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#1
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Fascinating MS
Playing with MS more lately to solve another problem, and getting some
pretty amazing results. You may remember that I always listen in surround, and I have always sought a very wide and spacious sound. What I have found is that if you set the S channel just right (about +2 in my case) you can just about achieve surround sound for free. I got a new MS module for my Zoom H6, so I went to try it out on my jazz band that I record. The stereo call out test went almost perfectly, the soundstage spread evenly and perfectly across the entire width of the room, but a bonus was when someone else talked or played something during the test I heard them placed very accurately where they were actually sitting, front or rear, left or right. Additionally, it seems that MS is able to encode direction more accurately and finely than any other miking technique or scheme. I have tried. The ability to adjust the stage width afterward is a bonus that shouldn't be discounted. Along with that, I am wondering what the Stereo Width Control is doing in Audition is doing exactly - is it converting a normal stereo signal to MS and back again? Or is it just extracting some middle and making the difference signal greater? Gary Eickmeier |
#2
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Fascinating MS
Gary Eickmeier wrote:
Playing with MS more lately to solve another problem, and getting some pretty amazing results. You may remember that I always listen in surround, and I have always sought a very wide and spacious sound. What I have found is that if you set the S channel just right (about +2 in my case) you can just about achieve surround sound for free. That's because the S channel decodes almost completely to the rears. The thing is, as something moves right to left across the soundstage, it will also move forward and back at the same time. Additionally, it seems that MS is able to encode direction more accurately and finely than any other miking technique or scheme. I have tried. The ability to adjust the stage width afterward is a bonus that shouldn't be discounted. Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. Along with that, I am wondering what the Stereo Width Control is doing in Audition is doing exactly - is it converting a normal stereo signal to MS and back again? Or is it just extracting some middle and making the difference signal greater? There is no difference between these two processes. They are identical. Both basically come down to increasing the L-R component. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#3
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Fascinating MS
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). Gary |
#4
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Fascinating MS
"Gary Eickmeier" skrev i en meddelelse
... "Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). LR and MS (sum and difference) are different packaging of the same information as should be obvious from the simple mathematical operation that converts one to the other. Gary Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#5
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Fascinating MS
Gary Eickmeier wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). Precisely. Assuming perfect microphones, of course. Now, the downside of this is that with MS and XY and Blumlein you get no phase imaging, only intensity stereo. This affects low-frequency imaging. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#6
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Fascinating MS
"Gary Eickmeier wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). No, the gain doesn't come into it. You are reversibly and losslessly "translating" all the stereo information data from its listenable X/Y format into a not-directly-listenable M/S format (All the information in the MS format is available to re-create the XY.) The ratio of M to S that happens to result from the XY - MS operation will depend on (a) the polar pattern of the XY mics and (b) their angular splay. And as a corollary, the pattern and splay of a (virtual) XY pair is driven by the (a) the chosen M mic polar pattern and (b) the M to S ratio. This "about the same gain" is irrelevant. Think of XY - MS as a sort of translation process. Take a word "tree"; translate that into French using your an En-Fr dictionary; that may be unrecognizable for your kids, but once they consult a Fr-En dictionary it all becomes perfectly clear again. Many folks have a persistent notion that only MS allows width adjustment (via gain ratio changes.) Any coincident XY array can do that...just that it's a mite less convenient, entailing an extra step: MS - XY MS - ratio change - M'S' - X'Y' XY - M/S - ratio change - M'S' - X'Y' |
#7
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Fascinating MS
On 1/31/2015 8:41 PM, Tom McCreadie wrote:
"Gary Eickmeier wrote: "Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). No, the gain doesn't come into it. You are reversibly and losslessly "translating" all the stereo information data from its listenable X/Y format into a not-directly-listenable M/S format (All the information in the MS format is available to re-create the XY.) ...big snip... Hmm, (on M/S not being directly listenable) I've often wondered about an M/S speaker setup. Sounds like something that might be right up Mr. Eickmeier's ally. Actually, it seems like an ideal technology for TV surround's left/center/right sound bar in a box type thing. Hard to imagine this hasn't been experimented with. == Later.... Ron Capik -- |
#8
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Fascinating MS
On 2/1/2015 3:24 AM, Ron C wrote:
Hmm, (on M/S not being directly listenable) I've often wondered about an M/S speaker setup. Sounds like something that might be right up Mr. Eickmeier's ally. It's been done, and by our old friend Aspen Pittman, formerly of Groove Tube. He and Drew Daniels developed the concept in the late 1970s. Fender made a portable PA system half a dozen years ago using an M-S speaker setup. http://www.centerpointstereo.com/ -- For a good time, visit http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com |
#9
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Fascinating MS
"Ron C" skrev i en meddelelse
... Hmm, (on M/S not being directly listenable) I've often wondered about an M/S speaker setup. Sounds like something that might be right up Mr. Eickmeier's ally. DR (danish state radio) or one of their enginesearchers built one in the 1950'ties or 1960'ties. Works great. One unit towards to and one behind it radiating to both sides. Has the interesting property that the closer you get the wider the image. Actually, it seems like an ideal technology for TV surround's left/center/right sound bar in a box type thing. Hard to imagine this hasn't been experimented with. And it has. Easy to emulate with a surround center box and behind it a surround fig8 box. Adding digitat processing to get them coincident comes to mind ... Ron Capik Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#10
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Fascinating MS
"Tom McCreadie" wrote in message ... "Gary Eickmeier wrote: "Scott Dorsey" wrote in message ... Decoded MS and coincident cardioids are mathematically identical and they are very close to interchangeable with top-grade microphones. As you get to cheaper microphones that are less flat off-axis, the X-Y configuration becomes more of an issue since the center of the soundstage is off-axis on both mikes. In other words, coincident XY is the same as MS with the M and S about the same gain, and also the XY can be converted back to an exactly equivalent MS pair that can be manipulated just as if the original were MS (?). No, the gain doesn't come into it. You are reversibly and losslessly "translating" all the stereo information data from its listenable X/Y format into a not-directly-listenable M/S format (All the information in the MS format is available to re-create the XY.) The ratio of M to S that happens to result from the XY - MS operation will depend on (a) the polar pattern of the XY mics and (b) their angular splay. And as a corollary, the pattern and splay of a (virtual) XY pair is driven by the (a) the chosen M mic polar pattern and (b) the M to S ratio. This "about the same gain" is irrelevant. Think of XY - MS as a sort of translation process. Take a word "tree"; translate that into French using your an En-Fr dictionary; that may be unrecognizable for your kids, but once they consult a Fr-En dictionary it all becomes perfectly clear again. Many folks have a persistent notion that only MS allows width adjustment (via gain ratio changes.) Any coincident XY array can do that...just that it's a mite less convenient, entailing an extra step: MS - XY MS - ratio change - M'S' - X'Y' XY - M/S - ratio change - M'S' - X'Y' Well, I am not sure how to word my question, but when you buy an MS recorder like the Zoom H6 with built-in MS module, you get an adjustment that goes from Zero dif between M and S in the plus direction all the way to RAW and in the minus direction (less and less S mike) to zero, or mono. This suggests that (if there are sounds all around you, not just a solo instrument up front) that the S = 0 would have both M and S gains equal, right? Then at that time the MS pair would be exactly equivalent to the XY Blumlein pair. But with other polar patterns for the M mike than Fig 8, this equivalency might not hold. Also interesting that coincident stereo is pure intensity stereo and is subject to this mathematical translation, but does that hold true for any of the spaced microphone techniques? I mean, obviously the signal doesn't know how it was obtained, so you could do the stereo width control on any stereo signal, right? I guess I should just record my MS in RAW and do as I please with it later, but I have always wondered how I should ideally be setting my gains while recording. Should I set both M and S knobs the same and let the signal rise and fall where it may, or should I set them so that both tracks are equally loud most of the time? Would that be equivalent to setting the Zoom S signal to zero difference from M? Fascinating stuff. And yes, I have and still am reading all about it. I would normally think that a little spacing between mikes would add something to the stereo mix (over the coincident techniques), but in practice so far MS has it hands down in both accuracy and spaciousness. Gary |
#11
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Fascinating MS
On 2/1/2015 11:23 PM, Gary Eickmeier wrote:
I guess I should just record my MS in RAW and do as I please with it later, but I have always wondered how I should ideally be setting my gains while recording. Should I set both M and S knobs the same and let the signal rise and fall where it may, or should I set them so that both tracks are equally loud most of the time? I don't know the Zoom jargon, but see if there's an option that lets you record the mid and side signals separately, but monitor the decoded stereo. That way you can at least hear what you're recording in stereo. -- For a good time, visit http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com |
#12
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Fascinating MS
"Gary Eickmeier" skrev i en meddelelse
... I guess I should just record my MS in RAW That would be the easiest. and do as I please with it later,but I have always wondered how I should ideally be setting my gains while recording. So that you do not clip the recording. Should I set both M and S knobs the same and let the signal rise and fall where it may, or should I set them so that both tracks are equally loud most of the time? You omit a variable: microphone sensitivity. However with matched microphones you should set the knobs the same and the signal in channels 1 and 2 should be the same or channel 2 (S) a few dB lower. If it is not like that then your mic stand is likely to be incorrectly positioned or mic directional patterns incorrectly chosen. Would that be equivalent to setting the Zoom S signal to zero difference from M? Doing it. Fascinating stuff. And yes, I have and still am reading all about it. I would normally think that a little spacing between mikes would add something to the stereo mix (over the coincident techniques), but in practice so far MS has it hands down in both accuracy and spaciousness. It is always a compromise to record, especially to record live events where positioning is often "where possible". But nice to hear that a compromise within solid theory fares better than one well outside it, as your spaced array most certainly is in the way you use it. Just never stop learning ... because there is always more to learn Gary Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#13
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Fascinating MS
"Gary Eickmeier" writes:
-snip- Additionally, it seems that MS is able to encode direction more accurately and finely than any other miking technique or scheme. I have tried. The You haven't tried 50 cm A/B with diffraction spheres, then (or perhaps the Jeklin disk, which I have not tried). MS has okay L-to-R imaging. But sometimes the LR soundstage "dimension" can be non-linear the further left or right you go. That is, you can have a somewhat clustered "centerish" soundstage that then suddenly zips out to far left and far right. Farther center left and farther center right can kinda be skipped over to jump directly to that far left and or right. Doesn't happen all the time, but it can. Aside from not having a reliably accurate left-to-right, my main complaint with MS and XY is the lack of true, pin-point, *front-to-back* imaging. That's why I largely abandoned MS when I heard 50cm A/B. That, and the ability to use omnis which, because of their much better low end response and more even response in general, brought on a whole new world of realism, particularly with orchestral work. ability to adjust the stage width afterward is a bonus that shouldn't be discounted. Typically, you don't want to do that with A/B because that's where the "room width" lives, and rarely is your "subject" as wide as the left and right walls. But if you want you can trim in the pan pots a touch to narrow the image and you'll do no harm. Along with that, I am wondering what the Stereo Width Control is doing in Audition is doing exactly - is it converting a normal stereo signal to MS and back again? Or is it just extracting some middle and making the difference signal greater? Several plug-ins have a width enhancer. Generally that's done by crossfeeding delay components or similar time-based trickery. Indeed it's handy -- if not overused. Now, there are some mastering processors that convert to and from a pseudo MS so that you can then raise or lower the center of the image, but I'm not sure it's truly MS. For one thing, as I understand these (have not used one), you do not change the width as you adjust the "center" volume. YMMV. Frank Mobile Audio -- |
#14
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Fascinating MS
"Frank Stearns" skrev i en meddelelse
... "Gary Eickmeier" writes: -snip- Additionally, it seems that MS is able to encode direction more accurately and finely than any other miking technique or scheme. I have tried. The You haven't tried 50 cm A/B with diffraction spheres, then (or perhaps the Jeklin disk, which I have not tried). I actually think my best spatial rendering is an AB recording made like that with the microphones parallel. It was also the last time I changed a setup in the intermission, an old tape amateur friend, how had asked me to help him with the recording, suggested I should angle the CK22's outwards and it caused a collapse of perspective that was so annoying that I only ever burned the first part to CD. I also made a number of AB recordings in August 2014 because it allowed a less visually obtrusive setup, something that was specifically requested by the event photographer, a couple of them with CK22's but most of them with Sennheiser MKH106 and all of them with the mics positioned vertically. That setup of course required a treble boost in post ... O;-) ... but worked like a treat with mics only 2 meters above the floor. For deep ensembles, such as those with a concert grand I added an other omni on the piano, often but not always only one. Stereo miking of a concert grand for spot miking is grossly overevaluated and often causes more stereo problems than it solves, I trust the main pair to deliver the stereo image and just use the spot mic(s) - suiably delayed - to add focus. MS has okay L-to-R imaging. But sometimes the LR soundstage "dimension" can be non-linear the further left or right you go. That is, you can have a somewhat clustered "centerish" soundstage that then suddenly zips out to far left and far right. Farther center left and farther center right can kinda be skipped over to jump directly to that far left and or right. Doesn't happen all the time, but it can. Aside from not having a reliably accurate left-to-right, my main complaint with MS and XY is the lack of true, pin-point, *front-to-back* imaging. That's why I largely Enter what I also call xy - it is more misleading to call it ortf - namely some 12 to 22 centimeters capsule spacing and an angle between the microphone in the 45 to 100 degrees range, smaller angle if you are close or it is a wide ensemble, larger angle if you are further away. Adjust inter microphone angle for stable center and - my preference - a bit of room on the outside of the ensemble, just like the real world is. Under some circumstances a pair of omnis tend to blur far away sound sources in a very reverberant room, and then the image compensation abilities of a spaced xy pair can be most helpful. abandoned MS when I heard 50cm A/B. That, and the ability to use omnis which, because of their much better low end response and more even response in general, brought on a whole new world of realism, particularly with orchestral work. Omnis are kinder to any kind of transient than cardioids, it did not take long to learn than when using a MD211 together with a pair of MD4241's. And oh what imaging problems one can have when the helpful electronics guy who soldered mic cables for you can not read a Sennheiser cable spec properly and miswires the HL ... thinking back I still think that was way too uphill a way to start recording ... ability to adjust the stage width afterward is a bonus that shouldn't be discounted. Typically, you don't want to do that with A/B because that's where the "room width" lives, and rarely is your "subject" as wide as the left and right walls. But if you want you can trim in the pan pots a touch to narrow the image and you'll do no harm. Don't worry, forget theory and take it to ms and fix it and back, adjusting the S level is a good way to strengthen the center and if you have too much reverb then it also is likely to be helpful to eq the S signal. However using diffraction spheres does just about "all of that", something that needs to be understood. And it works in three dimensions, eq works globally. Along with that, I am wondering what the Stereo Width Control is doing in Audition is doing exactly - is it converting a normal stereo signal to MS and back again? Or is it just extracting some middle and making the difference signal greater? Several plug-ins have a width enhancer. Generally that's done by crossfeeding delay components or similar time-based trickery. Indeed it's handy -- if not overused. It is an MS tweak, but I've always preferred to make those manually. Now, there are some mastering processors that convert to and from a pseudo MS so that you can then raise or lower the center of the image, but I'm not sure it's truly MS. For one thing, as I understand these (have not used one), you do not change the width as you adjust the "center" volume. YMMV. The simplest ploy to fix a troublesome recording is usually the best. But we are seeing a lot of plug ins coming on to the market that a) do what most daw software can do out of the shrink wrap and b) capitalizes on user ignorance by offering to make the "difficult bits" as if MS was something exotic. It is akin to when Symantec sold Norton Tools for windows that basically just did what the OS could do anyway. That said, some of the time a plug in can offer a very neat short cut. As example no daw should be without Nugens "Mono", it is really a uniquely helpful image stabilizer if properly used, whatever that is. In principle I am against making the bass monophonic because some of the ambience information is in the VLF out of phase stuff, but in the real world so many people are playing back on mono subwoofer systems that one has to think compatibility. Frank Mobile Audio Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#15
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Fascinating MS
субота, 31. јануар 2015. 14.07.17 UTC+1, Peter Larsen је написао/ла:
For deep ensembles, such as those with a concert grand I added an other omni on the piano, often but not always only one. Stereo miking of a concert grand for spot miking is grossly overevaluated and often causes more stereo problems than it solves, I trust the main pair to deliver the stereo image and just use the spot mic(s) - suiably delayed - to add focus. Kind regards Peter Larsen Sorry if I already mentioned this. Some time ago, I've recorded a series of solo (prepared) piano concerts. However, the deal and the scheduelle was such taht I'd show there just before the very begining, plug my multitrack into their PA console and take the signal from inserts. People working there always did the same set up, - two cardioid mics (I forgot the model) close to strings and the lid - Kind of ORTF pair of C1000s' with omni capsules My job was to record 4 tracks and later mix them for CD (low number run, self published by artist). Which I did and ok... Story being, each time I got there, I asked those guys to reverse the setup for the next concert, put the omnies inside and have cardioids for ORTF, they'd alwasys say, mmm, cool, we'll do it for the next one and they never did. |
#16
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Fascinating MS
"Frank Stearns" wrote in message ... "Gary Eickmeier" writes: -snip- Additionally, it seems that MS is able to encode direction more accurately and finely than any other miking technique or scheme. I have tried. The You haven't tried 50 cm A/B with diffraction spheres, then (or perhaps the Jeklin disk, which I have not tried). MS has okay L-to-R imaging. But sometimes the LR soundstage "dimension" can be non-linear the further left or right you go. That is, you can have a somewhat clustered "centerish" soundstage that then suddenly zips out to far left and far right. Farther center left and farther center right can kinda be skipped over to jump directly to that far left and or right. Doesn't happen all the time, but it can. Aside from not having a reliably accurate left-to-right, my main complaint with MS and XY is the lack of true, pin-point, *front-to-back* imaging. That's why I largely abandoned MS when I heard 50cm A/B. That, and the ability to use omnis which, because of their much better low end response and more even response in general, brought on a whole new world of realism, particularly with orchestral work. Frank Mobile Audio My audio engineer friend who does most of the archival gigs in town uses the 50 cm omnis (DAP) and gets fantastic results. What is interesting is that this would be a purely time of arrival kind of stereo and my MS would be strictly intensity stereo, and both work well! I had thought that some combination of the two approaches with some shorter spaced cardioids aimed right and left would give the best compromise - the best of both - but I was wrong. On my MS experiment, I have arrived at a tentative conclusion that the S of 3 dB below M works best for my setup in surround sound. It gives a pretty much perfect spread of the frontal sound along with strong enough a surround signal to give the surround feel - actually hearing audience behind me. Crank it up to realistic levels and whammo, you are THERE. Gary |
#17
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Fascinating MS
Gary Eickmeier wrote:
My audio engineer friend who does most of the archival gigs in town uses the 50 cm omnis (DAP) and gets fantastic results. What is interesting is that this would be a purely time of arrival kind of stereo and my MS would be strictly intensity stereo, and both work well! I had thought that some combination of the two approaches with some shorter spaced cardioids aimed right and left would give the best compromise - the best of both - but I was wrong. If he's using the DPA 4006 omnis, you'll find that they aren't really very omni. Add the balls onto them and they become even less omni, and that is what gives you actual intensity stereo. The M50, as traditionally used in the Decca tree, are even less omni. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#18
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Fascinating MS
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#19
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Fascinating MS
Frank Stearns wrote:
(Scott Dorsey) writes: The M50, as traditionally used in the Decca tree, are even less omni. Indeed. The higher frequency directionality adds an intensity component. And the M50 response is rather peculiar; my understanding is that in part the Decca tree technique was birthed to work around that odd response. Yes, I have tried, and seen others try, to make the Decca tree work with other microphones and never been satisfied with the results. It does seem very dependent on the weird beaming of the M50. Once again, KM183s (or 183Ds) using 50 cm spacing, 120 degree splay, 20 degree up-tilt, with the balls, is the most accurate imaging I've ever heard. Try the Jecklin! --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#21
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Fascinating MS
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#22
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Fascinating MS
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