Black friday time again, and thanks to the internet it could be a good time to save some money on plug-ins, sample libraries, instruments, etc., even if you're not in the US. This list is gonna be updated, so keep on checking.
For companies and devs: if you want to be listed here, tell us about your deal audionewsroom AT gmail DOT com. Thanks.
Flip HD Video Camera
You gotta love gadgets like these! The newest version of the Flip camera comes with a stabilizator, you can take up to one hour of HD video with included 8GB memory. Slashed price on Amazon today, only 99$!.
Tonehammer
They make great stuff (check our Tonehammer reviews). All you have to do is to go to http://www.tonehammer.com - find the products you like and add them to the cart and enter: pinktone in the discount field of the cart.
Offer expires end of 26th of November and two or more items are required for purchase.
Twisted Tools They're having a twisted sale: 33% off on their Reaktor Ensembles (read our reviews) until 30th of November.
Groove3
Learning a new software? Groove3 is a quality source and they're having some nice offers: $99 One Year All-Access Web Pass, low priced bundles and great deals on individual titles too. Of course all of our Soundware and T-Shirts are also super discounted. So browse the site now and stock up, these kind of deals only come once a year. We've reviewed their Logic 9 explained course.
Soniccouture
More excellent sample libraries: Morpheus, an aluminum percussion instrument with beautiful glassy timbres, is now available until midnight at a special price : get £10 / €10 / $15 off entering this code: GK4SDTZQ1X.
Also on offer their Kontakt scripts collection, Scriptorium. 50% off for one week entering this code: DF51JL5VQY
DiscoDSP
If you're looking to add a new virtual synth, why not trying their stuff. Their Nord Lead inspired Discovery is a great tool, check it out. They're offering a 50% off today.
Izotope
Not just a Black Friday offer (it's valid until the 13th of December), but it's worth having a look at their latest release, Nectar. It's a vocal processing suite of fx, we hope to review it soon but given Izotope's quality it should be a safe bet. Demo available anyway. On offer for 199$ instead of 299$.
Native Instruments
Between November 25th and 29th, 2010, you can save 50% on all individual KOMPLETE Instruments & Effects in NI Online Shop! If you're not a Komplete owner, it could be a good chance to pick some of their stuff.
Apple
As usual Apple is celebrating Black Friday with a list of offers on most of their catalogue. Macbook Pro are approx. 100$ off. Basically you get similar prices to the normal Educational store. The discounts are also available also in Apple's international websites.
Sugar Bytes
This one is until December, 31st. All their products are on offer, check out their store.
Ableton
Upgrade now to Ableton Suite 8 for only EUR 189/USD 209 (or less if you already own Ableton instruments), plus get 25% off Max for Live, from here.
Universal Audio
Savings of 20% - 60% off all UAD Plug-Ins through November 30th. Also, you get a $25 Plug-In Coupon. Visit the online store.
Reactable is a new iPad app (iPod and iPhone are supported as well) that is the software version of the hardware instrument (created years ago by a spin-off company of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain) used notably by Bjork in her live shows.
In essence this instrument takes a new approach to modular synthesis where different sound elements interact or react with each other depending on their spatial relationship on a playing surface aka table. The hardware instrument used blocks of differing shapes to represent the building blocks of sound synthesis vary from oscillators, filters, modulation sources, sequencers etc. So for musicians familiar with modular synthesis the method of build sounds from the simple elements is easy to grasp and brings an interesting way off building new patches.
The hardware instrument comes in at €9700 so having a software equivalent available at around 10 dollars is quite significant to get a feeling for this type of synthesis.
The Reactable app comes with 10 presets to give you an idea of the flexibility of the app and what it is capable off. Interestingly the presets vary from chilled out jazz to glitchy Aphex Twin-esque beats to sound FXs that show case the flexibility mentioned. Before going any further it is worth mentioning that as well as the modular synthesis idea it is not limited to this only and so samples are also included and can be added to build a full track up.
Touching on the sample side of things the user is able to add their own samples and so brings in the idea of Reactable being a blank canvas for musicians to interact with their own tunes/samples in an unique way with performance in mind in particular. There are a limited number of building blocks available, 12 in all, when a new table is loaded with a couple of samples, oscillators, filter, sequencers etc but this isn’t really a criticism of the app but a useful way getting the most out of the app. The user simply drags the building blocks onto the virtual table and depending on where these blocks are placed they interact differently with the other blocks around. So for example placing a filter between the output and an oscillator will filter the sound by differing amounts by holding down on the block and then opening and closing the filter. Each block has a different function when held down but these are quickly learnt and are focused on parameters that would add to performing a track live.
The menu settings are user friendly with the ability to save the tables created, access help and manuals and manage the samples. There are two further options that give the app a bit more life with the ability to download other users tables directly from the Reactable Community site and the option to record your compositions to WAV for use outside of the app. This is great idea, although becoming more common place for music generation apps on the iPad, so that the time spent on Reactable can be used in more conventional DAW software. Another cool idea is that, if coupled with a microphone, Reactable mobile can also be used as an advanced effects processor.
The one element that was striking is the similarity between this app and another app called Jasuto that is essentially the same in function (virtual modular synthesis using building blocks and their spatial interaction) but is far more menu driven than Reactable.
Having used both it is fair to say that Reactable is far more immediate and intuitive to use and get some reasonable sounds coming out but I suspect that Jasuto has a greater depth in terms of sound design but probably less in terms of performance and ease of use. So although similar I suspect they would ultimately appeal to different types of people.
Conclusion
Reactable is a genuinely fun app to use and make music and the ability to approach sound generation from simple elements also acts as a great way of learning about basic syntheses techniques and sound design.
A few days ago I've met the guys from Konkreet Labs, to have a closer look at their Konkreet Performer app for iPad.
Konkreet Labs is Shai, Marc and Gwydion, a functional mix of different backgrounds and skills (photography, music, interaction design, programming, etc.).
Meeting (two of) them I've been able to know more about the birth of Konkreet Performer, a quite peculiar app, where sounds and vision interact in a very organic way.
The concept for this app comes from real needs: having a tool that could be used as an elegant controller and that could also be a solution for the ever annoying "what's this guy doing with his laptop?" problem during performances. Maybe this app won't have the same effect a guitar has on the audience, but the point is that we definitely need tools that allow more interactive and enjoyable performances.
At the same time with Konkreet Performer they also tried to address another "problem": usually, during performances, the visuals are something that comes "after" the music. Here the process is different, the visual part is an integral part of the performance (in a more attractive way than, for example, on the Tenori-On, one of the few really innovative and interesting experiments of these years).
People can see what the performer is actually doing, since all that happens on the iPad screen can be projected on a screen (using a separate software running on a computer, in perfect sync).
As you can see in the above video (quite low-fi, sorry) taken during our meeting (just a drum loop and Shai controlling a synth bass sound in Ableton Live), the interface is radically different from those of a traditional instrument. It's a new environment, where you can dive in and just experiment, a bit like when the first sythesizers came out, with no keyboard attached.
It's not going to be a software for everyone of course. And it's not meant to replace traditional controllers. But for those into experimental music, ambient, electronic music in general it will be great fun!
All you need to know about Konkreet Performer:
it's going to be released in January
it's a pure controller, no onboard sounds (for now, at least)
it uses OSC (through Osculator), but it may support MIDI too (see the recent iOS news)
configurations are very easy, they will provide some ready-to-go scripts
there can be up to 10 nodes to control
each node is sending distance and angle values, but you can send also X and Y values, up to 4 parameters can be associated with a note (they find the probably 2 is enough in most cases anyway)
there's a virtual ribbon
snapshots: when you find an interesting sound, you can store it to a new snapshot (in the video you can see the snapshots on the left)
note playability: when designing it, they didn't want the Konkreet Performer to resemble a traditional notes-based controller. This feature is something they're still working on at the moment though. Users can play notes (mono/polyphonically) on the ribbon (with note-hold on and off) and tweak the sound through the main object.
it has several graphical modes (all of them very abstract and cool to look at)
the video output comes from an app running on a computer (this helps saving resources on the iPad cpu and makes the musician's performance less complicated, no cables, etc.)
Konkreet Performer is a refreshing concept and it looks great (it's also quite stable, even in this pre-release version). Time will tell if it will be a winner, but I'm glad to see a project like this, which tries to make a proper use of the touch-screen devices' innovative features instead of emulating more or less vintage instruments or traditional interfaces.
I think it's one of the few things I've seen until now that could really make you run to buy an iPad. And I'm sure once it's released, other developers will bring out some cool new instruments to use it with. We'll keep an eye on this, stay tuned...
Deconstructing Dad is a documentary dedicated to Raymond Scott, one of the true geniuses of the past century. As (hopefully) most of you will know, he was an accomplished musician, a very original composer and the inventor of some revolutionary electronic musical instruments. A detailed description of Raymond Scott's work would take too much space here. I'd recommend having a look at the Wikipedia page and at the lovely official site.
Deconstructing Dad, now available on dvd, is directed and produced by Stan Warnow, Raymond's son from his first marriage. It's a an act of love, a virtual reconciliation with someone who's never been a perfect father. The documentary, while not extremely focused on musical or technical details, is a very interesting journey into Raymond Scott's life and carreer.
It's cool to see the few rare clips of Raymond Scott's bands in action, and to hear some phone conversations (yes, he used to record private conversations, that was part of his technology addiction). Also, the interviews with people like Jeff Winner (co-producer and founder of the official Raymond Scott Archives), Hal Willner, Don Byron, Williams, Herb Deutsch (Moog co-inventor) etc. help understanding Scott's personality and approach to music.
There's a passage in the movie which tells a lot about Scott's approach and evolution: with his bands he was playing jazz, but it was not actually jazz. I mean, the instrumentation and the language could be defined as such, but the approach was completely different. Control is the keyword here. He wanted to be in control. No improvisation, almost a sacrilege for jazz purists! This clearly explains why later he fell in love with creating and using electronic instruments. In his lab (which looked incredible, by the way) he finally had complete control over the whole musical process. And, as far as we know, the tools he created were really unique and ahead of his time. In the fifties he had created a synthesizer, the Clavivox, and a polyphonic sequencer, before these words even existed.
But he wanted more, he was dreaming of an intelligent machine, able to automatically generate music. And he created one, the Electronium, which was also bought by Barry Gordy, Motown's godfather (which hired Scott at Motown too, as researcher). Raymond Scott was definitely not interested in marketing his creatures. For him they were all a huge "work in progress", he was constantly working to improve them, and that explains why years later he was fired by Gordy, tired of investing so much money on machines that were not ready to be shown to potential customers yet. Raymond Scott to me is a sort of modern Leonardo Da Vinci: a perfect, rare, visionary mix of art and craft skills.
As said, this documentary is more about the man than about his music or his creations. While this leaves space to other, more specialized analysis of his work as composer and inventor, I'd definitely recommend watching Deconstructing Dad. It's an excellent, intimate and original introduction to Raymond Scott's genius.
I was expecting this to happen. Put together Korg's know-how (their tradition, the virtual editions that came out a few years ago, and the more recent iElectribe) and Nobuyoshi Sano (he's the producer of KORG DS-10 for Nintendo DS) and you get... the iMS-20 for iPad.
This means that Korg didn't just adapt the code of the MS-20 Legacy Edition for the iPad. They've actually included a 16 step sequencer, a mini-studio with synth, sequencer, effects and drum machine (always using MS-20 sounds), Kaoss Pad inspired functions, and an online publishing-share feature (through Soundcloud). Smart people, indeed.
I liked very much (and I still use) their Legacy MS-20 Edition, so I'm glad to see this happen and I'm sure it's lots of fun, especially given the added features (even if nothing can beat having real keys to press and real knobs to turn).
As I already said about the iElectribe, I'm not a big fan of GUIs with knobs on touch-screen devices and I'm curious to see how the patching works, but I guess that most people wants them as part of the "emulation feeling".
Drum machine It's a six-part drum machine. Each hit has an independent control of pitch and gate time. Up to sixteen patterns are available, to be arranged in a song. As said, the sounds of this drum machine are also created using a built-in MS-20.
Mixer and FX It's a 7 channel mixer – complete with VU metering – with 14 Effects; Short Delay, BPM Sync Delay, Reverb 1, Reverb 2, Chorus/Flanger, Equalizer, Compressor, Tube Simulator (Valve Force), Low-Pass Filter, High-Pass Filter, Band-Pass Filter, Talking Modulator, Decimator, Grain Shifterr.
Kaoss Pad functions Two Kaoss pad control surfaces – one for generating musical phrases, as found on the KAOSSILATOR; the other for changing parameter values (X-Y axis parameter settings).
16-step analog sequencer A tribute to the rare Korg SQ-10. Featuring 12 steps, this analog sequencer could produce either a series of pitches, or create a cyclic pattern of control changes to the volume, panning, filter brightness, or other synthesizer parameters. The KORG iMS-20 provides a 16-step analog sequencer that has been designed based on this SQ-10. It features new improvements not found on the original analog sequencer, such as easy control of notes, volume and pan, or synth/effect parameters, plus all of the SQ-10's classic and unique functionality such as three-channels of voltage control and six types of sequence modes.
Publish and share Icing on the cake: using SoundCloud's services (embedded in the app), audio data exported by KORG iMS-20 and its song data can now be quickly published and shared anywhere on the web (social networks, etc.).
Price The KORG iMS-20 for iPad is available for download purchase from Apple's App Store (inside the iTunes Store). The regular price of $ 32.99 (USD) has been discounted to a special introductory price of $ 15.99 (USD) until January 31, 2011.
iZotope RX 2 has been designed to be the definitive audio restoration application that runs as a standalone or as a plugin directly into your favourite DAW boasting innovative new processing technology for repairing audio that claims to deal with the following:
Remove hum without sacrificing low‐end frequencies
Reduce ambient hiss without compromising upper partials
Eliminate pops and clicks leaving no audible artefacts
Remedy distortion and even gaps in the audio recording
Repair audible clipping with perfect precision
Replace damaged parts with inaudible patches
Visualise your repairs before and after processing with our revolutionary spectrogram utility
Record and recall an unlimited number of precise presets within each module
Use a variety of application modules in any order in virtually unlimited combinations
There are 2 versions for RX 2, a standand and the advanced one we've tested. This image will help you comparing the two versions (among the things to notice, the fact they added Radius in the Advanced version, a great tool!)
Now take a look at their video here to see what I am going to be discussing (this article is split in three parts, please follow the links at the bottom of each page).
In the past I have tried many different noise repairing plugins/tools and therefore what has become clear to me is that more often than not I can never get to the heart of the problem without the audio being effected greatly with the introduction of 'watery' artefacts that make the audio unusable. I therefore became quite excited by the possibilites Izotope had brought to the table.
Audio restoration can address problems including:
ambient background noise
electrically‐generated interference like buzz from fluorescent lights
hum from bad ground connections
background hiss from tape
surface ticks and pops from vinyl
overload distortion (or clipping)
iZotope RX 2 In Use
The key to successful audio restoration lies in your ability to correctly analyze the subject’s condition in the first place and Izotope even give a whole section of their manual thats discuss's the best way to convert your recordings from Vinyl and other media and also how to get setup to restore the audio, examining the audio interface, connectors/cables and even your rooms treatment. This is very kind of them and to me it is clear that this company are indeed not only interested in analysing sonic characteristics but they understand it too. They understand that for us to analyse and understand what we are hearing, we need to see this and they do this with in a very simple but effective way by providing us with not only a comprehensive set of tools (which we shall look at) but also a spectrogram and waveform display that help you see and zero in on noise. I'm using Izotope RX 2 Advanced which extends the standard version of RX 2.
Let’s have a look at how useful the spectrogram and waveform display tools are for examining the audio first of all. The spectrogram displays the individual frequencies of the audio over time and can at first take a little getting use to. Below is an image of a simple Sinewave sweep from moving up in pitch from 60 to 12,000 Hz. It is very obvious what is happening to the pitch of the audio - it is moving up! We can see how loud events are by how bright the image is. The black background is silence, while the bright orange curve is the sine wave moving up in pitch.
Typically up to now we are used to looking at simple waveforms and that is all, this ability to see the sound via a spectrogram really is fantastic and is the key to allowing us to see our sound much more clearly and precisely. Looking at something more complex such as the human voice shows just how useful this is.
Here is a short spoken phrase as seen in RX’s waveform view:
Let's look at the same audio in the Spectrogram so you can now see that the human voice is much more complex than it might seem from looking at the waveform view. Each word is made up of a fundamental frequency (at the bottom of the spectrogram) harmonics that extend above that frequency, sibilance (“S” sounds) that begin or end words, and more, plus, you can now more clearly see the noise that is surrounding the voice.
Putting it to the test!
I wanted to try and go through each kind of sonic artefact and see just how well RX stood up to the challenges using the different tools available.
Hum:
In situations where you are presented with hum, (which has only a few harmonics), RX's Hum Removal module is apparently the tool for the job. By allowing you to set the primary frequency of the hum and control suppression of up to 7 harmonics above the low frequency Hum Removal. RX’s Denoiser is also a logical choice to use for removing hum, you may want to try both to see which gives you the best results.
Buzz:
In situations like this example, where the hum's harmonics extend into high frequencies, try using the Denoiser module in RX. Denoiser can work with this type of noise as well and features a Tonal Noise suppression control, which can often control high frequency buzz more effectively than Hum Removal.
Hiss and other Broadband Noise:
RX's Denoiser module is stated as the go‐to tool for removing noises of this type. I have a recording taken off an old cassette tape that I have captured via my soundcard straight into my DAW. At the beginning of the piece you can hear the noise clearly and by looking at the Spectrogram you can also see it.
The Denoiser tool provides us with the ability to see the INPUT, OUTPUT (denoised), NOISE PROFILE (shows the noise threshold), and RESIDUAL NOISE (shows the desired noise floor after denoising, this can be controlled by Reduction and Residual whitening controls in advanced mode only) levels via a dynamic frequency/dB chart. This allows me to work straight away by crafting how and where the noise reduction will occur across the frequency chart. I can therefore be specific to certain frequencies or choose to apply the reduction to all frequencies. This is indeed very very useful.
Every single noise repair tool I have used before only offered me the ability to apply a blanket reduction across all frequencies at the same level. Make sure that the “A (realtime)” algorithm is selected if you want to preview the result in realtime—the other modes may yield higher quality but they take much longer to process. This is a tremendously useful feature in Denoiser because it allows you to hear instantly how effectively noises are being removed and how much, if any, program content is being impacted by your settings. Once I had worked with the settings to adjust the overall threshold and the amount of reduction I applied the tool to the audio file which took 9 minutes to render. Just make sure you are happy with the result before hitting 'process'! Basically I found working with the threshold until you could hear the watery artefacts worked well and then easing it away and then reducing the amount so that it didn't sound intrusive to the audio.
Have a look at the audio now it has been processed.
And the result:
Good huh? I think so - so good in fact that the audio is pretty much free of hiss!
Clipping:
RX has a dedicated Declipper tool which can in many cases rebuild the squared‐off peaks caused by clipping and restore the recording to a natural sounding state. They say that not every kind of distortion can be removed and personally I found this not to work too well at all. In fact I had better results using the Declick/Decrackle tool instead which is meant to focus on the removal of clicks and pops. I tested this on a vocal which had been recorded using a high end condenser mic and the vocalist had decided to sing a lot louder and not move away from the mic itself which made the preamp to become overloaded at times. OK so in this case I could have re-recorded the vocal but I was happy with the vibe. Unlike many of the other tools, it was a pity that the Declipper did not eater the output only of the sound which was being affected.
(please be patient, this page has many audio files and it takes awhile to load)
The other rather exiting tool which is included is the 'Spectral Repair'. It's designed for Intermittent Noises allowing you to select and remove intermittent noises and replace them with re‐synthesized content based on the surrounding audio. It also claims to resynthesize gaps in audio, sometimes of up to a half second long or more, by using information around the gap to fill in the missing information using patterns and advanced re‐synthesis. I was instantly drawn to this as I couldn't quite believe what they were saying! So I had to put this to the test!
The first thing you’ll need to do is choose from one of Spectral Repair’s four processing modes. Each of these modes uses a different technique for making a repair. You may want to try each of these in turn on the same noise to see which works the best. Here are some general guidelines on how to use each:
Attenuate
This mode is great for blending noises into the background of a recording and making them inaudible. Replace
Unlike Attenuate mode which gently blends the selection into the background, Replace mode completely resynthesizes the selected area. Replace mode works very well when there is a sustained musical part or other tone that is interrupted by an unwanted sound, and can also be useful when removing noises from dialog. This mode can also be used to close up gaps, dropouts and corrupted sections of audio. Pattern
This mode searches for a pattern in the surrounding material and uses it to replace the selection. Pattern mode is particularly useful for gaps and badly damaged or corrupted sections of audio. Try using Pattern mode on drop outs in rhythmic parts like drum tracks—it can work wonders. Partials+Noise
This mode can be thought of as an advanced version of Replace mode. It is also a good choice for sustained musical material and tones. When used carefully it restores harmonics of the audio more accurately. It can even track changes in pitch between the beginning and end of a gap. Partials+Noise mode links detected harmonics by synthesizing them through the selection, and interpolates the rest of the signal using the Replace method.
I thought I would try out a few different types of audio, a sustained orchestral sound, an evolving pad sound and a drum beat to see how this worked out.
First of all have a listen to this drum beat
Now hear it with slices cut out of the file.
And its Spectrograph.
Using the Replace algorithm have a listen to the results
And its Spectrograph.
The results are not as I expected. There are some obvious problems here and despite taking a lot of time to correct this I couldn't get anywhere near how I wanted it. But to be honest I did like the new artifacts that have been produced and I could see how this could be useful for creating new sounds altogether.
Now with the Orchestra I decided to use the Partial+Noise algorithm as this is meant to do more complex sums.
First of all have a listen to this Orchestral sustained note.
Now hear it with slices cut out of the file.
And its Spectrograph
Using the Partial+Noise algorithm have a listen to the results
And its Spectrograph
I was particularly happy with the results of this. There are no obvious deviations unless you really listen hard and to be honest I dont think you would notice this when used in the context of a mix. I must also applaude how well it performed on the decay of the note too.
Now with the evolving pad sound which I again decided to use the Partial+Noise algorithm.
First of all have a listen to this Pad sound.
Now hear it with slices cut out of the file.
And its Spectrograph.
Using the Partial+Noise algorithm have a listen to the results
And its Spectrograph
Again I feel this worked really well and even the chorusing effect on the sound is maintained to a degree. I noticed that the Partial+Noise algorithm took much longer to process than any of the others and with any of these algorithms. I found the more audio you gave either side of the 'gap' for it to analyse produced better results. Please note though that the Spectral Repair does not work in Logic as Logic does not support offline processing.
On top of all of these audio repairing tools there are some other more general tools which can be applied to specific sections or the whole file such as EQ, Gain, Resampling, Dithering, Pitch and Phase adjust. I was particularly impressed with the flexibility and overall quality that these plugins provided and also the ability to focus on specific parts of the sound by using a kind of 'magic wand' toll which you would find in Photoshop. By simply highlighting areas which it can do for you or by manually drawing around areas you are then able to apply these effects to those parts alone. So for example, using the spectrograph you can easily highlight all the upper harmonics or even the fundamental frequencies and pitch them, phase them, EQ, and Gain them as you wish turning this whole program into a sound design program. Additionally you can load your installed AudioUnits and VST plugins right inside the standalone program and edit the sound in the same way using them. Again this really turns the program into a sound design tool in some respects.
Conclusion
iZotope RX 2 is the most complete and expansive audio repair toolkit on the market, enabling you to remove noise, hiss, buzz and hum, eliminate clicks and crackle, restore clipped audio, visually select and suppress unwanted sounds, resynthesise missing audio and much more. There is no doubt in my mind that with some time and patience you can manipulate audio to such an extent that you wouldn't know it has been. Perhaps some of the processes do take a long time to do, but ultimately quality comes at a price and if it means I can drink more tea while I am at my desk then thats not a bad thing. You could always leave the program to do its job utilising the batch processing while you get on with your other mixes. Perhaps it would be great to use all of the plugins in series and hear multiple effects being applied at once without committing to a particular process before moving on, but I have a feeling that even the most advanced computer would have troubles computing these tasks. As I have also mentioned the sound quality is fantastic and the whole Spectral Repair tool blows my mind, opening up the possibilities for sound design.
Price
iZotope RX 2 $349
iZotope RX 2 Advanced $1,199
(check the features comparison on the first page of the article)
A demo version is available, saving is disabled.
...RX 2 is the most complete and expansive audio repair toolkit on the market...
AudioNewsRoom is, since 2007, a music technology magazine with news, reviews and exclusive interviews. For feedbacks, questions, press releases, advertising enquiries, etc., please use our contact page.
You gotta love gadgets like these! The newest version of the Flip camera comes with a stabilizator, you can take up to one hour of HD video with included 8GB memory. 
