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Peak is Bozeman's best full-service recording studio. Music, voice, sound for film and video
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09/05/2024

#2 Ribbon mics

“Dynamic” in mic terminology refers to the mic converting mechanical energy (sound waves in the air) to electrical energy by a specific process: moving an electrical conductor through a magnetic field.

A conventional dynamic mic does this by moving a coil of wire which is attached to the mic diaphragm through a magnetic field. A ribbon mic is different in that the ribbon itself, which is the part of the mic that moves in reaction to incoming sound waves, moves within the magnetic field; the transducer and the “diaphragm” are one and the same.

The ribbon in a ribbon mic is a narrow, pleated strip of metal, usually aluminum, and is very thin. How thin? A human hair is maybe 50 or more times thicker. If you’ve ever been taught never to blow into a mic, the reason is that if it’s ribbon mic, you’re likely to destroy the ribbon. Yes, it’s that thin. Most modern ribbons are actually somewhat tougher than the older ones, but still, don’t blow into the mic!

Ribbon mics have a very low output, and for most sound sources they require a preamp with a lot of gain. To get around this, some ribbon mics are active; that is, they have a small preamp onboard to boost the output of the mic to a more normal mic level, so you have a much wider choice of mic preamps.

Ribbon mics are known for their natural and “warm” sound, which is due, in part at least, to their typical high frequency rolloff.

Historically, ribbon mics were widely used in the U.S. in the early days of broadcasting, recording, and film making (once talkies came in). RCA, which built much of the radio equipment back then, also made microphones, and was known for their ribbon mics, the BK-5b, the 44b, and the 77DX, among others.

Ribbons gradually fell out of favor in the late 40s and 50s, but experienced a resurgence in the late 90s when Royer introduced their R-121. Since then, there have been many new ribbon mics put on the market.

One of the coolest things about ribbon mics is their pick-up pattern, or polar response, which is a direct result of the ribbon itself. Almost all ribbon mics exhibit a “figure-8” or bi-directional polar pattern. Sound that comes at the ribbon from directly in front of or behind the ribbon is picked up as it “hits” the flat part of the ribbon, while sound that hits the ribbon at an angle of 90 degrees, since it’s affecting both sides of the ribbon equally, is not picked up. It’s this deep null of the figure-8 pattern that can be very useful.

A few words (ok, more than a few) about mic pick-up patterns. There are three main patterns: omni-directional, cardioid or uni-directional, and figure-eight or bi-directional.

Omni mics pick up sound from all directions. Cardioid (heart-shaped) mics pick up sound mainly from the front, and figure-8 mics pick up primarily from the front and the back.

Two charts can tell you a lot about how a mic sounds and functions. A frequency response chart is a graph with frequency on the horizontal scale and level (in db) on the vertical scale that measures a mic’s frequency response on axis, or directly in front. The frequency is usually noted as 20 to 20,000 Hz. If the plotted response of a mic is say, +10 db at 100 Hz falling off to -10 db at 10,000 Hz, you can expect that mic to sound pretty dark, without a lot of high-end. Not a good mic for cymbals.

The polar response chart consists of several concentric rings (representing level in db) with radial lines indicating 0 degrees through 180 degrees and back to 0. 0 degrees is the front of the mic, and 180 degrees is the back side. A cardioid mic will have a graphed response showing it picks up sound better (with more level) from the front than from the side or back. But wait! It gets better! Most polar response charts are drawn with different lines (solid, dashed, dotted, etc) representing different frequencies. Some mics have a pretty flat response from the front, but when you look at the polar chart, you may see that from the back or sides, the mic’s frequency response isn’t flat at all from that angle. On a practical level, this means that the “bleed” into the mic, from nearby instruments or sound sources hitting the mic from any angle other than the front, can sound unnatural. Maybe that works for your application, and maybe it doesn’t. The Neumann KM 84 is a cardioid mic that has a very flat on-axis response and a pretty darn good off-axis response as well, so sounds entering the mic from directions other than right in front still sound fairly accurate, just quieter. As you might expect, that kind of engineering comes with a cost. But that’s Neumann, great engineering but expensive.

Ribbon mics aren’t the only mics that have a figure-8 pattern, many large-diaphragm condensers (and a few small-diaphragm ones) can be used in omni, cardioid, and figure-8 modes. They can do this because they have two mic capsules (the actual working part of a mic) back-to-back inside the grill. For cardioid, they just use one capsule, for omni and figure-8, they combine the output of both capsules in different ways to produce the desired pattern.

Anyway, back to the deep null at 90 degrees that a figure-8 mic exhibits. I’ve recorded acoustic guitar player/singers with a figure-8 mic on the guitar, and another for the vocal. If you carefully aim each mic so the front of the mic is pointed at what you want and the null is pointed at what you don’t want, it’s amazing that the two mics can be so close to one another, and each mic is pretty close to both sound sources (voice and guitar), and yet the guitar mic picks up lots of guitar and very little vocal, while the vocal mic picks up plenty of vocal and hardly any guitar.

Now, I would rarely use a ribbon mic on either an acoustic guitar or a vocal, but I have used a ribbon mic on an electric guitar amp many times, and that null can come in very handy. Many electric guitar players use stomp boxes or foot switches. Sometimes, they’re quiet and sometimes they’re not, plus the players themselves, being actual humans, may make noises that you don’t want to pick up. So what you do is set up your ribbon mic on the amp to get the sound you want, and then put the player 90 degrees off to the side of the mic, in the null. They can hear their amp just fine, and the mic won’t “hear” much of any switching or other noise they may make.

Besides guitar amps, I like to use ribbons on violins (and fiddles!) and horns, sometimes on percussion.

Next time: small-diaphragm condensers.

08/30/2024

Reuben Sinnema was here in May and recorded four mostly "home" or "Bozeman" themed songs. I really liked the songs and the recordings turned out really good, too. Simple, just acoustic guitar and vocal, but very well done on Reuben's part.

He's releasing the songs today, and you can find them on all the streaming platforms, or if you see him in person, he'll fix you up personally.

08/26/2024

Microphones

Microphones are some of the coolest tools I get to use in my job as a recording engineer. Oh sure, I love the editing possibilities that the computer offers, but mics are real and tactile, somehow a more “artistic” tool. With mics, the sonic possibilities are almost endless. Where you place the mic in relation to what you’re recording, the room you’re in, and the particular player can all affect the sound you get.

Microphones are at one of the two electro-mechanical boundaries of sound recording or reinforcement; they convert one form of energy to another (speakers are the other one). That’s almost like magic!

There is no one “best mic”. A mic that sounds great on one instrument may not do justice to a different instrument. Sometimes the $3500 mic just doesn’t sound right, and maybe the $200 mic is perfect. How the musician is actually playing the instrument can make a difference, too. Finger-picked acoustic guitar might sound best with one mic while a strummed part may be best served by a different mic. Like most sound-related things, an educated ear is your best bet in selecting the right mic for a particular job. If it sounds right, it is right.

The sound a mic records is not always the only consideration when choosing a mic. Sometimes, your selection of a mic is heavily influenced by what it doesn’t pick up, whether that’s an overtone of the instrument you want to deemphasize, or a nearby instrument that you’d like to keep to a minimum in your track.

Mics are like an artist’s paintbrushes in that when you use the right brush (mic) for the job the results can be something special.

This is the first in a short series on microphones. I’ll write about how they work, what they might be used for, and maybe a little history. I’ll cover dynamic mics, ribbon mics, both small- and large-diaphragm condenser mics, and maybe a few “specialty” mic types. I’ll also talk a little about the primary characteristics of mics, frequency response and polar pattern. Hopefully, you’ll find it interesting!

#1 Dynamic mics

Dynamic mics fall into two categories: moving coil types and ribbon mics. Ribbon mics, technically dynamics, are usually placed in their own category, as they’re different enough from the moving coil type to warrant that. We’ll cover them next time.

Dynamic mics, like all mics, work by transforming vibrations in the air (sound) to an electrical signal. They do this by moving a coil of wire, which is attached to the diaphragm of the mic (the diaphragm is the moving part that reacts to sound waves), in a magnetic field, which produces a small electrical current, which is then amplified to a usable level. Incidentally, the whole “moving a wire through a magnetic field” thing is the basis of a great deal of what we do with electricity. Michael Faraday was the first to discover this principle in 1831.

A loud speaker works the same way as a dynamic mic, except in reverse. A speaker is fed an electrical (audio) signal which causes the speaker cone (which is attached to a coil of wire called a “voice coil”) to move and thus produce sound. In fact, you can wire a speaker to use as a microphone, and you can even buy a mic which is pretty much just that. Some engineers use a “speaker/mic”, home-made or not, in the studio, usually to record bass drum. I’m sure someone is wondering if you can use a dynamic mic as a speaker, and technically, the answer is yes. By the time you heard much sound coming from the mic, though, you’d almost certainly damage or destroy it, so it’s not a good idea.

Dynamic mics are generally inexpensive, as mics go. You can get a Shure SM-57 or 58 for less than $100. Really good dynamics, like the Shure SM7 or the Electro-Voice RE20, will set you back around $400-450, which is still a good value.

Dynamic mics are also recognized as being pretty sturdy and reliable. Electro-Voice salesmen used to demo some of their dynamics by using one as a hammer. They’d pound on a nail, and then plug it in to show that it still worked and sounded good.

Dynamic mics generally don’t have the “reach” of a condenser mic; they require a lot of gain and need to be pretty close to the sound source to function well. Sometimes this can be a disadvantage, but it can be very advantageous in the right situation. I like to use the RE20 as a vocal mic for a singer/acoustic guitarist, and if placed correctly, it picks up plenty of vocal and very little guitar, which does wonders for the sound quality and control you have during the mix.

Dynamics as a class of mic aren’t really known for pristine sound quality either, but a good dynamic, like the RE20, is an exception to that. And to be honest, we aren’t always going for “pristine”; sometimes we’re opting for a mic that will give us a certain something or vibe, and that may not be hi-fidelity at all. I usually use a high-end small diaphragm condenser for snare drum, but sometimes a cheap SM-57 is just the ticket.

Dynamics are commonly used on instrument amps, percussion, and mainly for live use, vocals. Their insensitivity really comes in handy in a live situation as a pricey, high-quality condenser mic will usually be much more prone to feedback than a cheap dynamic when used properly.

The photo shows, clock-wise from the top: Shure Beta 56, Shure SM 7, Shure SM 57, Electro-Voice RE20, and AKG D-112.

Next time: ribbon mics: dynamics with a difference, and mic characteristics.

08/15/2024

Chris Yakawich was down from Helena last week to record his original song, “Bring Me The Horizon”. The song is going to be used, I think, as the theme song for a TV travel show.

It’s a simple production, just ukulele and vocal, both provided by Chris. FYI, “ukulele” is pronounced “ook-a-lay-lee”, not “youk-a-lay-lee” like I (and most of us, I suspect) have always done.

I recorded the ukulele with a Royer R-121 ribbon mic into a Grace 201 preamp, and although I did also put up a Neumann KM84 condenser for comparison, the ribbon just had a little “something” that I liked better.

For Chris’s vocal I used a tube mic, a Peluso 2247 (a U47 clone) into a Vintech X-73i pre, and then into the compressor section of my LA-610, and he sounded great.

We ran out of time on the session so once we had the ukulele and the vocal tracked Chris headed back to Helena, and I was left to edit and mix the song. Back in the day, before the digital audio and online revolution, working remotely like this would have been cumbersome, slow, and inexact, but these days, it’s very easy.

Once I had a good, basic mix, I made an MP3 of it and emailed it to Chris. He listened to it and gave me his feedback, I made the changes, and emailed the new mix back. It’s not quite like him being here in the studio, but factoring in the hours he’d spend on the road, it’s a great way to go. I’ve got a couple more changes to make this afternoon and then I think we’ll be good to go. This is a great way to work with my out of town clients.

As the song is for a TV show, I’ll deliver short and full-length versions, both instrumental and vocal to Chris, and he’ll forward them on to the TV production team. I hope they like it!

07/24/2024

This is my outdoor thermometer and a thermometer in the studio. These shots were taken just minutes apart, a few days ago. Nearly 94° outside, and just under 67° in the studio, and yes, I still have to heat the studio a bit to make it comfortable for people. That’s one of the “cool” things about the Peak studio being an earth berm design; not only do the tons and tons of dirt make it very soundproof, but they moderate the interior temperature, as well.

What’s my point, you might ask? The point is that while it’s pretty darn hot outside, with a side of smoke thrown in for good measure, it’s nice and cool in the studio, so if you’ve been thinking you’d maybe like to record a song or two, now might be the time. Stay cool while recording some “hot” tunes!

07/05/2024

While this photo really has nothing to do with Colin Kultys’s new song, it is connected to the town that inspired the song.

Kirwin is a Wyoming ghost town these days, and after a visit there, Colin was moved to write the song, “Kirwin”. It’s a song about love, and loss, and has an interesting, and somewhat ambiguous end.

The production is relatively simple, just one vocal, piano, a doubled acoustic guitar, sampled strings, and several violin parts. Colin did the vocal and played everything except the violin. A friend of Colin’s, Elizabeth Matthews, was the violinist.

The song is basically three parts, with the first and last parts being just piano and vocal, and played somewhat fluidly (without a strict tempo). The middle part features all the instrumentation, and was recorded to a click. The easiest thing to do in a case like this is to record the three parts separately, and then edit them together. So that’s what we did.

We recorded the song in February, right before Colin moved to Pennsylvania. He returned in June and did a few touch-ups, I mixed and mastered it, and it’s now up and can be found on all the major streaming services. Give it a listen and see what you think!

So what’s with the photo?

If you look closely, you may recognize the woman getting her hair cut. Even if you don’t, you’ll probably know her by name.

Amelia Earhart was having a house (or log cabin) built for her in Kirwin, and supposedly this photo was taken in 1937, not that long before she disappeared on her last flight in the Pacific. The home was never completed, and remains a part of the present-day ghost town.

06/18/2024

Peak Recording 2.0

Every business needs a website these days, and ideally the website should be at least somewhat up-to-date.

Most of us tend to ignore our websites once they’re built; they served our purposes on day one, why shouldn’t they do the same thing three, six, maybe ten or more years later? The answer is they might, but that’s not usually the case. Things change in any dynamic business, and styles and looks change online. Even how different platforms present your website are subject to change. We need to update the sites once in a while.

So with that in mind, the Peak Recording website has just gone through a major update. It’s got a new look (though not so new to be totally unfamiliar), the text has been gone through and updated, and many new photos have been added. All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Dan Smith of oolite Media LLC here in Bozeman is the guy who built the original Peak website years ago, and he also crafted the new look. Dan’s one of those “renaissance” types; while a good share of his business involves online work, he also does video production, creates original independent films, writes songs, and plays guitar and sings.

Anyway, Dan did a great job on the new website. Check it out at peakrecording.net!

06/11/2024

Hayden Butts was in a few weeks ago on his first session for an 18-20 song release he plans on getting out this fall.

Hayden’s a singer/songwriter, and the production on these songs will be pretty simple: acoustic guitar, vocal, and the occasional harmonica part.

While it’s fun to work on bigger, “whole band” projects, there’s something about the simplicity of recordings like this. It’s like there’s very little between the listener and the song itself. No layered guitars, drums, keyboards, and extra vocals to get in the way. For a songwriter with something to say, it’s a great way to go.

Plus, it’s comfortable for the artist. We’re recording these songs “live” in the studio; guitar, vocal, and harmonica all at once, and since no overdubs are anticipated, Hayden isn’t using a click track or headphones.

Extra bonus, it’s economical. Recording like this, if the artist is well-rehearsed and prepared, goes pretty fast. It’s not unheard of to get four or five songs down in two or three hours. Following the recording, I’ll do any editing if necessary, and then we’re on to mixing. As there are just a few tracks, mixing also goes relatively quickly.

The photo illustrates Hayden being “hemmed in” by my favorite set-up for a singer/guitarist: two Neumann KM84s in an ORTF stereo configuration, going through a Grace 201 preamp for the guitar, and an Electro-Voice RE20 through a Vintech X73i preamp with a little compression supplied by the comp section of a Universal Audio LA-610 for the vocal. The harmonica, when used, is picked up by the vocal mic.

The stereo recording of the guitar doesn’t always work well with a vocal. It depends a lot on how loud a person plays the guitar versus how loud they sing. If the ratio isn’t right, you can end up with a lot of vocal, mainly in the right guitar mic, which can cause phase issues that will unacceptably degrade the sound.

That’s not to say that the artist is “wrong” if we can’t record this way. How an artist sings and plays is one of those “it is what it is” things. I rarely ask the artist to do anything different in the studio; it’s hard enough to perform honestly without being asked to alter your style. It’s up to the recording engineer to select a method that works well and provides the sound quality we’re looking for.

In Hayden’s case the stereo guitar works well, and provides a subtle sense of breadth and space which adds a little “something” to the recording, which is a welcome addition to this “bare bones” approach.

05/21/2024

Reuben Sinnema was in last week recording four songs for release. He came in super-prepared, and we cut the songs just like they did it in the old days, just him and his guitar. He didn't even use headphones, just played them as he would live, and we never did more than three takes of a song. The songs are great and you'll be able to hear them eventually, I think, at . We may add a harmony to one or two, but I don't think Reuben's decided that yet.

I recorded Reuben with an Electro-Voice RE20 (my new favorite mic in this application) on his voice going into a Vintech X73i pre and then into the compressor section of an LA-610. The main pickup for the guitar consisted of two Neumann KM84s in an ORTF stereo configuration. I had set up an additional mic, a Neumann U87 in figure 8 mode, for the guitar, and the plan was to use the stereo rig or the 87, whichever worked best. The KM84s worked great so I went with them, but then found that a little more low-end would help the small-body Gibson. The addition of a bit of the signal from the U87 did the trick. All the guitar mics went through ultra-clean Grace pre-amps.

It's fun when a session goes this fast, from recording to mixing to mastering, in just a few hours.

05/03/2024

Sound-proofing or sound treatment?

Recently I looked up some sound-proofing material online and now, of course, I’m barraged with all kinds of sound-related products on my Face Book feed.

It made me think about the difference in sound-proofing and sound treatment, and how most people, including almost all the ones posting the acoustic stuff online, evidently don’t know the difference between the two.

It can be a little confusing, but simply put, sound-proofing is the act of preventing loud sounds from entering, or leaving, a space. Sound treatment is the act of treating a space so that the sound produced in it, in the case of maybe a recording studio or music venue, has a good sound and an acceptable reverberation time. In the case of places like factories and restaurants, the goal may be to reduce the existing sound (noise) level in the space.

Sound-proofing is generally accomplished using a combination of three principals: mass, isolation, and air tightness.

All other things being equal, a more massive, heavier wall, such as concrete filled cinder block, will block more sound than a hollow, drywall stud wall.

As sound is a vibration, if you can isolate a space from external vibrations, you’ll go a long way towards sound-proofing it. Some studios will float their rooms to isolate them from vibrations. This involves basically building a room-within-a-room, and suspending the inner room on springs or some other resilient material.

Last, as sound is a vibration in the air, if you prevent any air paths you’ll prevent sound from entering or leaving via the air.

Sound treatment is a different animal. The idea of sound treatment in the recording studio is to have a balanced tone in the recording room with no weird echos that will play havoc with your recordings, and sonic accuracy in the control room. This is usually done by using absorption and/or diffusion. Absorption “soaks up” sound, and diffusion spreads it around so it isn’t concentrated or focused to bad effect. Using different kinds of absorbers and diffusers is how we can tune a room, as different materials absorb and diffuse sound differently.

Sometimes the goal is not necessarily a “good-sounding” room, but just a quieter one. I can think of a restaurant or two in town that could really use some sound treatment to bring their noise levels down!

Some sound treatment materials are also used in sound-proofing. Fiber-glass insulation is a common material used for both sound treatment and sound-proofing.

For example, a conventional 2x4 stud wall, with 5/8” drywall on each side, has a STC (sound transmission class) of about 34 db. If you add insulation (absorption) inside the wall, you can increase the STC to about 37db. It does this not by blocking sound, but by reducing resonances in the cavity. By itself, fiber-glass and similar materials are not very sound-proof at all.

To show what isolation can do to the insulated wall above, mount the drywall on one side with resilient channel, which will increase the STC to around 48 db.

If we were to add a thin layer of lead to the same wall (this is something studio designers use on occasion), we would increase the mass and increase the STC even further.

The studio at Peak Recording is pretty darn sound-proof. Sure, if you set a bomb off outside nearby, we’ll hear it in the studio. But most anything less than that, and it’s whisper-quiet. The first layer of our sound-proofing consists of many tons of dirt, as the studio is an earth-bermed design, which is very effective. There’s also resiliently-mounted drywall in strategic places, and it’s all pretty air-tight.

Our control room and studio areas are also extensively treated for quality sound, using a combination of absorbers, Helmholtz resonators, bass traps, and carpeting. Even the tilt of the control room and studio windows has a “sound” reason.

It seems fairly simple, but of course in practice, good sound-proofing and sound treatment can be complicated and expensive. It’s not something you’ll find in every home (or even every “pro” studio), but if you really want to do professional quality work, it’s necessary. Imagine doing ADR for a space movie, and you’re working on a scene where the hero is doing a space-walk. Everything is going fine until you hear a dog barking. As far as I know, there are no dogs in space...

About the photos: they are all showing different sound treatments here at Peak. The sound-proofing is pretty much invisible.

04/18/2024

So what is ADR?

Yesterday I posted about Everett Blunck coming in to do ADR for a film, but what is ADR?

ADR stands for “automatic dialog replacement”, and it’s when an actor comes into a studio or soundstage to re-record lines for some reason.

The classic example of ADR is this: you’re shooting a western, and during a particular scene, while the acting is perfect, the lighting is perfect, and the cinematography couldn’t be better, a plane flies over during the take. Obviously, you can’t use the on-set sound as there were no planes in the late 1800s. So, you bring the actor into a studio and have them re-record the affected lines, while ensuring that the new recordings match the existing on-screen mouth movements. Easy!

Well, not always easy. Some actors are very good at lip-syncing, while others are, let’s say, not so good. Luckily, with the digital tools we have at our disposal these days, the sound editors can usually “help” an actor out if they get the line close enough to being in sync.

There are reasons other than a flawed recording that ADR may be done. Sometimes a line is changed or added, and if we don’t see the actor’s mouth (maybe their back is turned) we can get away with a lot. In one case on Everett’s session, the producers had changed the name of a character, so Everett had to re-do a line with the different name.

When I do ADR here at Peak, I construct a booth in the studio up at the control room window. I place the video monitor that the actor views in the control room up against the glass; it’s a big enough monitor for the actor to easily see it from the studio, as long as they’re close to the window.

The booth is composed of the studio’s movable absorptive panels. The idea is to record a “dead” sound so the sound mixer can then add the appropriate ambience to match the scene.

I usually use two mics, with a Neumann KM 84 being the primary pickup. It’s a very flat mic, so it’s relatively easy for the sound mixer to eq the recording to match whatever mic was used on-set. They always ask for a lavalier mic as well, but as I don’t have one so I use a Neumann U87 instead, and they’re generally happy with that. The preamps I use are very clean and don’t add any distinctive sound of their own.

The post production facility sends me the cue sheets, the production sound, and the video ahead of time so I can prepare everything for the recording. I’ll enter markers on my workstation timeline to match the timecode numbers for each cue, and I’ll put a count-in beep file in the correct place. The beep file will be audible to everyone, and what it does is counts the actor into the beginning of the line we’re doing. It’s three equally spaced beeps (beep, beep, beep) with the line starting where the forth beep would be, if there were one. Of course, I also load the video and the production sound into the computer. The video and production sound are very useful as it helps the actor “get into” the scene again, and they can hear how they said the line on-set.

The first few takes we usually leave the production sound in, so for the actor it’s like talking along with themselves. Once they’ve got the rhythm and mood right, I’ll usually mute the production sound for the line, so the actor is on his own, and it’s easier for me to watch my video monitor and see if the new recording matches the lip sync. Once we’re happy, we usually do one more take for safety and then it’s on to the next cue.

On Everett’s session, the sound editor and the film’s director were on the east coast and were linked to us via ZOOM, so we could hear them and they could hear everything we were doing. They had to rely on me to watch for lip-sync, so I tried to pay attention to that.

Once we’re all done and the actor leaves, I’ll record 30 seconds or a minute of room tone. This is the sound that the room and mics and preamps, actually everything but the actor, are contributing to the recording. It can come in very handy to the sound editor. Then I’ll make as many AAF (advanced authoring format) files as I need and send them, and my marked cue sheets, to the sound editor(s). Piece o’ cake!

Address

Bozeman, MT
59771

Telephone

+14065861650

Website

http://peakrecording.net/

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