#246

Wow @n-So, that is fantastic! JF sounds amazing!!! Definitely a “headphones required” listen!

Kudos again to @billyhologram for the amazing design and being willing to open source it for everyone to enjoy. I can’t imagine patching without it.

Opinion: Nearness’ panning behavior and patching configuration are a work of art; it works exactly as it looks. This may seem obvious now - but scroll back to the top of the thread and take a gander at the first prototype. The initial placement of the outputs were side-by-side on one end. It took hard work, iteration, and inspiration to bring it to the final version. Major respect to @billyhologram for this. Simple is damn hard.

Right now the TXn are landing all over the world, improving stereo fields everywhere with @billyhologram’s magic!! Can’t wait to hear all the results. :slight_smile:

17 Likes
#247

Yes nearness is really the perfect minimal mixer.
period.
p.

3 Likes
#248

This is beautiful, @n-So!

Very glad that the TXn are out in the world and becoming part of people’s setups now. Huge respect for @bpcmusic for making it possible!

3 Likes
#249

@bpcmusic this might be an annoying question given how busy you’ve been lately, but do you plan to do more TXn’s in the future?

if not, no worries, and maybe I’ll DIY one when the 2hp files are released. thanks!

2 Likes
#250

Nah. Not annoying. :slight_smile:

I do. I have parts, panels, and PCBs for more units already on hand. I’m not sure when I plan to get around to it (playing catch-up with so many things) and how I’m going to go about doing it (maybe a few every now and then). Depends on demand … and my stamina. :slight_smile:

Hoping to get the GitHub up soon. I have some business travel this week…so maybe after that.

6 Likes
#251

Any muli-output oscillator will be happier with a TXn.

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#252

Getting a QPAS tonight at CTRL. Can’t wait to try it out with the TXN. :drooling_face: All those stereo filter outputs… :drooling_face:

1 Like
#253

I’ve uploaded all of the files I used to build the TXn to GitHub. This includes all of the assistive aids (build guide, stencils and frames, alignment blocks, …) and things like the panel files and BOM.

Having built a bunch, I can credibly say that the TXn is a pretty fussy SMD build with many opportunities to fail. If you are interested in building your own Nearness, I highly recommend you consider the 3HP version. The layout is cleaner and the assembly is much simpler. Not that making a TXn is impossible - just a PITA. :wink:

You can find my files here: https://github.com/bpcmusic/TXn

Long live open source!!!

17 Likes
#254

thanks for this!! ha does look fiddly but I thiink space-saving wins out for me :slight_smile:

#255

Are the jack PCB files missing, or am I not looking in the right spot? Funny enough the jack layout and assembly methods are what I’d most like to borrow from :sweat_smile:

#256

The two boards are side-by-side in the primary eagle files so you can see the total schematic and layout. However, they are not panelized and need to be exported to their own individual eagle files for sending to a Fab.

Inside of the gerbers folder, the two boards are broken into their own set of eagle files and then exported to individual gerbers.zip files.

1 Like
#257

Ah well perhaps it’s just the PNG files which don’t display the other PCB… Haven’t checked the gerbers yet!

#258

bingo. i didn’t export one. just added a view to the repo:

1 Like
#260

A thought for a neat alternative use case that just came to mind — Nearness as (mono) AUX send: Top out dry, bottom out to delay or reverb …

My TXn is stuck at the German customs since 10 days (not too unusual) and dreaming of uses is the only thing left to do for now … :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

8 Likes
#261

So with the QPAS stereo outputs, does it retain stereo when patched into the TXN? Or does the TXN treat all as mono and just places them in a stereo field.

I was playing with the QPAS last night and it seemed more ‘stereo’ when just listening to it alone. It did sound stereo-ish when put into the TXN but didn’t have the sweeping sounds.

#262

I think what is happening:

Due to the phase effects of the multiple filters of QPAS, its output has a stereo character (L is different than R). When you connect this to the TXn, you are putting the mono L and mono R into a mixer (TXn). The only thing TXn is doing is attenuating each input in relation to its output (ins physically closer to their outs are louder).

It’s still stereo, but you are just transforming one image into another.

1 Like
#263

put another way - the QPAS already has full stereo separation by default. if you plug one of your QPAS ‘left’ outputs into one of the various left side inputs the TXn, you’re actually moving a hard left signal closer to the center of the TXn’s stereo mix.

I am not clear on whether or not the TXn/nearness pans the signals patched closest to the outputs 100% left and 100% right, if they do, those would preserve the full stereo separation…but all the other inputs are going to move the signals progressively closer to center.

it seems to me that the most natural pairings for TXn/nearness aren’t modules that are already stereo (since they already have a stereo image and in most cases you’d be diluting that), but rather multiple related (or not) mono signals, such as TXo, Just Friends in audio modes, multiple waveform outputs from oscillators, or any other mono signals you want to easily place in the stereo field. If you already have stereo signals present in your system, you might instead want to use a stereo mixer at the end of your chain to mix them with the stereo output of TXn/nearness.

5 Likes
#264

thanks for the answers! Definitely curious putting a fully patched TXn into the QPAS. see what kind of craziness you get out of that.

2 Likes
#265

I am also awaiting my nearness in the mail and have been seriously considering swapping out my MI Shelves for the QPAS. I would love to hear your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to experiment more with the combo

#266

Never used Shelves before. its a lot like 3 sisters in stereo. Its really playable and fun to experiment with.But I’m not using TXn with QPAS since TXn places mono sources in a stereo space. But it’s fun yo put the TXn into QPAS to play around with.

1 Like