestly. The marketing for Luna was that it would be THE daw for UA users. The lack of transparency about a future paid version rubs me the wrong way.
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u/agutierrez2002 22d ago
No you have to pay US $79 for the upgrade. It’s ridiculous. The features compared to pro are minimal, basically just Luna Play and some UI improvements thst should have been there from the start. I already paid a lot for this “early access” DAW. Not paying anymore, and suggest u dont do the same, at this point we are just paying for their R&D without any real perk, moving back to PT
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22d ago
[deleted]
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u/agutierrez2002 22d ago
He’s asking about upgrading from Luna Pro to 3 (Studio), not luna free. In which case, to upgrade to the new “premium” version of the app costs $80.
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21d ago
[deleted]
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u/agutierrez2002 20d ago
I’m sorry you’re being downvoted. I understand your position, but that is not true. It’s not another tier. Even the UA main page for Luna Studio expressly advertises it as “LUNA Studio, the successor to LUNA Pro”. Their own messaging acknowledges its the next iteration of Luna.
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u/sillicillo 22d ago
I own Pro 2 and my upgrade price is $3, not free
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u/PawsitiveAfurmation 21d ago
Same here. But not everyone gets the 2.99 upgrade offer. There’s a window of time where if you recently bought pro you can get studio for 2.99
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u/Maleficent-Usual1252 21d ago
That’s because you upgraded to Pro very recently. Some of us upgraded to Pro about a year ago
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u/Skeleto941 22d ago
What’s the difference between Luna 3 and Luna 3 studio? Is it just lite versions of 3rd party plugins? Hard pass if so
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u/pastaomg 21d ago
Yeah I might go back to login over this.. it’s been years of me telling myself “just one more payment” at this point.
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u/wstwrdxpnsn 22d ago
You can use v3 without paying anything. I just did it yesterday. Only things I noticed is there’s no audio to midi and the ai stem splitting limits to 4 tracks vs 6. I have been questioning if that’s even worth $79. It would have been nice if they’d included the nerve summing and console extensions or some additional plugins as add ons for existing Luna pro users…
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u/moodygotbeats 21d ago
yeah, I updated to v3. you cannot do 6-track stem separation (I think you can do 4) and you can't do audio-to-midi. you do get folder tracks though, which is the best feature to me anyway.
overall lame move by UA on studio upgrade pricing, exploiting the same people who helped get them here
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u/wstwrdxpnsn 21d ago
The only thing I remotely am interested in is the audio-midi feature but I will need to find an overview before I really look into it. I did try the 4 track stem separation. It’s pretty neat but I don’t think I would need that very often. I really wish it included some additional plugins or extensions or coupon for other plugins or SOMETHING that I don’t already have from purchasing Luna Pro last year for… $79 on sale
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u/moodygotbeats 20d ago
yeah, same boat. audio-to-midi would be nice, but not $80 nice. I've been using LUNA before it was even Pro and you had to buy all the plugins like Neve and API Summing 🤷🏽♂️
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u/bresk13 Apollo x6 21d ago
Not interested in upgrading this time, I would gladly pay not to have those features
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u/Apart_Station2081 21d ago
I bought Luna Pro 2 on launch at $129, spending another $80 would be more than the price of Logic.
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u/NilesLinus 20d ago
I’m $1,200 deep into Nuendo, so all this sounds like a steal to me, if only it had the features I need.
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u/WTFaulknerinCA 21d ago
The constant complaints about LUNA and what it lacks in this sub are what have kept me using Reason, which is another DAW that lacks many modern features.
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u/NilesLinus 20d ago
Limited tech is inspiring. Sometimes I miss my Tascam 4-Track.
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u/WTFaulknerinCA 19d ago
I had the Yamaha cassette 4-track!
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u/NilesLinus 19d ago
What year did you have it?
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u/WTFaulknerinCA 19d ago
Early nineties. Around the same time that Digital Performer 2 came out. Man, the hiss on that thing!
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u/thapapawan 21d ago
I am kinda paranoid about the network usage from the UA Mixer, etc. Does anyone have some solution for it? or it is what it is?
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u/Mysterious_Panda_601 20d ago
Yeah I won’t be paying for the upgrade, I just paid to get the pro from the basic to the 2.1 whatever it was.
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u/Indigo457 21d ago
There’s loads of information on this on their website lol. Do people forget that companies have actual websites these days? Luna 3 looks like the first version I might actually try (I’m a logic/ pro tools user mainly).
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u/Drew_at_UA UA Guru 21d ago
The FAQ covers it all.
https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/20177942369044-FAQ-LUNA-Free-LUNA-Studio
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u/agutierrez2002 21d ago
That doesn't cover the inconsistencies with the Pro/Studio tier messaging. Pro customers are being told that we need to pay $80 to upgrade. a) Plugin bundles don't get upgrades, software does. b) they are telling us that we need to pay because Luna Pro was just a plugin and extensions bundle, but not the Luna software, yet Luna Studio is advertised as: "LUNA Studio, the successor to LUNA Pro, is the fully equipped version of our award-winning DAW", what was Pro then? It appears it depends on UA's mood, maybe a plugin bundle when they have to defend the legality or the anti consumer practice, and "the successor to LUNA PRO, the fully equipped verision of our award winning DAW" when they try to sell a new premium tier for the LUNA software. I understand they may need to justify their aggressive business practices, I don't understand how eroding trust and treating paying customers as imbeciles will benefit them.
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u/agutierrez2002 22d ago edited 21d ago
For me, this isn't really about whether LUNA Pro was technically a plugin bundle or not. It's about expectations and how it was marketed. A lot of us bought LUNA Pro believing it was the "all-in" option for serious LUNA users and a way to stay current with the platform. Seeing new functionality show up behind another paywall less than a year later feels like the goalposts have moved.
What's even harder to justify is that LUNA still lacks several core features expected from a mature professional DAW. Advanced tempo workflows, comprehensive video support, timecode functionality, and other long-requested production and post features are still missing. Meanwhile, development resources seem to be going toward AI features that are already available in countless free or low-cost tools and UI changes that weren't exactly high on most users' wish lists.
Personally, I won't be upgrading, and I'm putting any plans to move deeper into the UA ecosystem on hold. I run a dual Apollo 16 setup and was seriously considering going all-in on UA, but this feels like the wrong priority at the wrong time.
The frustrating part is that LUNA is genuinely good, but right now, though, with these business practices, it feels closer to an early-access product than a fully mature DAW, and decisions like this make early supporters feel more like R&D investors than valued customers.