Shakmat Bard Quartet: Demo

[@olastrandh2977]

Absolutely brilliant design. Bravo! 👍

[@kipropmusic]

Thanks for the video, love my Bard Quartet! :)

[@JurekPrzezdziecki]

Using this module every live and now I have discovered how arpeggiator option could be amazing. Thanks!

[@quantumcadillac4748]

another very cool module from U folks. will be picking one of these up.

[@batchas]

If I was into Eurorack I'd jump for it. What the 'harmony' pot/cv in does is something I really miss on my quantizers. I'm very impressed by all the functions of the module. Very well thought-out interface. Hat's off!

[@romtieche]

This is amazing

[@urogijani]

Would be nice to have some feedback on the uTune page, which notes you have in the scale selected, to not need to jump back and forth between the scale and uTune pages, to know exactly to what notes you can apply microtuning. It would be much quicker to set up a microtuned scale like that. Just with a dimmed light on the active notes for example. The microtuned notes are blinking anyway so it would not be confusing. Otherwise all the options and features are really nicely thought out 🤟

[@ShakmatModular]

Hey ! thanks for your feedback - we will release a firmware update this year with all the proposed features and this one should be in it ;)

[@takeiteasy6346]

@@ShakmatModular I got a disting specifically for microtuning. I did not know this module was capable of this. How are the microtuned scales saved? Only temporarily? Can I have them permanently saved to the module for quick access?

[@ShakmatModular]

@@takeiteasy6346 sorry for the late reply - microtuning can be stored in the non volatile memory :)

[@takeiteasy6346]

amazing@@ShakmatModular

[@tomjansen3432]

I hope you´ve hidden a bluetooth chip somewhere in the module.... ;-) ;-) I would kill for a "Shakmat modules App" and just be able to have all settings/shift functions/etc available on a nice big tablet GUI, with tabs for all the deeeep shakmat modules. I´m not particularly into menus/screens for modular... but an added "function access via tablet" would make it even more immediate.

[@modularonthespotboston6218]

Will the transposition function key track? I’d like to send a root from my keystep and have it move through the harmonic slots.

[@ShakmatModular]

Transpose input will track and will be quantized on semitones (post mode), on the scale (pre mode) or on octaves (octave mode)

[@acdnrg]

I will get one, but who decided to place the piano scale upside down?

[@ShakmatModular]

ah good one :) this was a huge debate in the team ! And actually if you check other quantizers from different manufacturers, it is not so rare to have the C note at the upper position - see it like 90 degree rotation to the left of a classic horizontal keyboard ;)

[@acdnrg]

@@ShakmatModular Yes, it´s a mixed bag. Lefties and Righties, ADDAC vs intellijel as examples. For me, it´s natural to find lower notes on the lower part of the keyboard - and my DAW editors (live, bitwig, cubase) follow that line of thought as well. But a user can adopt to either choice, no worries. I just wondered what the reasons are for rotating left. From what I see at modulargrid, it seems "consistency within eurorack" would lean to turning left, whereas "consistency with DAW" in mind would lead to right. That´s why I love my kassutronics :D (it has a circular keyboard). Anyways, the 4 track setup is an ideal match to that "Mono/Poly on steroids" I set up as part of my bigger case, so budget is getting allocated no matter what. Is the discussion on "DIY or not" still ongoing? Or has this been decided? I just want to know if it makes sense to plan for that or not. Thank you!

[@konstantine8054]

@@acdnrg Sorry to jump in but I hope I can shed some light: as soon as the jacks are on the bottom of the design, the deciding factor is where you want place that very central hands-on Harmony knob. The majority of users will be right-handed (for better or worse) so it needs to go to the right, and leave the rest of the panel available. Which means the piano scale goes to the left. With that set, it is easier to press the keys from top to bottom, than go from bottom to top. This is both from the perspective of the motion of using a single finger to quickly go through the piano keys, and the idea that you'll be using your left hand with them buttons; when playing the piano your left hand is used to having the lower C as it moves to the left. As @Shakmat said, this would be a 90-degree clockwise rotation of the clavier. You mentioned Intellijel, but may I suggest you look at the previous iterations of their quantizer: in uScale, you find C at the top! Their latest, Scale, presumes you'll be operating using your right hand while having the module on your lowest row (jacks at the top), which is a reasonable assumption but not one that fits this design, which has more things going on UI wise. The DAW paradigm simply originated from music scores where the lower note was lower in the stave. With that in mind, it was natural to put the lowest C at the bottom. It was not a simple decision to make, and a lot of things were taken into account. I can tell you that much. Hope it helps.

[@acdnrg]

@@konstantine8054 It does help a lot understanding the reasons behind. Thank you very much for that, outstanding from shakmat as always. Now me as a former pianist and reading score sheets daily, you know where my habits come from :D I only looked at the keyboard itself, but in context with the other elements it´s the better choice, I agree. Didn´t think about the overall ergonomics, now I do!

[@Farmerwal]

The big brain answer is don't learn how to play piano in the first place

[@stolencoats63]

Could this be set up to play 4 note chords? One note on each output and set up to be able to play all 7 chords of a particular scale instead of the more typical chord memory type synth sound.

[@ShakmatModular]

Yes - create your own harmonies with one note scales for each channel. With nothing inserted into the inputs play with the Harmony Knob or CV input :)