LUNA Play allows you to record vocal or instrument ideas immediately through a simplified interface, without needing to configure a LUNA session first. Quickly capture ideas, shape your tones, and make basic mixes. When you are ready for advanced editing, open your session in the full LUNA timeline or mixer view for more in-depth editing and processing.

LUNA Play automatically detects your audio input, creates tracks for you, and reduces technical setup so you can focus on making music.

In this article

• Quick Start with LUNA Play
• LUNA Play Interface Overview

Quick Start with LUNA Play

LUNA Play offers four quick start options. On the LUNA Create page, two main options are displayed:

• Start Recording in Seconds: Detects your track type and tempo, sets input gain (on compatible hardware with Assistive Auto-Gain), and sets up your track for immediate recording.
• Split Stems and Jam: Drag and drop an audio file to automatically separate it into individual stems (isolated tracks like vocals, drums, and bass). Use this for karaoke workflows, remixing, or playing along with a backing track.

Click More Ways to Start to access two additional options:

• Record Vocals: Creates a vocal track with a tuned channel strip preset loaded for a great-sounding vocal recording.
• Record Electric Guitar: Creates an electric guitar track equipped with a virtual amplifier and effects.

LUNA Play Interface Overview

LUNA Play provides a simplified layout that keeps your focus on one track at a time. 

Refer to the image below for a quick overview of the LUNA Play experience.

Tracks

Tracks appear in the center of the screen as circular tiles.

Hover over any track tile to reveal its controls:

• Record enable: Click the upper-left icon to arm the track for recording.
• Mute: Click the speaker icon at the bottom-left to silence the track.
• Solo: Click the headphone icon at the bottom-right to isolate and listen to only that track.
• Volume: Click and drag the thick outer ring at the top of the tile to adjust track volume.
• Pan (left/right balance): Click and drag near the bottom of the tile to position the audio in the stereo field.
• Track options ( ⋮ ): Click the three vertical dots to access additional settings:
  • Delete track: Removes the track from your session.
  • Transcribe Lyrics: Converts vocal recordings into written text (requires a LUNA Studio license).
  • Extract Chords: Analyzes and displays chord progressions from an instrument track (requires a LUNA Studio license).

Track waveform and playback

• When you select or record a track, the visual representation of the track (waveform) appears in the center of the screen.
•  Play / Pause: Press Play to start playback or Pause to stop. The white vertical line (the playhead) indicates your current position in the song. Pausing leaves the playhead in place, so playback resumes from that same spot when you press Play again.
• Record: Begins recording onto any record-enabled tracks.
• Move the playhead: Click anywhere on the waveform to move the playhead to that location.
• Looping a selection: Click and drag across a portion of the waveform to highlight it. LUNA Play automatically loops that selected area during playback (turn off Loop in the transport controls to play it once).
   

Main controls and transport

• Master volume: Adjust the slider in the upper-right corner to control the overall output volume to your headphones or monitor speakers.
• View switcher: Toggle between LUNA Play, the main LUNA timeline, and the LUNA mixer using the three icons in the top-left corner.
• Tempo and Key: LUNA Play automatically detects the tempo from imported tracks or your playing. Click the Tempo area to type a specific BPM (beats per minute) value, or select Detect Song Tempo. To set a musical key signature, click Key, select your key, and click Apply.
• Return to Start: Moves the playhead back to the beginning of your recording.
• Speed Control: Click Speed to adjust playback speed from 0.5x (half speed) to 1.5x. Slowing down audio helps with practicing complex sections, while speeding it up makes it easier to navigate long passages.
• Loop record/playback: Loop the selected section repeatedly to record or listen back.
• Click (metronome): Toggle the click on or off. Right-click to adjust more settings.

Zoom in and out

Use the zoom buttons to enlarge or shrink the waveform view. A smaller overview waveform below the main display highlights your current zoomed section.

Track presets and plug-ins

LUNA Play automatically presents track presets tailored to your input source. These presets utilize plug-ins from the UAD Explore Free bundle or the LUNA Studio bundle, depending on your license.

• Simple Adjustments: Presets include easy-to-use controls directly inside the LUNA Play interface.
• Bypassing effects: Enable or disable individual plug-ins within a preset by clicking the colored circle next to the plug-in name (for example., Plate Reverb).
• Detailed editing: Click any plug-in slider to open its full interface for deeper control. You can also switch to the full LUNA timeline or mixer view at any point for more comprehensive mixing, reordering of plug-ins, and many mmore presets for each plug-in.

Exporting your mix

Click the Export Mix button near the top-right corner to save and download a WAV audio file of your work. For additional export options (such as different file formats or stem exports), switch to the full LUNA timeline or mixer.

LUNA Play settings

LUNA Play prompts you to choose your preferences when you open it for the first time. You can change these options later by clicking the Gear icon:

• Use LUNA Play Settings (Recommended): Configures beginner-friendly defaults. Enables Play from Stop Location (playback resumes right where you last paused) and Exclusive Solo (soloing one track automatically clears solo on another track, so you only hear one isolated track at a time).
• Keep My Settings: Retains standard LUNA settings, where playback starts from the main playhead marker and multiple tracks can be soloed simultaneously.