What's New in LUNA 3.0: Smart Tools, Tiers and Prices

LUNA 3.0 is Universal Audio's update to its desktop DAW, out on 15 September 2026: a LUNA Play quick recorder, free 4-track stem separation, and audio-to-MIDI plus Moises-powered lyric and chord tools in the $199 LUNA Studio tier. Veena does more, free in your browser: an AI DAW with a personal music producer who builds the song with you.

Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer built in. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you — beats, chords, melody, arrangement and mix — as real tracks you can edit, mix and export. Free, in your browser.

Every LUNA fact below comes from Universal Audio's own press release (15 September 2026), its LUNA 3.0 FAQ (last updated 18 September 2026) and its LUNA product pages, all read on 23 September 2026.

What's new in LUNA 3.0

Universal Audio calls it "a landmark update", and its FAQ calls it "Universal Audio's biggest software release to date." The headline feature is LUNA Play: "Like a voice memo app designed just for making music, it automatically detects instruments, sets levels, and suggests presets with UAD plug-ins."

New in LUNA Free, from UA's own list:

• LUNA Play, to record an idea without setting up a session first
• 4-track stem separation, plus acapella and instrumental creation
• A new piano roll with scale-aware editing, and an adaptive grid that follows your zoom level
• Record FX, which prints UAD plug-ins while you track, a workflow UA says was "previously exclusive to Apollo"
• Folder tracks, strip silence and clip gain automation
• Click track automation and export, mono inputs on stereo tracks, and chord, key and time-signature rulers

Listed by UA as "LUNA Studio exclusive features":

• Audio-to-MIDI
• 6-track stem separation: vocals, drums, bass, piano, guitar and other instruments
• Lyric transcription and chord extraction, both "powered by Moises"
• Partner plug-ins from Celemony and Dreamtonics, plus UA's Topline Vocal Tune

LUNA 3.0 tiers and prices

One more detail from UA's FAQ: to get LUNA Free, users "must log in to their UA account and sign up to get the UAD Explore FREE bundle", then download it inside the UA Connect app.

Smart tools, not a producer

UA's release talks about "smart tools" and "smart features" and never uses the word "AI". Read what those tools do and the reason is clear: they listen and label. LUNA Play detects your instrument. Tempo Listen sets the metronome to your playing. Chord extraction "analyzes recordings, identifies the performed chords". Lyric transcription builds "a time-aligned lyric browser".

All of it organises music you have already played. The closest thing to a session player is Celemony's Tonalic, a partner plug-in in the $199 tier that plays guitar to chords you have already written. Nothing in UA's announcement turns a description into drums, bass, chords, melody and an arrangement. The song is still yours to build by hand.

What LUNA 3.0 means for a musician

• You still need a Mac or a Windows PC. LUNA installs on macOS and Windows only. No browser, Linux or ChromeOS version is offered, so there is nothing to install on a Chromebook or a Linux laptop.
• Free gets you in; the new tools cost extra. The parts of LUNA 3.0 that turn audio into notes, split six stems and read chords cost $199, or $19.99 a month.
• The account comes before the first take. A UA login, a bundle claim and the UA Connect app stand between you and recording.
• The blank page stays blank. LUNA Play captures the idea fast. The drums, the bassline, the chords and the arrangement that turn it into a song are still yours to program.

Veena: the free AI DAW that turns the idea into the song

LUNA 3.0 makes the voice-memo moment faster. Veena makes that moment the start of a finished song, free in your browser.

1. Open daw.veena.studio on any laptop, whether Mac, Windows, Linux or a Chromebook, and sign in with Google. Nothing to install, no graphics card needed.
2. Hum, sing or play the idea into your mic, or drop in the voice memo you already have. CoProducer measures its tempo and where your phrases land.
3. Turn it into an instrument. Ask "make my humming a saxophone" and CoProducer re-voices the take with voice to instrument, or ask it to transcribe the melody into an editable MIDI part: the audio-to-MIDI that LUNA keeps in its $199 tier.
4. Describe the rest like a producer. "Build a 94 BPM indie song in E minor around this: live drums, a bass that locks to the kick, electric piano in the chorus." CoProducer writes each part as a real track and offers 3 options for every new one. You pick.
5. Change anything. Say "make the drums half-time", or drag a note in the piano roll. One undo reverses any CoProducer change.
6. Export the mix or every track as 24-bit/48 kHz WAV, MP3, MIDI or stems, as often as you like, with no watermark.

This is how producers really start in Veena: about 1 in 4 first requests in Veena's own data refer to the user's own audio, whether a recording, a demo, a loop or a voice memo. The rest of the studio is free too: a free stem splitter whose 4 stems land lined up on your timeline, your own VST3 and AU plug-ins through Veena Bridge, and real-time collaboration, live since 12 September 2026.

LUNA 3.0 vs Veena (September 2026)

LUNA 3.0 is a faster way to record into a desktop DAW. Veena is the faster way to a finished song: a personal music producer, free in your browser, who turns your idea into tracks you can edit, mix and export. Paste the prompt below into CoProducer and hear it build. For every other install you might be weighing, start with Veena's DAW alternatives and the free DAW guide.

Related reading: LUNA alternative · Best AI DAW in 2026 · Online DAW in your browser