Matron Landslide
 
 
Been using SONAR for 20 years, been using Mixbus for 1 day, but I still do things faster in SONAR? lol I wonder why? lol . Sorry, no offense, but these type of posts make me chuckle. There have been similar posts by people in the SONAR down time, one fellow said he tested another DAW for 30 minutes, yep you heard me right, a whole 30 minutes, can you imagine the dedication, the resolve?  

 
That's been making me chuckle a bit too. So many people fire up a new DAW for a test drive, get frustrated that it doesn't work exactly the same way as the one they're familiar with, and then say "nope - couldn't hack it - wasn't intuitive enough. I had to look up how to split a clip. That was enough for me." 
 
I don't even see the point of downloading and installing a DAW unless you're prepared to spend a few days getting used to it. It's not as if you're going in there as a newbie. I was initially intimidated a little by Reaper, but a handful of tutorial videos later I was already recreating a couple of my trainwreck Sonar projects from scratch. What surprised me is how quickly you get used to new gestures and shortcuts. I had both Reaper and Sonar up on separate displays, moving back and forward between each, and had no problems with using the wrong shortcut in the wrong DAW. I zoom and scroll completely differently in Reaper but it didn't take me long to adapt at all. 
 
Moving to a new DAW after using another one for years is a real eye opener and a delightful experience if you give it a chance. There are times when you think "ooo - I don't like that" for sure, but mostly because you're just not used to a new workflow yet, and there are many more times when you discover that the new DAW does something much better than the old one. For instance, a regular source of frustration for me in Sonar was finding plugin automation parameters in Sonar's clunky old menus with no mouse wheel support that you have to scroll endlessly back and forth with the arrow keys. What a hassle. In Reaper I have this huge window which lists all of the parameters in collapsable columns, and I can scroll the columns horizontally with a mousewheel and select all the parameters I need to automate in one go. Huge time saver over Sonar that I've been depriving myself of all these years, and I'm actually finding that I'm being more creative with automation now because of how much easier it is. 
 
Apart from anything, learning a new app has got to be good for your brain. They say that it's important to expose your brain to new stuff and that doing familiar things differently creates new pathways and keeps the brain young, fending off things like dementia (one example being - stir your coffee with the opposite hand, or walk backwards on the treadmill). It really does get you out of a mental rut. 

Starise
Are you implying that if we don't use  different daws we'll get dementia?

 
Yes. Can't argue with science!
 

Does dropping loops into a track help mental prowess?

I guess, if that's what "learning a new DAW" means to you. 

sharke
 
Apart from anything, learning a new app has got to be good for your brain. They say that it's important to expose your brain to new stuff and that doing familiar things differently creates new pathways and keeps the brain young, fending off things like dementia (one example being - stir your coffee with the opposite hand, or walk backwards on the treadmill). It really does get you out of a mental rut. 

this is so true, just like exercising your meat to keep it working i once forced myself to turn on taps with my left hand instead of right,it's really quite awkward sometimes
takes around a fortnight for it to stick properly, which is supposed to be true for changing any habit that doesn't have strong physiological or psychological hooks
 
good luck everyone!

agreed, although certainly companies do like to encourage the "loyalty" much like a football team does, but they are both just products and we are just consumers, we do have a choice

Sir Les
Well, in some circles...not all of them be circles...But whom owns what, and whom is going to be owned...or what, if we dig into financial corp take overs, and or unseen ownersheepship....Just to avoid any court or law....Things to undo, what was done.....Is or as it be is...Is..as it may be....So, it might be nice to see the product of Cake being served by so call other interested bought or sold....from or to, or in keeping...sold to avoid....Is just the shell game of some corps, tied hands or not but might be in future.....No one out side the loop, or circle needs know!...But could be....?
 
 
Now, Don't fooled by the radio, tv, or the magazines....Just remember that it is a grand illusion...and play liken children...find out the lingo, make a lookie see into the codex...and seek to solve!....Freely given, freely received as so, when made because it is a good thing, or very good thing made...Was a way of method...But denied by the anti of that method to employ cost fee and taxation to fuel..X,Y, Z to solve for...so when one pays, and they say this, that and the other as word is with it being the Working model of future this or that....and it is not proper sold, to make one pay to fix, what they did not break or make....and they say more is needed to solve, but one last payment for life...to get it right...and or the hook line and sinker offered as a might be is being worked upon...But is nothing more than a shell of what was, as given to say,...we tried....failed...and now are closed out of...sold out to?....
 
 
Interesting the reserection of...Is just to remove the cap, so it can make money again, and loose the owners of the licence by saying these other applications will take your licence of old, and give you another product, with the same muse attached....The cash cow is not a game for children...if it be tied to other things, some might not know it fuels.
 
 
So many perspectives one can look into...as a way to solve a problem put by words.
 
What say you?....I do not believe Cakewalk had bad intentions for this....and I believe, what is occurring now, can be just to take the product out of that Last offer many bought into...because it was not completely proper in its workings....
 
Now I know some were using older versions....But for me X1 was a turd...so x2 cost...and more fixes applied...still no glory for some...x3...still not proper for some...Seemingly dependent on type of gear, drivers, and OS changes...Keeps the application market on OS MS...in constant flux.
 
It is based on...the cash cow!....never proper, but always fixing....at the cost of the user...or con sue me er...If you like taking words apart....and changing meanings to mean....not what you read...but what it is.
 
 
Think outside the box, most heads have been in way too  long ....trying to make it work.....some have said it does, some not so saying it be totally stable and makes errors with files and such being either corrupted, or just not able to get it locked to the drivers of audio gear..always being lost...or crashing on start up, or hanging...
 
 
Saw enough...not sure who is to blame...but part to blame is the one who buys.....also, be a fool when stuff like this occurs....What did you expect from a Cash cow system?...Life time updates or something?
 
 
 
Oh yah words....eh?
 

You keep using words in English... I don't think it means what you think it means.

Ruben

Sir Les
Well, in some circles...not all of them be circles...But whom owns what, and whom is going to be owned...or what, if we dig into financial corp take overs, and or unseen ownersheepship....Just to avoid any court or law....Things to undo, what was done.....Is or as it be is...Is..as it may be....So, it might be nice to see the product of Cake being served by so call other interested bought or sold....from or to, or in keeping...sold to avoid....Is just the shell game of some corps, tied hands or not but might be in future.....No one out side the loop, or circle needs know!...But could be....?
 
 
Now, Don't fooled by the radio, tv, or the magazines....Just remember that it is a grand illusion...and play liken children...find out the lingo, make a lookie see into the codex...and seek to solve!....Freely given, freely received as so, when made because it is a good thing, or very good thing made...Was a way of method...But denied by the anti of that method to employ cost fee and taxation to fuel..X,Y, Z to solve for...so when one pays, and they say this, that and the other as word is with it being the Working model of future this or that....and it is not proper sold, to make one pay to fix, what they did not break or make....and they say more is needed to solve, but one last payment for life...to get it right...and or the hook line and sinker offered as a might be is being worked upon...But is nothing more than a shell of what was, as given to say,...we tried....failed...and now are closed out of...sold out to?....
 
 
Interesting the reserection of...Is just to remove the cap, so it can make money again, and loose the owners of the licence by saying these other applications will take your licence of old, and give you another product, with the same muse attached....The cash cow is not a game for children...if it be tied to other things, some might not know it fuels.
 
 
So many perspectives one can look into...as a way to solve a problem put by words.
 
What say you?....I do not believe Cakewalk had bad intentions for this....and I believe, what is occurring now, can be just to take the product out of that Last offer many bought into...because it was not completely proper in its workings....
 
Now I know some were using older versions....But for me X1 was a turd...so x2 cost...and more fixes applied...still no glory for some...x3...still not proper for some...Seemingly dependent on type of gear, drivers, and OS changes...Keeps the application market on OS MS...in constant flux.
 
It is based on...the cash cow!....never proper, but always fixing....at the cost of the user...or con sue me er...If you like taking words apart....and changing meanings to mean....not what you read...but what it is.
 
 
Think outside the box, most heads have been in way too  long ....trying to make it work.....some have said it does, some not so saying it be totally stable and makes errors with files and such being either corrupted, or just not able to get it locked to the drivers of audio gear..always being lost...or crashing on start up, or hanging...
 
 
Saw enough...not sure who is to blame...but part to blame is the one who buys.....also, be a fool when stuff like this occurs....What did you expect from a Cash cow system?...Life time updates or something?
 
 
 
Oh yah words....eh?
 

You keep using words in English... I don't think it means what you think it means.

 
I see you have the same problem...Perhaps?...Did you buy a dying DAW unaware, because words like lifetime updates were used, after paying for it to work through three or four number revisions and not seeing that work working on...OS MS per say as stated on the box?...or because on the outside of the box, it was writen" it works on Win OS 7, vst and CPU PC XYZ and above with ASIO"...??? ...X1 said to my eye....until now. PLAT OR SPLAT on win 10 also saying it now works on...windows 10 is still updating to fix bugs..AND DROPPING MY DRIVER FOR AUDIO AS ASIO..if the OS is not right...How can the words on the box stand as being...Meaning what they say?....Cannot mean, if it is constantly being fixed.....And Bandlabs even says it is in need of some workings to get it up to snuff.......Words mean nothing in this circle....Some circles, words hold truth of the meanings....Some do not!
 
Now in coding...of which I do not write or understand that much about...Is it not a more robust perfect language of binary?
 
If so is a worded Hexadeca....or above in terms of Quadrants..might even be qubed quarters of 4D rendering equations, that come to resolve a Function or reduce or enlarge a number by using terms of mathamatics...Another Language of Perfects?..error can only enter if mistakes are put into...to cause or interuption of the function makes hangs, or dropped, or haulted by...error to compute in ...The machine reading or execution of the code and or instruction....If error is put, or a unknown cause be causing....error...it is or must have something causing it to malfunction....
 
I have to believe...If a thing is responsible...not so much a word...but  a violation of principle...being used to gain or for to gain before it is made proper, and if making for to gain this broken principle, Be the initial goal in heart of mind..or mind of heart to gain....it brings the error into the making of...causes Murphy's Law to manifest into....Shows it does come to ruin...Then...It is found a reason as a fact of Proof of a Truth to it.

Sir Les, do you you like DEAN Guitars ?
 

Steev
Great observations for Matron Landslide directly above.. And where would we be without a sense of humor?
 
Hmmm, ya know......... I can't remember the last time I crashed in SONAR Platinum, or really experienced any bug like or strange behavior...
 Has to be about closing in on a year now when I stopped updating it all the time and changing things that didn't need to be changed, and adding stuff that didn't need to be added.
 That combined with a sensible work flow, and losing the bad habits of pushing SONAR hard just to see how far I could go with tons and tons of plugins running on channels, and running heavy hitting mastering plugins on the buss while recording and or during mixing sessions.
 HEY!! What's the sense of having all this brutal power if ya can't abuse it, right??? 
 
  I really got a chuckle of comparing Pro Channel's Quad curve EQ to Waves Sheps Channel strip plugin. 
 The Quad curve EQ which is actually 4 different types of EQ's, all of which are highly musical yet very transparent, and is only part of the channel strip, as one would typically find on a typical hardware mixing console that can be used for ANY source material corrections.
 
I'm a HUGE fan and advocate of Waves plugins, but I also believe the real difference between SONAR's built in ProChannel and Waves Sheps Channel strip is the plethora of hand carved configurations, presets and mixing ingenuity of Andrew Sheps himself. I.E. highly musical but trading off transparency for a very colorful sound specifically centered around Pop Music.
 Another world renowned engineer, Greg Wells had also collaborated with Waves in designing some very excellent plugins that do some really amazing things centered around "One Knob".
 Anyone who likes to use ProChannel's "Style Dial" modules should really check them out, but know this, unless they are on sale, each of these plugins can cost more than SONAR Professional.
 
 As far as flexibility goes looking at the ProChannel as your mixing console's front end, it is so configuration friendly it wins by a landslide. Simply because you can either integrate ANY 3rd party plugin directly into it, or simply assign them to the channel's FX bin. 
 And as far as I know, the only other DAW that has anything similar to SONAR'S ProChannel would be Studio ONE's Fat Channel.
 
  I have tried and worked in just about every DAW through the years during collaborations with others.
  And as far as I'm concerned, with the exception of blind unwarranted brand loyalty, and crap like comparing Windows to Mac or even more ridiculous barameter of "street cred", the only DAW that can actually compete with SONAR on a purely factual technological advancement plain would be Presonus's Studio ONE.
 
 And I'm pretty certain while Gibson was wasting Cakewalk's baker time trying to force SONAR to run on a Mac and all that subscription horse dung whilst trying to get Tascam married to SONAR,, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, and all the WHINE, and not enough wine, or vise versa mixed with conflations and conspiracy theories of endless WHINE, WHINE, Whiny stuff that at times inundates the Cakewalk User Forums ........
 While nobody was looking...............Presonus steps up to the front of the line with Studio ONE 3.5 which has three, ah uh, ah uh, dats rite, as in  "3" separate and distinctly user assignable and configurable audio engines, and combined with their new SuperDuper JawDropping, UltraLowLatency QUANTOM audio interfaces..... And at extremely affordable price points..
 WOWZER!
 
However, as great as all that promises to be, and I'm very confident that it IS, it's no better than the user using it that is INTIMATELY familiar with IT and ALL IT'S TOOLS!
 
That being said, as a 30+ year user of Cakewalk, I'll be most happily, effortlessly, and efficiently keep driving SONAR Platinum as my main whip, and NEVER had any intentions of doing otherwise.
 
 I had thought when Gibson bought Cakewalk from Roland was sort of alarming. But Gibson throwing Cakewalk under the buss did in fact make me kind of sad, but it was nothing to get mad about or even worth getting excited about. (Psssst, neither are their guitars in my opinion.)
 
 Now I'm very glad Bandlab bought it from Gibson and is keeping it alive. And how cool is Meng for dropping into the forums and actually communicating with us?
 
However Microsoft has always proven to be more than reasonable for keeping support for backwards compatibility for old software. Even in it's current build state without any updates, SONAR has many years left of updates and upgrades to Windows.
 Windows 10 still runs and supports ACID Pro 7 and that was orphaned by SONY and hasn't been updated in over a decade. It's also still being sold by Magix in it's original last Sony update build for the ridiculously low price of dirt cheap.
 
And uh, BTW, I still have a Windows XP laptop running SONAR 8.5 Producer, and by not connecting it to the Internet, it still works GREAT for a portable recording system!
 
 

 
Well...when I installed sonar 1x for the first time, I came here, because it just would not work with fireware, and my very expensive Audio desks tied together for 32 tracks of audio inputs....crash, hangs, and oddity of file formats not opening up, plus missing data always something missing...and cannot find on any of the many many hard drives attached...Just to make sure I had enough room, to record at...96k...of which by tying the two audio together had to be set to...to work as one audio desk.
 
All ASIO2...Drivers.
 
Set up and built according to the manual...and not shared slotted...no,..and many things tweaked also there upon trying to settle it out with tweaks....
 
Some here said, you do not have to tweak the system anymore....Just to the power tweaks, and leave the services in the OS alone.....What?...and more crashes....Oh wipe and reinstall.....Ok....And until Plat or spalt...for the short name be used....As many do....All those sent crash reports.....never got one reply from...So why bother sending them?.....Another mystery to ponder while RMAing the boards...and calling in the help.....From Cake eventually...Micheal....Remote viewed and ....No glory there!...squeeling and hissing noises and loud popping and crackles.... this is 2012-2915...called digital Audio work station?....so I sought the Thunderbolt way, and a firewire adapter for....Got it working better, but still dropping the audio, and hanging and oddity remained...so...THE PUSH..Move to the new win 8...Because MS told me Thunderbolt 1 had issues and they were trying to fix it....It did work better on Thunderbolt....So, I bought win 8.1...got it kind of working...still dropping my audio , and magically rerouting my setup...and settings through updates, and more seeking what was causing CPU spikes, making the audio crackling....MS OS>..and interuptions writing log files while something of a service was running behind the seens.....MS Services....Unknown doing.
 
Augh.....Am I using sonar to any ability stated?....Not even close to getting it to open and then hunt out...Troubles ...Not related to sonar at all.....SO black viper was right!....And I was told not to tweak...as it is not necessary.
 
 
Now I brought in a X MS employee....Who stated win 10 was crapping in spy and lie tactics...and not nice Bing over ruling the principles of defaults.....Yah....So the OS is gaining insider trade info...as internet does....So Trade is slanted now...right?...economies and nasdex....Is a lying body of cheaters!...and the money goes to disapearing?...Where did all those lovely investments go?....shell game shamoo no doubt....How many lost invested money..in that World Trade Centre where all money flows through.....and tied to other trade not so nice...liken child sex?...prostitution?....and for what cause?......$$$$$$$$....it is ugly...and weapons sold and bought to keep the blood shed flowing......Is also a cost and a amount said it cost to make wars...and use those things to make people dead........And I got history to prove...Murders are done..underhandedly...while the sodomite hide behind painted faces, and plastic body parts?....Oh how they love the barbie look....?...again tied to a root cause no doubt.
 
 
And more the liars club....Yeh?...life time updates do not apply to dead things that have no life or body of entity of Life as a living entity....Thus a product cannot have....neither a name...for a name is a title...Not a being of life....Life must be in some form of Truth be known?...Knowing...and seeing and feeling....of which...is a living care or flesh blood and water with.....(( function, and good intent to keep what it needs for its function to function properly as in health)).
 
If I pushed the on botton on a machine...and ran a app to do....and I could not get freaking on track cleanly recording after all that....said..and believing in good faith...It might be my Gear.....I tested it on another platform and no issues were as was on the PC.....same gear!....And some of the Studio one 3 on both....which one worked better for that?....MAc!
 
I rest my case!....OS MS is part the blame here...Not Cakewalk!....So , if they did rewrite that code properly instead of patch and try the port over using a app to do it.....It would work and the whole app would be rewritten....Proper for it....in that..if they did do the hard work...and pulled in good helpers...I would still help....But words eh?...I warned before they imposed....LIFE TIME UPDATES>....I Gave them a way to do it right, and make it work better......They cut the corners off, and sliced their throats, asking for one time more a payment to fix ...What I do not even need.............................................I make music with my mind!....

Larry Jones

sharke
These DAW's are heavily geared toward modern production techniques, especially in the electronic realm. Part of the reason why this kind of music production is so popular among youngsters it that you can do it solo, in your bedroom, without the need for expensive equipment or soundproof studios.

I would guess that a very small proportion of commercial hits are made by teenage producers working alone in their bedrooms with Ableton. I haven't found a resource online to verify that one way or the other, but I'm curious how much real-world success those guys and girls are having.

Larry, I would guess that 99.9999999% of SONAR usage does not result in commercially profitable hits.  I don't think that's a fair standard by which to judge how people might be using Live or other DAWs.  There can be many good reasons to use loops as part of the composition process.  I don't think that is necessarily any more or any less valid than a guy recording audio tracks with his guitar.

99.999% of all DAW users don't achieve commercial success no matter what DAW they chose to use.
Few artists have commercial hits because they are completely ignorant about managing the mechanics and structures of how the music industry works.
And as a result, are simply ignored and being ignored, are simply denied access to mass exposure due to a basic lack of understanding of promotion and distribution. 
 
And as for all of the gullible sucker's who fell for the "lifetime support", you've been conned. Like as in "Sold the Brooklyn Bridge". What ever Gibson's original intentions were, their bottom line was making money and optimizing their profits by investing little to nothing in research and development.
 Unfortunately, although it worked for many decades in the guitar manufacturing industry were they made HUGE profits at basically resting on their laurels of their past reputation as a great guitar manufacturer, allowed them to charge greatly inflated prices for their guitars without ever changing or improving on anything. That mindset is a death nail for anything not only in the software tech industry, but in any industry.
 And than came along upstart companies like Kramer, Schechter Research, Paul Reed Smith, not to mention power house competition manufacturers like Peavey, Ibanez, and Yamaha, all putting out guitars with newer more creative innovations that easily completed with and even rival Gibson's quality and at a fraction of the cost.
 All Gibson did was lower their workforce, raise their prices, and started expanding their interests buying up assorted brands of electronics companies like Onkyo, KRK, Tascam, and even Cakewalk, the missing link for jettisoning Tascam's floundering PortaStudio line to the top -o- the mountain, but oppsy, Gibson not only didn't understand how the DAW markets works, they completely mismanaged SONAR development, and utterly miscalculated the dangers of throwing the world's best selling DAW producer and product line  under the buss.
 That's right, you read right, CAKEWALK, staring early from Pro Audio all the way up to SONAR, no matter what the nay Sayers say about what is the best DAW, Cakewalk has by far outsold all others making it the WORLD'S MOST POPULAR AND BEST SELLING DAW! And only really floundered when Gibson changed the rules of research, development, and distribution...  
 First off, traditionally pretty much ALL software vendors offer the limited free support for life without ever paying extra for it. They traditionally have only charged for version upgrades.
 And version upgrades require a lot of research and development to improve upon stability functionality.
 And while Gibson's Subscription Plan had some great benefits  to attract new users by offering a pay as you play lease purchase plan making it affordable for many who could not otherwise plop down the full purchase price all at once, the constant push to EXPAND and the RUSH of constant CHANGES of monthly upgrades by understaffed, overworked researchers and developers only added to instability and flawed functionality.
 
However, thank the Lord, Gibson isn't interfering, oops I mean running Cakewalk any more. Bandlab is, which for us forward thinking optimists, THIS is as a truly WONDERFUL and POSITIVE DEVELOPEMENT, as it is they also own a good chunk of one of my favorite very informative and HONEST magazines of all times, Rolling Stone. 
 
 Now I'm not even going to try to change the minds of any of any negative naysayer, conspiracy theory seeking pessimists here who sit, simmer, and stew over what bad and dark intentions Bandlab and Meng have in store for us, nor am I going to jump ship on SONAR because I got suckered into a lifetime what ever the hell it is deal for an extra $50, because, well, I DIDN'T, because I thought that was the second dumbest plan I ever heard of.
 The #1 dumbest plan I've ever heard of is cynically refusing a helping hand from someone trying to rescue you, because YOU let someone else take advantage of you.
 
 That being said, I truly hope and wish Bandlab and Meng great profits and fortunes, and will be more than happy to contribute to their success.
 Oh YES I WILL! Just as I did and have always done in the past, even when Cakewalk released the infamous turd SONAR X1, as angry and even confused as I was, I carried on and never skipped a beat making my music with SONAR 8.5, and purchased SONAR X2 the very day it was released.
 And as for any negative thinking naysayers, conspiracy theory seeking pessimists here who are offended by how much money Bandlab or Meng makes, you really and truly need to get a life with some purpose, and or start getting angry about something else if that pleases you, because in reality that's NONE OF OUR BUSINESS!
 
I'm in the business of making music and loving SONAR Platinum for what it does for me.
And if for some reason a newer upgraded version is no longer branded SONAR Platinum anymore, so what!
 Call it what you want, I'm calling it STILL ALAIVE AND WELL! 
 

Very cool post spacey. I honestly have no ill will or grave concerns with Gibson or Bandlab, nor believe Gibson had any evil intentions, they screwed up, and as much as I hate to admit it, I for one can really relate to that much more than I'd like to elaborate on.
 And I feel confident to say I truly wish and believe that Gibson will survive. They have indded reached the peak of the mountain top in their times, and there is only one way to go from there. It would really and truly be a sad thing if they crashed and burned.
 And even though I never was a die hard fan of their guitars, I've tried very few Gibson's and that I didn't at least like, and I owned an ugly old beat up SG for quite a while that I really liked. I might still have it if I wasn't offered an ugly old beat up Fender Telecaster for it as an even trade. WOWZER we both made out great on that trade!
 But my real true love is pictured above in my Icon pic. It's a pure stock completely original 1984 Fender Stratocaster (Made in Japan) which is in surprisingly great shape considering it's high mileage and what it went through, couple of not so nice nicks on the edges that almost disappear with a black magic marker but no scratches, and it still plays and shines up just as brightly as the day I bought it new.
 That being said, I've learned infinitely more meaningful lessons by the mistakes I've made, than I have ever learned by doing things right the first time.
 And the only person I'm highly critical of and extremely concerned about screwing me again is ME, myself and I.
 That is critical thinking on my part in my efforts to try and never make the same mistakes twice.
 
The only thing that mildly disappoints me about Bandlab is it's lack of support for Edge/Internet Explorer, and Firefox browsers. I cannot decide to remove or even disable Edge/Internet Explorer from Windows 10, I can only decide not to install software that interferes with it and the smooth operation of my system.
 And that's why I do kind of understand Bandlab's reluctance or at least difficulties supporting other browsers(?).. I could never get the Chrome browser to stop interfering with my Windows 10 based home, studio, and office network, so I can understand how the Edge/Internet Explorer, and Firefox browsers could create complications and have a bad effect on Bandlab's preferred Chrome browser functionality and networking across the entire PLANET!