Shakmat Bard Quartet User manual

10HP Eurorack Module Built & designed in E.U. www.shakmat.com
Shakmat
Bard Quartet

The Bard Quartet composes and sings along with your complex
harmonies! With its 4 channels and integrated keyboard,
the Bard Quartet can control up to 4 different instruments which
will play together as a harmonious quartet fed by your musical
ideas. Even better: the potentiometer allows you to navigate
through 8 customisable harmonic progressions, leading to the
creation of entire songs!
The Bard Quartet can memorise up to 320 scales (4 channels, 8
harmonies, 10 memory slots). Furthermore it includes highly
customisable Microtuning and Arpeggiator options, as well as
three assignable inputs and outputs.
Introduction
The Bard Quartet requires a standard 2x5 pin eurorack power
cable. Make sure the red stripe on the cable matches the -12V
side of the Bard Quartet’s power header.
Installation
Trigger output & LED
Gate input
Channel CV inputs
Transpose CV input
Channel CV outputs
Harmony CV input
Keyboard buttons
Harmony potentiometer
Channel buttons
Edit button
μTune / Option button
ARPG / Memory button

Scales
A useful feature is the ability to group up to 4 channels. Hold a
Channel button [C] and press another channel button, the scale of
the first channel is copied to the second one and editing the common
scale applies to both channels. Grouped channels are indicated by
their Channel LED's being simultaneously on. Any combination of
groups can be created.
Grouping Channels
The Keyboard buttons [7] are used to set a scale per channel.
The button of the active note shines brighter than the other
selected notes, providing a real-time note monitoring. The edited
channel is selected using the Channel buttons [C].
Harmony
Once a scale has been set for each of the channels in use,
turning the Harmony potentiometer [B] allows the repeat of the
process for 8 different harmony locations. This leads to the
creation of harmonic progressions, which can be the basis of
song structures. Using the Harmony potentiometer, the different
harmonies can be accessed very quickly.
In addition to Scale progressions, Harmony
changes also have an effect in Edit settings,
Arpg settings, μtuning and Channel groups.
By default, only the Scale settings are shared, but
the Options menu (see further) allows for more
settings shared between grouped channels.

The Edit menu is accessed by pressing the Edit button [D].This
menu provides Octave switching, Trigger Out, Gate In and
Transpose In capabilities per channel and per harmony. The Edit
button is lit as long as the menu is active, press it again to exit the
menu.
Edit Menu
Transpose from -3 to +3 octaves.
Octave
Channel assignment to the Trigger
output [1] which delivers a trigger each
time a note change is detected in an
assigned channel.
Trigger Out
Channel assignment to the Gate input
[2] which works as a track & hold.
Gate In
Channel assignment to the
Transpose input [4] which can work
as a pre-quantize, post-quantize
or by octave transposer.
Transpose mode

Each channel can be turned into an arpeggiator instead of a
quantizer. The channel will then react to triggers instead of voltage
changes at the Channel’s CV input [3]. The Arpeggiator menu is
accessed by pressing the Arpg button [F]. The Arpg button is lit as
long as the menu is active, press it again to exit the menu.
To turn a channel into an arpeggiator, press the corresponding
Channel button [C] while holding the Arpg button [F] (Arpeggiator
menu must be active). An arpeggiated channel is indicated by a
blinking channel button. Turning a channel into an arpeggiator
applies to all Harmony locations. The Arpeggiator menu also sets the
Arpeggiator mode and Octave spread per channel and per harmony.
Arpeggiator Menu
Five arpeggiator modes are available :
Arpeggiator Mode
The octave range can be spread from
one to four octaves.
Octave Spread
Up
Down
Pendulum
Spiral
Random
If a channel is set as an Arpeg-
giator, the Gate in option in the
Edit menu allows for a third
option (indicated by blinking):
Reset in.

For each channel and harmony, the note being detuned can be
selected independently with the Keyboard buttons [A]. The
detuning is performed with the Harmony potentiometer [B]. At noon,
the note is in tune. Turning the potentiometer clockwise increases
the note upwards to +50 cents, turning it counter clockwise detunes
the note downwards up to -50 cents. A detuned note is indicated by
a blinking keyboard button. The microtuning settings for all notes
can be deleted for a particular channel and harmony by holding the
μTune button for 4 seconds, and waiting for it to blink. When quitting
the Microtuning menu, the Harmony potentiometer may be off
position regarding the currently played harmony. To re-synchronize
the potentiometer, pass by the current harmony value.
The Bard Quartet features microtuning
and allows the user to detune each of the
12 equal temperament notes by a range
of +/- 50 cents of a semitone. The
Microtuning menu is accessed by
pressing the μTune button [E].The μ
Tune button is lit as long as the menu is
active, press it again to exit the menu.
Microtuning
The current settings (including the progressions into 8 harmonies)
can be stored into 10 slots of non volatile memory. The Memory
menu is accessed by pressing the Edit [D] and Arpg / Memory
buttons [F] simultaneously. The Edit button is lit and the Arpg /
Memory button is blinking.This menu includes the loading and
saving of memory slots as well as Intra slot manipulations. To exit the
Memory menu press the Arpg / Memory & Edit buttons.
Memory Menu
IN TUNE
+
5
0
C
T
S
-
5
0
C
T
S

The Options menu is accessed by pressing the Edit [D] and μTune
/ Options buttons [E] simultaneously. The Edit button is lit while the
μTune / Options button is blinking. The Options menu features
different options related to channel grouping and Interactions,
these settings apply to the current slot as a whole. To exit the
Memory menu press the Edit & μTune / Options buttons.
Options
Inside the current memory slot, that is the
current state of the module, it is possible to
copy and paste all contents of a particular
Harmony into another Harmony of another
channel. When a certain Harmony and
channel are selected, copy/paste action is
performed by holding the Arpg button [F],
select the target Harmony and/or channel,
then release the Arpg button.
Intra slot manipulation
Slots can be saved and loaded by using the
Keyboard buttons [A]. The C# and D#
buttons perform Load and Save operations,
while the rest of the keyboard represents the
10 slots. When starting up, the module
always loads the first slot. In order to
load/save, press the load/save button, then
press the target slot, and finally confirm the
action by pressing the blinking load/save
button.
Loading & saving slots
slot
1
slot
2
slot
3
slot
4
slot
5
slot
6
slot
7
slot
8
Load
Save
slot
9
slot
10

By default the grouping only involves Scales
settings. It is however possible to also share
Edit, Microtuning and Arpegiattor settings. Note
that this option applies to all the channels.
• ALL OFF = Only scales are copied.
•C# IS ON = Scales and Edit parameters are
copied.
• D# IN IS ON = Scales, Edit, Microtuning
and arpeggiator parameters are copied.
Channel Grouping Options
This option allows the interaction of channels
2, 3 and 4 when 0V is detected at the CV
Input. This option applies per channel. There
are 3 possible interactions:
• F# IS ON = No channel interaction
• G# IS ON = Normalisation
When 0V is detected at its CV input, the
channel will follow the input of the previous
channel.
• A# IS ON = Shift Register
To activate this function for a certain channel,
the Gate in option (in the Edit menu) must be
activated. Whenever a trigger is received at
the Gate input and 0V is detected at its CV
input, this channel will follow the input of the
previous channel. This function thus acts as a
shift register.
Channel Interaction Options

Advanced Features
When settings are selected in the Edit or Arpeggiator menu, they
only apply to an individual harmony of a certain channel. It is
however possible to generalise a setting to all the harmonies of a
certain channel by holding the Channel button before selecting a
setting on the keyboard buttons.
Applying Settings to All Harmonies of a Channel
It is possible to edit the Scale, Edit and Arpeggiator settings of a
certain harmony while still playing another harmony. If the μTune
button is pressed and held, the module dissociates the Harmony
potentiometer from the harmony that is being played. In that way,
the Harmony potentiometer can navigate freely across the
harmonies to edit them. When the μTune button is released, the
Harmony potentiometer is re-associated to the currently played
harmony. This feature also allows to easily navigate towards
non-adjacent harmonies.
Harmony Potentiometer Freeze
The Bard Quartet not only controls Eurorack instruments using the
V/Oct standard, it can also control Hz/V and 1.2V/Oct instruments.
To change the Output norm of a specific channel, enter the
Microtuning menu then hold the μTune button while pressing on the
Channel button. The output norm is indicated by the blinking
pattern of the Channel button :
• No blinking = V/Oct
• Simple blinking = Hz/V (Korg,Yamaha)
• Triple Blinking = 1.2V/Oct (Buchla)
Output norm

Factory Tables
•C= Blank slot
The next 6 slots have different settings per channel and are
intended to be used for evolutive harmonies:
• D = Diatonic major degrees
•E= Harmonic minor degrees
•F= Melodic minor degrees
•G= Circle of fifth
• A = Chromatic progression
• B = Progression inspired by Messiaen mode 2
The last 3 slots are banks of scales and microtuning, the same
settings apply on every channel:
• F# = Bank of ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, myxolydian, æolian,
locrian and super locrian scales
• G# = Bank of whole tone, diminished, blues, minor pentatonic,
major pentatonic, Arabic, Hungarian and Gypsy scales.
• A# = Bank of different microtuned scales : just intonation,
gamelan slendro, samelan pelog, Bayati, Hijaz, Nawahand,
Bastanikar and broken piano.
Factory Reset
To restore the factory memory, hold the Arpg button while powering
up the module, then press the μTune button to apply. All the
buttons are blinking until the factory memory is restored.

Specifications
Size
10 HP
Depth
29 mm
Current Draw
60 mA @ +12V
10 mA @ -12V
Channel CV inputs
-3 to +7V
Harmony CV input
-5 to +5V
Transpose CV input
-5 to +5V
CV outputs
-3 to +7V
Gate Input
0 to +5V
Trigger Output
0 to +5V
www.shakmat.com