Teac GigaPulse User Manual

GigaPulse™ User Guide

Contents

Quick Start-Loading & Adjusting GigaPulse 10

GigaPulse Interface: 1

GigaPulse Pro (GigaStudio 3.0) Interface 1

GigaPulse VST Interface 1

File Menu: 4

GigaPulse Conﬁguration Window: 7

GigaPulse Pro Signal Flow 8

GigaPulse VST Signal Flow 8

GigaPulse SP 11

GigaPulse Banks 11

GigaPulse File Formats 12

Impulse Builder-Main Window 12

Mic Placement Position/Orientation: 15

Source Placement Editor 16

Source and Mic Placement-Advanced Options 18

Impulse Attributes Editor 19

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Quick Start-Loading & Adjusting GigaPulse

Load GigaPulse:

There are two ways to load gigapulse.

For GigaPulse VST, consult your DAW software documentation on how to use VST plugins. (Some host applications allow you to insert VST FX on a mixer channel strips) Once GigaPulse VST is up and running, it works nearly identical to GigaPulse Pro. (The

GigaStudio 3.0 built in version)

For GigaPulse Pro, assign an instrument to a MIDI channel.

Then route that channel to a pair of inputs on the DSP Station mixer.

Open the GigaPulse on an insert in that DSP channel.

See the chapter “GigaPulse Pro Signal Flow” for a more in depth explanation of the Gigastudio signal ﬂow and instrument loading.

Alternatively, you can load a Gig ﬁle that has been encoded with a GigaPulse Instrument Impulse Set. When you load such an instrument, GigaPulse will also be loaded. You may open the GigaPulse interface or select different GigaPulse environments (if available) by clicking the ‘FX’ dropdown on the instrument’s MidiMixer Channel.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Select Environment:

In Acoustic Space, select the desired environment from the Bank dropdown list.

The drop down menu labeled Bank will bring up a Directory/File list of different recording spaces that are available on the system. Select the environment you want from the list it gives. What shows up in this list is determined by the settings in the ConﬁgurationWindow. (GigaPulse File Menu/Conﬁguration)

Note that the checked items in the bank dropdown menus indicate the currently select bank. If there are more than one check on a given menu cascade, then a single bank is selected and can be found using each of the redundant search paths being display.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Enable Microphones:

To enable the other microphones, simply click on them with the mouse. Keep in mind that each extra microphone uses extra CPU resources.

Alternatively, you can use the ‘ON” buttons in the Microphone Fader section to enable and disable mics (see “Adjust Mic Levels”, below). For GigaPulseSP, this is the only way to control microphone use.

Fig A GigaPulse Pro Fig B GigaPulse VST

Select Stage Positions:

Point Source Method:

Click on any single stage position (square) with the mouse. All the enabled mics will reference that one point for all the room characteristics. This is best for a single instrument or very small group, and is very good for monaural sources. Try out several positions while playing audio through the GigaPulse to hear the results.

Fig C GigaPulse Pro Fig D GigaPulse VST

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Multi-Placement Method:

Instead of referencing a single position on the stage, the Multi-Placement mode mic selection allows speciﬁc microphones to be assigned directly to speciﬁc stage positions. To do this, hold down the ctrl key and then click on a mic. Then select a stage position. Repeat for the other mic positions that you want to assign.

Multi-Placement Mode can be used for a variety of effects.

Stereo spread across the stage spanning from any position to another. This would be ideal for a string ensemble. It would effectively place an ensemble across the stage and preserve the stereo image. Assigning and ensemble with the point source method tends to decrease the stereo imaging. In fact, you can’t tell the difference between a mono and stereo sample with the point source method.

Blend of multiple positions. You could have a stereo blend from a front left to a back right position.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Reverse the stereo image by cross-assigning them.

Assign surround mics to far stage positions. You get more colors with addition microphone assignments.

Assign each mic to a stage position.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

Adjust Input Levels:

GigaPulse Quick Start

Use the The compare the original sound with what you are getting now.

Note: The Bypass button does not exist on the VST or SP versions. Please use the Host’s Bypass control for this feature.

Input Levels

Bypass Button

to make your desired volume adjustments.

is useful here as it allows you to instantly bypass the GigaPulse to

GigaPulse Pro Input Levels:

GigaPulse VST Input Levels:

There are separate controls for the Left, Right and Master input levels. The Master level will adjust the Left and Right levels together while keeping them relative to each other. Each slave control’s relative position is remembered even if the master attempts to drive the slave past a maximum or minimum point.

Moving the individual Left or Right inputs will also adjust the Master input level by 50 percent. If you move one of the Left or Right knobs, the Master will be increased or reduced by half that amount. (Showing the average between the two signals)

If the master is moves such that it forces one (but not both) of the faders to the maximum or minimum, the Master will maintain the average of the two faders trajectory (the position of the fader if it had NOT been limited by the maximum or minimum). As such, a maximized slave fader will not move until the master has pulled the slave’s trajectory below the maximum value.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

Microphone Replacement:

GigaPulse Quick Start

Mic Replacement

may be used to add or remove microphone characteristics.

Once an Original Mic is selected, this Mic’s characteristics will be removed from the envirmonment. Once a Replacment Mic is slected, the Mic’s characteristics will be added to the enviroment.

This will be of value even to those who are not experienced recording engineers who know a carotid mic* from a ﬁgure eight mic, because this is a chance to hear & experiment with a range of different types, makes and models of mics without spending a fortune.

In the drop down list in sample if its known. If you do not know the model used, select

If the model used has more than one pattern, use the

Original Mic

, select the model of microphone used in the

000 none – ﬂat.

Pattern

drop down list to make

the appropriate selection.

Filter

If the model and pattern has a ﬁlter as well, select as needed in the

drop down list.

Then choose a replacement mic from the “Replacement Mic” dropdown. The characteristics of the new mic will affect the audio material very closely the way the real microphone would. Be sure to check out any patterns and ﬁlters on the replacement mic.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Adjust the Mic Levels:

GigaPulse VST Mic Master Pane: (Stereo)

GigaPulse Pro Mic Master Pane: (Multi Channels)

MSDEC Button

recording mono-compatible stereo sound. This technique also offers custom control of the stereo width and volume levels. A Figure-8 microphone (see the section on Mic Replacement) is used with a second, uni-directional microphone to create a stereo signal. MSDEC decodes the signal for stereo output

Mic Level

Perspective

Perspective is the relative distance of the performer to the microphone, and is simulated by subtle variations of timing and resonance. Perspective is most often used in rooms & halls to modify the front to back distance between stage positions.

Wet/Dry Mix

or individual mic channel. (Used when the impulses or banks are of an emulated processor or reverb)

-MSDEC stands for Mid-Side DECoding, which is a handy method of

controls the output volume of the Master and the individual channels.

adjusts the relative perspective of the Master or individual mic channels.

adjusts the ratio (balance) of wet versus dry signal for the Master

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Quickstart

GigaPulse Quick Start

Pre-Delay

nudges the impulse start point forward or backward in time. (Only adjust

this when no audio is passing through GigaPulse.)

The

button of each mic is a redundant control to that found in the Placement

Selection portion of the UI.

MUTE

The

button of each mic simply silences the mic. Note that the mic is still utilizing

CPU and memory. To free up a mic’s resources, use the ON button to turn the mic OFF.

For GigaPulse SP and Pro there are 4 mic groups, typically Front, Wide, Surround, and Center (although the impulse set designer may give these groups (and the mics within them) alternative names. GigaPulse VST only has one mic group and defaults to the front mic group of a given impulse set.

Note that each mic group has a Master and two slaves (only one slave and no master’s for the center mic group). The master/slave controls work in the same way as the input level controls. If a mic group is not displayed, it is because the mics within the group have no impulses or have been disabled by the impulse set designer.

For GigaPulse Pro, there is also a Master Mic Group which controls the masters of the 4 individual mic groups.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

GigaPulse Interface:

GigaPulse Pro (GigaStudio 3.0) Interface

GigaPulse Interface

GigaPulse VST Interface

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

The GigaPulse Main Interface breaks down very conveniently into several sections that we will go over in detail in this chapter.

1. Acoustic Space

2. Placement Selection

3. Input Level

4. Tail Model

5. Microphone Replacement

6. Microphone Levels

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space:

The Acoustic Space section is where you load & save banks, presets as well as other ﬁle management tasks. It also displays some very useful pictures of the environment that is loaded.

GigaPulse VST GigaPulse Pro

Note: GigaPulse Pro has an additional menuany GigaStudio instrument that is assigned to the DSP channel that the GigaPulse is assigned to.

The Acoustic Space section is further divided into several areas,

Instrument

. It displays the name of

A. Overall Graphics B. Bank Menu C. Impulse Set D. Preset E. File Menu F. Cascade

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space-Overall Graphics:

GigaPulse Interface

The

Overall Graphics

show how the recording space currently chosen might look. In this case, it is a medium-sized hall, and the direction of the view depends upon which stage position is selected in the placement selection pane.

Alternate View Button

The

changes the graphic to an alternate picture. Quite often this will be a credit for somebody, perhaps the recording engineer or information about the impulse library.

It can also be relevant information for using the impulse set.

Note: You can also toggle the view by simply clicking on the picture itself.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space-Overall Graphics-Examples:

GigaPulse Interface

Here is the graphic for the Tweed Amp impulse bank. Here it shows the reverb level set to 1.

If you change the reverb setting in the placement selection pane by selecting #4, the graphic updates as well.

If you select the Alternate View Button or click on the graphic you get this window.

It is letting you know to click again to get back to the other graphic.

Here is another example of an Alternate View. This gives the credit & contact information for the Csaba Huszty Notre Dame de Budepest Cathedral impulse set. Acoustic Space-Bank Menu:

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space-Bank Menu:

The

Bank Menu

Banks. (All the folders that are enabled in the Conﬁguration Window. These can be enabled & disabled to customize & simplify this menu)

brings up a Folder/File dropdown list of all the available GigaPulse

(Click the triangle at the right of the text to open the Bank Folder/File dropdown menus. Checked items indicate currently selected Banks)

Included with the GigaPulse program are small, intimate rooms, medium rooms, and large, resonant halls. There are selections designed for speciﬁc instruments, such as guitar or drums, and even a couple of choices that are the actual space inside the GigaPiano! (Kawai Soundboard resonance model)

There is also a 40-bank collection from C.K.S.D.E (See www.cksde.com for more details)

Note that [ctrl]+clicking on the Bank Menu will toggle between three different name displays. The internal name, the ﬁle name and the location path.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space-Impulse Set menu:

GigaPulse Interface

Immediately below the Bank Menu is the that is currently used. (Different Banks can share a single impulse set) Clicking on the Impulse Set menu will toggle between two views. This menu is for display and is dependent on which bank is loaded up.

Impulse Set

, which displays the impulse set

One [ctrl]+click displays the name of the impulse set.

Another [ctrl]+click displays the ﬁle path of the impulse set.

Acoustic Space-Preset Menu:

The Preset Menu gives a choice of available presets within the Bank. A preset includes all the adjustable settings in the GigaPulse interface. You can save your own custom presets at any time using the File Menu.

Here is the Preset Menu.

Clicking on the Preset Menu displays all the available presets that are part of the current Bank. (The current preset is checked)

Here is an example of several custom created presets. (The current preset is checked)

[Ctrl]+Clicking will toggle the display between the preset name and the ﬁle path of the bank.

Note: You may select presets from the bank menu if the ‘Show Presets’ check box is check in the GigaPulse Conﬁguration panel.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space-File Menu:

The

File Menu

Windows-based programs. This is where all the ﬁle management & GigaPulse Conﬁguration settings are found.

GigaPulse Pro File Menu

opens a set of options rather like the ﬁle button on many other

GigaPulse VST File Menu

Notice that there are 3 menu item differences between the GigaPulse Pro and the GigaPulse VST File Menus.

1. “Render to Impulse Set to DSP Station Outs” is GigaStudio Speciﬁc and not needed in GigaPulse VST.

2. “Encode Current Cfg to a Giga Instrument Preset” is GigaStudio Speciﬁc and not needed in GigaPulse VST.

3. “About” is included in GigaPulse VST only. For GigaPulse Pro, the “About” window is accessed in the main interface of GigaStudio.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Acoustic Space: Cascade Button

The Cascade Button combines the beneﬁts, settings & impulse sets of two different banks while using the CPU resources of only one. You get two for the price of one using this feature. A room impulse uses plenty of CPU resources as it is. Imagine you also want to add a Violin Body or Piano Resonance to the mix. Normally doing so would require two separate instances of GigaPulse to be loaded and thus twice the CPU load. However, Cascade Mode resolves the problem by combining two or more impulse sets.

The only limitation with the Cascade feature is that you lose access to the settings of the ﬁrst GigaPulse banks once you have clicked on the cascade button. You can tweak the second one after cascading but not the ﬁrst one.

To use the cascade mode of GigaPulse to Combine two ImpulseSets:

For example, you can apply a ConcertHall as well as a PianoBody to a dry piano.

1. Select a Bank to load the ﬁrst ImpulseSet (i.e.ConcertHall) and adjust the controls to your liking.

2. Click on the ‘Cascade’ button to turn it on (the yellow ‘on’ light should appear in the ‘Cascade’ button).

3. Select a Bank to load the second ImpulseSet (i.e. PianoBody).

At this time, the latest impulse set that is loaded (i.e. PianoBody) is combined with the ﬁrst (ConcertHall) sound created in step (1). As you play notes, you will hear attributes of each…as if your instrument is being played in the (PianoBody) within the (ConcertHall).

Note that the ‘Cascade’ button’s ‘On’ light remains in the ‘On’ state. This indicates that GigaPulse remains in ‘Cascade Mode’ (cascading the ﬁrst impulse set (ConcertHall) with the current ImpulseSet and settings). If desired, you may encode this cascaded GigaPulse conﬁguration to a Gig File using the ‘File’ menu’s ‘Encode Current Cfg to a Gig Instrument’.

4. Repeat Step 3 as often as desired. For example: Load a different ImpulseSet (i.e. GuitarBody).

At this time, the latest impulse set that is loaded (i.e. GuitarBody) is combined with the ﬁrst (ConcertHall). As you play notes, you will hear attributes of each…as if your instrument is being played in the (GuitarBody) within the (ConcertHall). The (PianoBody) impulse set is no longer applied…it was replaced by the (GuitarBody).

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

5. To disable ‘Cascade Mode’, simple click the ‘Cascade’ button again and the ‘On’ light will turn off. This indicates that ‘Cascade Mode’ has been disabled.

At this time, all preserved cascade states are removed. You will only hear your instrument’s notes being played through the current GigaPulse conﬁguration.

GigaPulse Interface

To use the cascade mode of GigaPulse to Combine more than two ImpulseSets:

For example, you might want to remove an OriginalPianoBody from a normal piano GigInstrument, then apply a ConcertHall as well as a ReplacementPianoBody.

1. Load the ﬁrst ImpulseSet Preset (i.e. ConcertHall).

2. Click on the ‘Cascade’ button to turn it on (the yellow ‘on’ light should appear in the ‘Cascade’ button).

3. Load the second ImpulseSet Preset (i.e. InverseOriginalPianoBody, to remove the piano body).

As before, the latest impulse set that is loaded (i.e. InverseOriginalPianoBody) is combined with the ﬁrst (ConcertHall). As you play notes,you will hear attributes of each…as if your instrument is being played without the (OriginalPianoBody) within the (ConcertHall).

You may continue to tweak the controls and change banks/presets. As long as the ‘Cascade’ button light remains on, your current GigaPulse conﬁguration is being cascaded with the GigaPulse conﬁguration preserved in steps (1) and (2).

4. To apply another cascaded impulse set, use the Super Cascade Mode. Hold down the control key and click on the ‘Cascade’ button (Ctrl-Cascade).

Note that the ‘Cascade’ button light goes off momentarily. When it comes back on, your current state (steps 1-4) is preserved as a combined model (ReplacementPianoBody+Co ncertHall). You are again in normal ‘Cascade’ mode, ready to bring in your third impulse set (ReplacementPianoBody).

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

5. Load a third ImpulseSet (i.e. ReplacementPianoBody).

At this time, the latest impulse set that is loaded (i.e. ReplacementPianoBody) is combined with the preserved model (ReplacementPianoBody+ConcertHall). As you play notes, you will hear attributes of each…as if your instrument is being played with the (OriginalPianoBody) removed, the (ReplacementPianoBody) added, and within the (ConcertHall).

You may continue to tweak the controls and change banks/presets. As long as the

‘Cascade’ button light remains on, your current GigaPulse conﬁguration is being cascaded with the GigaPulse conﬁguration preserved in steps (1) thru (4).

If desired, you may encode this cascaded GigaPulse conﬁguration to a Gig File using the ‘File’ menu’s ‘Encode Current Cfg to a Gig Instrument’.

6. Repeat steps 4-5 as often as required for your needs.

7. Turn off ‘Cascade Mode’ by clicking on the ‘Cascade’ button.

At this time, all preserved cascade states are removed. You will only hear your instrument’s notes being played through the current GigaPulse conﬁguration.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

PLACEMENT SELECTION:

Note: Not available in GigaPulse SP.

Having the performance and the performance space are only two parts of the recording equation; microphones are still required. Using Placement Selection, you can control the mics and their relationship to a variety of stage or environment positions

Halls & Room Environments:

For Halls & Rooms, the Placement Selection pane shows placement of the mics – round markers – and up to 18-labeled square stage or environment position markers.

The stage position markers show where the Impulse Responses were measured in the real world when the impulses were created. This will permit you to move different instruments around the stage, whether right or left, or closer or farther away.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Note: GigaPulse VST is a stereo plug-in. For the rooms & halls, the left and right front microphones will be the only ones accessible. GigaPulse VST will ignore the other mic positions even though these impulses are included.

Note: In the near future, a patch update will be made available that will make these extra microphone positions available.

GigaPulse Interface

GigaPulse Pro Placement Selection (Rooms & Halls)

GigaPulse VST Placement Selection (Rooms & Halls)

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Other Environments:

Another way the Placement Selection window is used is to represent instruments, audio gear or alternative microphone positions.

Here we have the Acoustic Piano Mic Placement. You can choose between the primary microphone position near the piano soundboard (A) – Player Perspective – or the Mid-Side placement off to the side (B) – Audience Perspective.

In this example, we have the Tweed Guitar Ampliﬁer Placement. Here we can choose either or both of the microphones and any of 12 amp reverb settings. Each Microphone can also be assigned an individual reverb setting. Again, the picture orients you to the actual environment.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Here we have a representation of a piece of audio hardware. This could easily be a black screen with grid markers and buttons and still work the same. However the picture is a helpful cue to what kind of environment we are dealing with. (Audio Gear as opposed to a Room)

This last example of the Placement Selection window is purely for display and reference. There are no positions or microphones to select. (This being a single stereo impulse with one position) In this case, the graphic simply shows you what the environment actually looks like.

Player Perspective is the “Organ” (A)

Microphone Perspective positions were hung from the ceiling towards the center of the room.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Grid Button:

The

Grid Button

on and off. The button is lighted green when Grid is on.

Grid On

turns the grid pattern in the Placement Selection

Grid Off

Multi-Placement Selection Mode Button:

The

Multi-Placement Selection Mode Button

function. This button is lighted green when Multi-Selection is enabled.

enables & disables the Multi-Selection

Multi-Selection is automatically enabled when you hold down Ctrl-Select while selecting a mic and then a position button. This will cause the Multi Button to light up. Clicking on the button at this point will disable all the multiple selections.

In this example, the L mic is recording the performance (audio stream) from position 2 while the R mic is recording the performance of position 8. Multiple Selections allow speciﬁc mics to be directly assigned to speciﬁc positions or room locations.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Description Field:

The

Description Field

information about the selected position. Each of up to 18 positions can have its own distinct Description Field.

In some cases there can be further information concerning how to best apply the preset in a musical context. Clicking on the ﬁeld will also toggle between the Current Placement Image and the Overall Screen Images.

gives information regarding the preset or even speciﬁc

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

INPUT LEVEL:

GigaPulse Pro Input Levels:

GigaPulse VST Input Levels:

GigaPulse Interface

The input levels adjust the amount of signal that passes through GigaPulse. You can adjust the left and right signal levels independently or set them both at once using the master input knob. (or slider in GigaPulse VST) If the master is moves such that it forces one (but not both) of the faders to the maximum or minimum, the Master will maintain the average of the two faders trajectory (the position of the fader if it had NOT been limited by the maximum or minimum). As such, a maximized slave fader will not move until the master has pulled the slave’s trajectory below the maximum value.

Bypass:

Use the Bypass Button to quickly enable or disable the GigaPulse effect. When enabled, the button will be lit up green.

Note: The Bypass button does not exist on the VST or SP versions. Please use the Host’s Bypass control for this feature.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

Tail Model:

The user may override enable/disable of the tail extention (for impulses sets over 3

seconds in length) by clicking on this button. Note that when a new bank selection is made, the user override will be cancelled and the impulse set’s default will be set.

The Tail Model is used when dealing with impulses that are longer than 3 seconds. (48khz 131072 samples to be exact). After 3 seconds, the Tail Model will smoothly blend an algorithm reverb tail near the 3-second cutoff into the digital reverb. This can save a lot of CPU resources with virtually no noticeable change in audio. (This tail will ideally kick in at very low levels as the reverb is trailing off) If the impulse environment is less than 3 seconds, the Tail Model will not be enabled, and enabling it will have no effect.

Overlap Control

Enable Button

– Has a minimum/maximum range of 0-127. This is a

– When lighted green, the Tail Model is on.

timing offset combined with a cross fade that adjusts the overlap between the convolution signal and the artiﬁcial tail.

Level Control

– The level control allows the Tail Model signal level to be

adjusted to better match the original signal.

Cutoff Control

– The cutoff control is essentially a low pass ﬁlter. It permits the tonal quality of the Tail Model signal to be matched to that of the original signal.

GigaPulse™ User Guide

GigaPulse Interface

MIC REPLACEMENT:

Different microphones have different recording characteristics. Microphones come

in different quality levels (price will be a clue), and they also have different directional characteristics (Omni directional, Cardoid, Wide Cardoid, Hyper Cardoid, Figure 8), They may also give different responses according to the pitch or timbre of the source audio. To cover all these possibilities, GigaPulse includes a generous selection of Microphone impulse models. You can use these to remove the characteristics of one microphone and replace it with the characteristics of another. Note: Processor impulses may also be used here. “E.G. Boxinator”

Note that using original (inverse) and/or replacement mics (as well as Pattern and Filter selections) will cause GigaPulse to run pause and run a short calculation when the mic models are chosen, but they do not require additional CPU when processing audio.

Drop Down Menus:

GigaPulse gives you a generous choice of microphones. Choose these using the Drop Down Menus.

Original Mic:

Provides a list of microphones that might have been used in

the original recording that is being processed by GigaPulse.

By selecting the appropriate mic, you apply the inverse

impulse response, which effectively removes its character of

the selected mic model from the original audio.

(This is why we have the (inv) at the beginning of the majority of choices.)

Replacement Mic:

Provides a similar list, but these microphones are used to

replace the original one.

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