Since a small number of basis curves with coarsely incremented relaxation rates suffices to precisely fit multicomponent exponential decay curves, a very simple protocol can be used to parsimoniously capture all the information in a relaxation measurement without making any assumptions about the underlying distribution of relaxation rates. This amplitude-only protocol, here denoted SBP (Small Basis Parameterization), starts by picking a series of single-exponential basis components whose fixed rates are geometrically incremented within the range of expected relaxation rates using the resolution factor as the increment. These basis curves are assembled into a basis matrix B . Then, Equation (1.5) is solved for the spectral vector s giving the least-squares fit to the data. Because the number of basis curves is low, the spectral vector can be found directly without needing to consider ill-conditioning of the basis matrix or regularization of the spectral vector. An analysis of this type is shown in Figure .