Xaoc Devices ZADAR User manual

operator’s manual rev. 1973/2.3
ZADAR
quadruple
envelope
generator
Model of 1973

SALUT
Thank you for purchasing this Xaoc Devices
product. Zadar  is a power ful, four-chan-
nel envelope, modulation, and transient genera-
tor, in a compact yet very complete, feature-rich
package. It is capable of synthesizing a vast
palette of envelopes starting from hundreds of
shapes stored in the memory. These starting

(from a fraction of a millisecond to half an
-

time. A set of freely assignable CV inputs allows
for external control of most parameters. Each
channel can work independently or combined
with other channels within one of the chaining
and looping algorithms. Operating Zadar is
quick and immediate, thanks to its accessible
interface and crisp OLED display. The main
screen displays all parameters together with
the currently selected shape. Entering the sim-
ple 3-page menu (4 pages with Nin expander
installed) is needed only for advanced settings.
INSTALLATION
The module requires 10hp worth of free space in
the eurorack cabinet. The ribbon type power ca-
ble must be plugged into the bus board, paying
close attention to polarity orientation. The red
stripe indicates the negative 12V rail and should
align with the dot, –12V or red stripe marks
on both the unit and the bus board. The module
itself is secured against reversed power connec-
tion, however reversing the 16-pin header may
cause serious damage to other components
of your system by short-circuiting the +12V and
+5V power rails. The module should be fastened
by mounting the supplied screws before pow-
ering up. To better understand the device, we
strongly advise the user to read through the en-
tire manual before using the module.
VECTOR SHAPES
Each shape is a vector curve comprising 3 to
1000 breakpoints, and each segment interpo-
lates between those breakpoints in real time.
This method allows the shapes to be scaled
from a fraction of a millisecond to half an hour,
without any stepping artifacts that would oth-
erwise be caused by undersampling. Similar to
vector graphics, these synthesized envelopes
      -

shapes to be smooth when you want them to be
smooth and sharp when you want them to be
sharp—regardless of time scale.

different shapes organized into 27 banks of 10
shapes. They have been carefully designed to
suit a wide range of use, from essential synth en-
velopes to complex transients, from modulation
cycles to rhythmic patterns, from quasi-random
modulations to perfectly regular functions, from
natural envelopes extracted from a variety of
acoustic and electronic instruments to fractal
abstractions and sequences. Several renowned
artists have been invited to contribute extra
“signature” shape banks (see the separate chart
for a graphical representation of each shape).
The essential feature of Zadar is that the vector

a variety of ways — in fact, some have been de-
liberately designed to be deformed. Many of the
complex shapes are intended for long, evolving
envelopes (for example bank x), while others
may serve better as snappy transients or reso-
nator exciters (like bank u).
INTERFACE OVERVIEW
Zadar features four identical channels named
a, b, c, d with dedicated CV inputs and outputs,
all sharing a common set of controls. With-
2
module
explained

43
front panel
overview
5
B
D
2
1
A
C
3
interface
6
4

in each channel, the trig input 1 expects a
trigger or gate impulse to initiate the envelope.
The asgn socket 2 is an assignable CV input
for external control (-10 to 10V) over a desired
parameter. To learn how to assign a parame-
ter, please read further down this manual. In
each channel, the corresponding envelope is
available at the out jack 3 as unipolar volt-
age (0 to 10V).
The set of four rotary “endless” encoders A,
B, C, Dis shared between the channels and
dedicated to key parameters as described on the
front panel.
The blue–illuminated channel button 4 (lit
when active) allows cycling through the chan-
nels. The OLED display 5 provides all the nec-
essary visual feedback in real time, for the se-
lected channel, with its name clearly displayed
      note:
whenever the module remains idle for 10 min-
utes, the screen turns off; simply push or turn
anything to re-enable. Editing the envelope in
the current channel is very easy:
Rotate the shape/rev knob A to select a
shape. Push the encoder to reverse the shape in
time. The result can be observed on the display.
Notice that shape and bank number are visible
while selecting it.
Rotate the rtg/time knob B to set the du-
ration (0,85ms to 30min). The exact value in
milliseconds is visible while turning the en-
coder, and the approximate percentage value
is shown in smaller text. Push the encoder to
switch between „digital”, „analog” and „no re-
trigger” behavior, indicated by appropriate dg,
an, or nr label on the screen. The dg option
causes the envelope to restart from the begin-
ning whenever a new trigger arrives which
makes it instantly jump to 0V. The an behavior
is more complex—the restarting is from the
-
lope had when the trigger arrived, thus there
is no glitch due to retriggering. The nr setting
ignores triggers incoming while the envelope
or a chain of envelopes is playing, thus Zadar
will only retrigger after the envelope or a chain

Press the wa rp /rsp knob C to toggle be-
tween two deformation parameters: warp
(temporal skew along the horizontal axis) and
response (amplitude bend along the vertical
axis). Rotate the knob to change the value of a
selected parameter, observing the deformation
result and bipolar percentage value on the
screen. Both deformations have a wide range,
therefore each of these may serve as an essen-
tial tool for radical shape mangling or simple
adjustment (e.g. adapting to the response of a
VCA). Please be aware that at maximum set-
ting, the deformation can be rather extreme,
dramatically altering the shape from its start-
ing point. Reversing the envelope retains the
war p value.
Press the sus/level encoder D to toggle be-
tween sustain and level parameters. The
4
retriggering behavior
DG
trigger trigger
NR
trigger trigger
AN
trigger trigger

5
cv
asignment
sustain sets the point on the envelope to be
held whenever a gate signal fed into trig input
is high. The position is indicated with a vertical
dashed line. Reversing the envelope does not af-
fect the sustain point position (it remains in the
same place relative to the starting point). note:
to disable the sustain stage, simply move the sus-
tain point to the very end of the envelope until
the display reads off.
The level parameter serves as an attenuator
to the envelope amplitude, from 10V down to
10mV (and 0). The approximate value is dis-
played as a percentage of the entire voltage
range, and the exact value in volts is visible
during adjustment.
MENU: CV ASSIGNMENTS
The central, red–illuminated menu button 6
cycles through three menu pages: CV input as-
signments, chain/loop settings, and preset man-
agement. note: with the Nin expander module
installed, a secondary CV assignments page
appears that addresses the extra set of asgn
inputs on the expander. note: encoders behave

in the top, default screen. Within these pages, en-
coders correspond to separate channels, and not
the default parameters indicated on the panel.

the corresponding channel's encoder to set its
CV destination. The list of available parameters
is browsed in a loop:
shp — selects the envelope shape
tim — adjusts duration
wrp — adjusts temporal warp
rsp — adjusts response
lvl — adjusts amplitude level
rep — selects the number of repeats
phs — adjusts phase shift
rev — reverses the shape
sus — sets the position of the sustain point
frz — freezes the envelope state
The degree of CV control of the selected param-
eter can be set by turning the encoder and is
indicated by bipolar percentage bars with 0V
in the middle. The interpretation of the display
is straightforward — the higher the bar is dis-

the parameter value. note: sensitivity of -50
for the time parameter offers an approximate
1V/octave response. Also, the rev and frz pa-
rameters react to CV in a binary manner. Like a
comparator, the respective action is performed
when the input CV exceeds the value as indi-
cated by the bar. With rev, the envelope is re-
versed in relation to the current panel setting,
and with frz, its state is frozen, thus pausing
the envelope and holding its current value at
the instant the CV exceeds the threshold.cv asignment menu
main screen

Press the menu three times to leave this menu
and cycle back to the main screen. Please note
that the parameter assigned to CV is indicated
by a small cv label next to its value.
MENU: CHAIN SETTINGS
Zadar offers several settings for complex behav-
ior of individual channels as well as chaining
and looping multiple envelopes across channels.
It is possible to combine up to four envelopes

behavior within a chain. Quite sophisticated en-
velopes and modulation waveform patterns can
be obtained this way. note: even when chained,
each envelope appears only on its dedicated
output. In this menu, each knob corresponds
to a separate channel. Push a knob to select the
desired parameter and turn it to edit the value.
The selection of a chain algorithm is per-
formed by operating the red knob (associated
with channel A). There are 16 available al-

chain splits, chains of three or four channels,
and looped derivatives of these. note: enve-
lopes chained to some other previous channel
have their trig inputs inactive. Any unchained
envelopes can still be used independently.
As long as the envelope remains unchained, the
phase
The value displayed is a percentage of the entire
cycle length and therefore depends on cycle dura-
tion—longer envelopes allow for longer delays.
Within the looped chain algorithms, the com-
mon behavior is for each envelope to start after
the previous one ends. However, by adjusting
the phase parameter, you can shift the next en-
velope so that it starts at any point within the
cycle of the previous one. Therefore, it is pos-
sible to initiate all four envelopes at the same
time (phase set to 0%) or make them start one
after another (phase on channels B , C , D
set to 100%. To loop the entire chain, also set
channel A phase to 100%). In other words,
within a chain, the phase
the phase shift with respect to the previous
envelope in the chain. For example, if phase is
set to 50%, the chained envelope will be trig-
gered exactly at the halfway point of the pre-
ceding envelope. For more variations, you can
experiment with setting a different number of
repeats for each channel within a chain.
The repeat
the current envelope will be repeated after com-
        
remains unchained, the repeat parameter sets

       -
havior. Repeating is also possible for envelopes

is then disabled.
chaining
the envelopes
6
chain menu
preset management menu

preset
management
Whenever the repeat value is greater than 0,
the phase parameter will consider all the repe-
titions as one long cycle when calculating phase
shift. Hence, the next envelope in a chain may be
activated anytime during the repeats of the pre-
ceding one. note: the default value of phase is
zero. When a looped chain is selected from the
algorithms, at least one phase value needs to
be set to more than zero for the whole loop to
function properly.
Press the menu button two times to leave this
menu and cycle back to the main screen. Please
note that the activated functions are indicated
by the small chain, phase, and repeat labels
below the shape depiction.
MENU: PRESET MANAGEMENT
Zadar offers a myriad of parameters and set-
tings that can create quite complex program-

to save your work for later use within the de-
sired patching scenarios. The red encoder A is
used to navigate within the preset
6). Rotate the knob to select one of 18 preset
slots. Then push the knob again to bring up the
selection of possible operations: save, load,
clear, and default preset. To prevent mis-

operation. Each preset stores all the module set-
tings. The default preset is recalled on module
power-up. Press the menu button once to leave
this menu and cycle back to the main screen.
COPYING THE SETTINGS
Press and hold the channel button 4 to
open the channel settings copy menu. It is
possible to paste the current channel settings
to any other channel or all at once. The red en-
coder A is used to navigate within the copy
menu. To leave the menu without copying,
select cancel.
QUICK SAVE
Zadar does not auto-save edited channel
settings. To quickly save them to the default
preset slot, press and hold the menu button
6menu and
channel
EXPANDABILITY: NIN
Nin, an expander module also available from
Xaoc Devices, offers a second set of assignable
CV inputs and manual trigger/gate push-but-
tons for more comfortable tweaking. Manual
triggering via the Nin expander buttons dis-
plays the triggered channel envelope on the
screen.
ACCESSORY
Our Coal Mine black panels are available for
all of Xaoc Devices modules. Sold separately.
Ask your favourite retailer. •
chain algorithms
7

MAIN
FEATURES
Four independent
channels
270 unique
vector shapes
Cycle time range:
0,85ms to 30min
Shapes can be

in two dimensions
Immediate oper-
ation, accessible
interface
Complex envelope
looping and
chaining features
Assignable CV
inputs to control
nearly every
parameter
18 preset slots
TECHNICAL
DETAILS
Eurorack synth
compatible
10hp, skiff
friendly
Current draw:
+40mA/-10mA
Reverse power
protection
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