GOT7’s Vocal Analysis: Youngjae

Vocal Range

F#2 ~ Bb5 (3 octaves and 2 notes)

Supported Range

D3 ~ F4/F#4

Voice Type

Tenor

Strengths/Achievements

  • Strongest vocalist in GOT7
  • Support is consistent within his supported range up to F#4
  • Most consistent sense of support amongst GOT7 members
  • Pitch is generally clean
  • Transitions into falsetto are generally smooth
  • Occasionally able to maintain a degree of support up to G4
  • Lower range maintains tone below his supported range
  • Chest voice remains supported and forward down to D3
  • Falsetto is generally relaxed

Points for Improvement

  • Falsetto register is rarely used and under explored
  • Tends to place his voice in his nose
  • Lacks openness in his voice
  • Lower range becomes muffled below D3
  • Improper throat shape and jaw position when singing wide vowels
  • Tends to place his voice too low in his chest and throat within his supported range
  • Above F#4 his mix tends to become thinner and tighter

Registers

  • Lower register: He’s able to maintain tone quite consistently down to C#3 most of the time, but support seems to only start being present from D3. Below that he tends to become airier and muffled.
  • Mixed register: Mixed voice is consistently supported and better approached when singing phrased lines, as opposed to sustained notes. Above F#4, he tends to become throaty and tight.
  • Upper register: Falsetto is rarely used and seems to be his least developed register. He doesn’t seem quite comfortable singing in this register, although he can stay quite relaxed even up to D5.

Agility

Youngjae’s main singing style seems to derive more from traditional pop and ballad. Even though he’s cited American and foreign R&B vocalists as his favorite singers in the past, such influences aren’t quite as noticeable in the way he sings. He rarely ever does vocal runs, which may indicate he is not truly very confident in this area of his voice. He has shown very few examples of vocal agility, where he’s able to actually sing slow melismas by singing each individual note quite clearly, even with quick thrills in the middle. Examples of this would be “A” and “Fly.” However, it is rare to hear him sing anything more complex or faster than this, but when he does sing more complex runs he lacks clarity and becomes pitchy such as in “Moves Like Jagger” and “주문 (Mirotic).”

Overall analysis

Youngjae debuted as the main vocalist of GOT7 in 2014. Although their main style focuses a lot on rapping and hip hop, Youngjae gets his fair share of lines and has had many chances to showcase his abilities as a vocalist. Throughout the years it is possible to hear improvements in his singing, mostly to do with his voice maturing as well as him getting more comfortable and confident as a vocalist. His voice is generally mellow, light and bright. He has very little weight to his tone and the placement of his voice matches that of a light lyric tenor.

The bottom of his chest voice is actually quite extensive in range. He can stretch his voice all the way down to an F#2, although tone and support are not present until the third octave. His chest voice is developed quite well down to D3, where support is present and his thyroarytenoid muscles have been properly developed to produce a more projected and fuller sound. He’s also able to place his voice well in his chest down to D3, but below that he seems to lack proper vocal cords connection. This can be heard by the F3 in “바람기억“, the E3 in “소주한잔“, the Eb3 in “금요일에 만나요“, “오래된 노래“, “이미 넌 고마운 사람“, and the D3’s in “응급실.” However whenever he goes below D3, his vocal cords are unable to remain fully closed and his muscles seem to lack development, so the quality of his voice becomes a lot airier and more muffled, as he’s unable to project and maintain the right amount of support the lower he sings. This can be heard with his F#2 in “소주한잔“, and B2’s in “이미 넌 고마운 사람“, as well as his C3’s in “하늘을 달리다” and C#3’s in “오래된 노래.”

His mixed is actually a very well used part of his voice. Most of the time Youngjae can remain quite relaxed and is able to place his voice in his mask, even if some of his sound may project from his nose as well. The amount of nasality in his singing isn’t too excessive, as he’s able to remain relatively opened and bright when singing phrased lines in his mixed voice. Generally he’s able to keep a relaxed and supported sound up to F#4 quite consistently, as he’s been heard phrasing F4’s and F#4’s quite well very often. Examples can be heard with multiple performances of “Honey“, as well as performances of “Sunday Morning“, “친구의 고백“, “달빛“, “응급실” and “하늘을 달리다.” Occasionally he’s also able to keep the same amount of support even up to G4, as heard by his G4’s in “Honey.”

Above F#4 the main issue with Youngjae’s singing is his tendency to push his voice out from his throat a lot more, by compressing his throat muscles and keeping his sound trapped inside his throat. That causes him to sound tight and strained whenever singing notes above F#4, such as the G4’s in “죽어도 못보내“, “LA Song“, G#4’s in “Honey“, “빛이나“, A4’s in “1시34분“, Bb4’s in “I Was Made For Dancing“, “This Love“,  “Forever Young“, B4’s in “Mr. Chu“, “Fly“, as well as the D5’s in “10점만점에 10점.” Another issue quite often noticeable in his mix is his tendency to drop his jaw too low and open his mouth too wide on sustained mixed voice notes, causing his voice to be placed too low in chest and in his throat. This often causes him to lose the brightness of tone even within his supported range, where his voice tends to more stuck as opposed to free and opened. Examples of this include his F4’s in “이미 넌 고마운 사람“, “바람기억” and “금요일에 만나요.”

His upper register is by far his least developed register and also his least used register overall. Most of the time Youngjae seems to sing in a fairly comfortable and low range for a tenor, when singing GOT7’s repertoire. Rarely do their songs require any form of high falsetto notes, so it’s not usual for Youngjae to really explore this part of his voice. As a result, he has never shown enough development of his cricothyroid muscles and so he’s never been able to utilize a more connected head voice. Anytime he’s sung in his upper register, he’d use a falsetto instead of a head voice. Despite that, he seems quite relaxed singing in this register even up to D5, as heard in “Fly.” Most of his issues in his falsetto seem to be with placement, which tends to be quite inward or overly nasal, as heard in “오늘은 가지마.” However his transitions into falsetto are well done and seem mostly smooth, considering how rarely he uses this part of his voice. More recently he has explored the full extent of his falsetto register being able to sing as high as Bb5 in a high note battle with the other GOT7 members.

Overall as a vocalist, Youngjae shows enough understanding of style and dynamics. Musically speaking, within his supported range he can sing with a limited amount of dynamic variations, as his voice lacks enough power and balance in his mix for him to truly produce the right amount of resonance in his voice. Due to issues with lack of openness and improper placement, he’s never been able to show proper resonance in his voice but support is quite consistent and clean throughout his voice. Most of his issues tend to be with improper jaw position, as well as aspiration of air and pushing when singing sustained notes. Stylistically, he has enough control of his voice and seems particularly fond of growling, as heard in “Moves like Jagger” and “Honey.”

Although quite a recent debut and with a short career so far, Youngjae has shown potential as a vocalist overall. Debuting as an idol at a very young age, it is very likely that with proper training and more experience Youngjae could improve his overall vocal technique easily. It is imperative for him to be mindful of his technique in order to prevent vocal damage, so properly and thoroughly developing his voice and skill can go a long way for him as he furthers his career as an idol and young vocalist. In order for him to remain a healthy vocalist throughout the years, improving and working on his craft can help him earn respect and establish his name as an artist and musician.

Musicianship

Youngjae’s singing style is quite simple. He doesn’t tend to add anything too complicated to his vocal performances and instead chooses to deliver the song lyrics more effectively by singing the melody as closely as possible to the original. Since the main focus of GOT7’s isn’t as vocal, Youngjae doesn’t often get chances to sing harmonies. He can and has shown very few times that he can blend his voice with others, even if not by singing a harmony. This can be heard in “달빛.” For the most part, Youngjae isn’t known for adlibbing too high nor singing anything too complex, he doesn’t add his own melodic ideas to most of his vocal performances.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

M Vocalists: Mid-Range Vocalists

Best Vocal Performance(s)

Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

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113 thoughts on “GOT7’s Vocal Analysis: Youngjae

  1. Great analysis! I supposed he’s better than Jun.K? since he got D3.

    Ur next analyses will be K.will and Ali right since 2014 is finished i think 😀

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  2. You should check out their Gfriend Me Gustas Tu peformance!He sounds amazing but idk for sure cause i dont really understand tenors and all that but I love reading your blog!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Out of the most recent boy groups (starting from 2012) which would you say probably has the strongest vocal line and which would you say probably has the weakest vocal line?

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    1. 2012 ~ 2016? Boygroups only? Mhmm some of the best vocal lines would have to be 100%, EXO and BtoB, whom we’ve already analyzed. As for the vocal lines with the weakest technique I’d have to say BTS, iKon, KNK…possibly Speed and Monsta X. I’m basing this off of how skilled each individual vocalist is and I’m counting the weakest as the ones without a single vocalist who’d be rated as at least average.

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  4. Because these two groups are somewhat close and often compared: as for vocal rankings among BTS and Got7, would it be
    Youngjae, JB, V, Jinyoung ,Jungkook, Jimin, Jin, Yugyoem?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I would not put Jinyoung above Jungkook by any means. I would put him above Jin but not sure about Jimin. I don’t really know much about Yugyeom.

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      1. We have rules in our future analyses list. Please read them before making requests. There will not be an analysis for Jinyoung, I apologize.

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    1. He needs to improve his mixed voice first because most pop songs require good technique in the mixed voice, which he still doesn’t have and if he doesn’t develop his mixed voice properly he could hurt himself.

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  5. It might just be me and I doubt you pay attention to the rappers, but it seems to me like Jackson actually has better pitch and is a bit less airy than Jinyoung, but that might just be me hoping since Jackson has my favorite vocal tone in GOT7.

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      1. Ah, that’s too bad. It’s always a shame though when you like a particular vocal tone, but that singer doesn’t receive proper vocal training, so it stays under-developed.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t mean to be rude, but did you even read the analysis? Cause if you had, you’d find the answer to that question.

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  6. Youngjae recently hit an F5 in Got7’s latest comeback! (Hard Carry) Would you mind updating his vocal range? I have a link to it:

    2:37 ish

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      1. Nope, I post this video just because I would like to provide you material. It is rare to hear his falsetto but the video now seems useless. Thank you for your time 🙂

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      2. I actually couldn’t watch the whole thing yesterday because of my internet but now that I can, it’s really cute but it doesn’t show me much vocally that’s different but he’s adorable. lol

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  7. What do you think of Seventeen’s main vocals, especially dk?
    And what groups that debuted after 2012 do u think has the best and worst main vocals? Bts maybe?

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    1. The best and worst vocals? Including female groups? Well for worst average of vocal technique and skill, I’d think of CLC, Sonamoo, BTS, Speed, Hello Venus, KNK, and iKon. For best I’d definitely say 100%, BtoB, Mamamoo, Red Velvet, Bestie perhaps, EXO, 15&, and yeah I think that’s about it.

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  8. Can i translate this to my language, please? I will add a link to your blog as credit 🙂 actually, no one can read my blog but i want to take it out with a permission. Thank you!

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  9. I don’t know if you’ve listened to their Japanese music but in their song “so lucky” youngjae does a run on “zutto” towards the end and I think that’s the fastest run I heard from him. Even though it’s only going between 3 notes, what can you say anything about the clarity or precision ?

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      1. Those sounded actually really thin and soft. For Jinyoung, JB and Youngjae, those notes were all strained. One of these is actually mentioned IN this analysis.

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    1. I had not, but I hear nothing different. Same lack of forward placement, pushed G4’s, whispered C3’s. It’s the same technique mentioned within the analysis.

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      1. 0:17 flat throughout the beginning. Jinyoung doesn’t project well, he is a bit too airy and his lower notes are very quiet. His pitch is a bit wobbly and his breath support isn’t strong. Youngjae is within his supported range, 0:56 F4’s but then he hit G4’s afterwards which is where he strains. 1:03 shouty for Jinyoung, this is way outside his comfort range. 1:05 and 1:08 flat. 1:13 pushed G#4’s and G4’s. This is a bit high for Youngjae above F4, but this isn’t new. There’s nothing in this performance that’s different from what has been discussed about Youngjae and Jinyoung. 2:43 flat again for Jinyoung. Youngjae cracks a bit too often, he pushes too much pressure and he sounds like someone who gets tired easily. Irrelevant to technique on the getting tired easily part. Jinyoung has yet to figure out proper breath support but his pitch has improved a lot.

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  10. hi! sorry to bother you, but youngjae was recently on the king of masked singer, could you please take a look at his performance and share your thoughts on it? do you see any improvement?

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    1. I don’t hear improvement, I remember watching the performance with Thunder the other week and I didn’t hear a change in technique.

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      1. Can you choose 2 or 3 momments when Youngjae did the best and when he showed weakness in that performance and give some comments/short analysis to them, please? Thank you so much!

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      2. Do you have any particular reason for asking? Did you perhaps notice something? It’s just kind of an odd question.

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      3. I just want to know, as a fan. I hope that you can give some like what you did with a video of Youngjae and Jinyoung singing that were sent in the comment by someone on December 2016. But it’s ok if you don’t want to. Sorry for bothering you.

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      4. It’s okay. Well the thing is I’m on my phone so giving time stamps is difficult. A lot of the times in the song he sang in between E3 ~ F#4, but right in the beginning I believe he sang a few Bb2’s which were fairly airy. For the climas he sang many A4’s and G#4’s which were fairly strained.

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  11. When I read that sometimes Youngjae opens his mouth too wide, I laughed so hard. He is kind of known for his pretty big mouth so I thought of course that would be one of his weaknesses lol
    This got me thinking about the size of your mouth while singing. I have seen many performances of Sohyang and I sometimes notice that her mouth can be pretty wide when singing some notes. I would appreciate it if you could explain to me a little about how wide a vocalist should open their mouth because I don’t seem to understand much about it.
    Thanks

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    1. Wide is bad, long is good. If you open your mouth by stretching your lips to the sides, you create tension. If you open your mouth by dropping your jaw, you create space for sound to resonate. That’s the difference.

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    1. Yes, they’ve been mentioned in the comments before. ^ ^ They don’t show anything new for him vocally unfortunately though.

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  12. hi sorry for asking again , is youngjae one of the jyp vocalist without using half air half sound. and his singing style is similar to junho right? (simple without anything too complex)

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  13. Hey, I have an important question on Jackson… at least when he’s vocalizing…

    So when he speaks, doesn’t he speak in a relatively high, Tenor-like range? Not only that, his timbre is thin, raspy and light like a Tenor, albeit still weightier than Yugyeom, but it seems that it’s less heavy than Youngjae.
    HOWEVER, not only when he sings, but when he raps also, his tone changes drastically, so does his vocal weigh. I’ve never heard any recording of him in which his voice is like how he speaks when he’s singing or rapping. Even when he sings higher, like in “Sick”, he still sounds “Baritone”

    Could you explain this phenomenon ? The only reason I know is maybe him lowering his larynx (VERY artificially if that were the case) but I guess it’d be too unnatural and uncomfortable for him to do so even on stage.

    In the end, is he naturally a Tenor or a Bari?

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    1. I could only answer this question if I actually listened to Jackson enough to pay attention to his voice like that. He’s not a vocalist so it’s not like I actively listen to him to figure out his voice type. Unfortunately talking about his speaking voice, he doesn’t sound like a tenor from what I’ve heard and his singing also from what I remember, I made a mental note of him as a baritone but I can’t go into much more detail than that.

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  14. Actually I’ve just checked a few instances during which he speaks, and I think he might be a Baritone, though that timbre gives off a Tenor vibe.

    The more important question here is the difference of his voice when he sings/raps and talks. You mentioned his speaking voice and singing in your reply so I guess you’ve heard a few examples of them, and I thin you can clearly hear the difference in tone.

    Doesn’t his voice sound radically different here:

    Compared to here? (He opens the song)

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    1. He speaks around A2 a lot, he speaks low like a baritone. When he raps, he is VERY throaty. He does push his larynx down a bit as well, but to me the biggest thing is the throatiness. I don’t think his speaking timbre sounds tenor-like at all. He sounds like a baritone in both instances.

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  15. Hello 🙂
    I wanna ask something 🙂 according to your vocal analysis for Youngjae and Jb, I think Jb should be more comfortable with the higher notes right? (Because his vocal range includes a higher note than Youngjae’s) But when they sing the same part in that performance (https://youtu.be/n-35D5EqujE) Jb’s voice cracks while Youngjae seems pretty comfortable. So shouldn’t Youngjae’s vocal range be wider than Jb’s?

    Also here is a brand new “Honey” cover by Youngjae. Can u see any developments?

    I hope i made sense. Thanks for your efforts 🙂

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    1. Being able to hit higher notes more comfortable doesn’t have to do with one’s vocal range, but instead with their technique. It’s irrelevant how high JB can go in head voice, because you’re comparing their mixed voices. Youngjae has better technique in his mixed voice and a wider supported range, therefore he can handle singing in his mixed voice a lot better than JB simply because he has better technique. Range is irrelevant in this case, supported range is the most important aspect to look at with such a comparison. This cover of Honey is much better than his radio one from years ago.

      Liked by 1 person

  16. when you say he “Tends to place his voice too low in his chest and throat within his supported range” is that why his voice sounds quite thick/deep (not actually deeper but sounds it)?

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  17. Hi, since a few people already asked about jy/jackson here I figure it’s not too much of a problem if I ask about JY’s falsetto? Like, it seems he can support it very well during lives and easily makes switches from his “normal” singing to that high tone voice thingy… Lol sorry, it’s just that I feel his strains/lack of support nearly always and I want to know he at least has one good thing going for him as a vocalist 😀

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQrFDxHdU5Q 3:24 onwards is the best example I can give…
    (hopefully I didn’t mix up head voice and falsetto, since I admittedly know nothing about music and judge a vocalist’s capability based on the “strain” I hear)

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    1. By definition falsetto is a disconnected register and can’t be properly supported. Unfortunately the video is from Japan so it’s blocked for me.

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      1. Youngjae has better low range and mix also more open overall, for me both youngjae and baekho are stronger than ZAYN

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  18. Hi admin
    Really appreciate your alanalysis about youngjae. Would you mind have a look of these two live performances of their comeback recently? As JB was absent, Youngjae took more part of the chorus.
    I would like to know if you see any things different? Thank you very much!

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  19. i think he’s such a good singer and has all the tools for improvement. a shame JYP has that common streak w/ not really pushing their stronger vocalists’ potential :/ . i hope by 2018 there will be more improvements. im excited

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  20. hello could you please take a look of this performance of youngjae?I know nothing about music but he surely sounds better and more mature to me.Do you spot anything new?
    i know you will answer even though im probably asking something stupid.thanks for that you are doing a great job here!

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    1. Hi there! Haha It’s okay, I kind of need to listen to this to kind of relax myself a bit. He sounds really nice in this. He is mostly staying within his supported range throughout the song, which is helpful to show his strengths and for him to sing more comfortably. I’m hearing the same vocal habits that I’m used to from personally, but I do think this shows a lot of his strengths and could be added to his best vocal performances. Before the key change at the end around 2:40, I would say he was doing well. Then the G4’s were a bit of an issue and that pretty pushed A4 was also a bit outside where his supported range is. It’s still pretty comfortable for him overall though!

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  21. I havent seen anything about this I was disappointed noone asked. This sounds so nice so I kinda want to know.
    Around 1:39

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  22. Hi admin,
    Youngjae released this song a few days ago on soundcloud which is a cover of a song written for the accident of Sewol Ferry.
    Would like to know whether you have recognized something new from his vocal as I think he shows much improvement to control his dynamics while delivering with support and emotions in his voice. I sometimes think that he keeps using a medium to high level of dynamics (that might relate to the habit that he has to open his mouth so wide so as to try to increase the openness in his voice?) in live performances to make his performances lack some agility. But of course, I understand that this version is a recording version so it is another talk~

    I am just a music lover who did not analyse on vocals so please feel free to point out any misconceptions I have 🙂 Look forward to ur reply that I would sincerely want to learn more about vocal skills~

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  23. hello ahmin. i hope u have time to response for this. i have many questions. i hope you will be okay with my questions.

    this is the most recent youngjae’s solo song. what notes that he sing and is he still out of his supported range? is youngjae still show no improvement or is he getting worse? sometimes when i watch him so struggle to hit the notes i kinda worried if his singing technique are getting diminished. he is diligently taking the vocal classes but if he still have no improvement i feel really bad. below is the example of he is struggling compared to jb.

    my last question. did jb, youngjae and jinyoung hit the same notes during the chorus? what do you think about this performance? are all of them are strained notes?

    thank you for your time. i will be waiting for your reply.

    Like

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