in the setup mode you are able to set the midi channels, enable momentary button messages, endless encoder modes, enable the sequencer, change sequencer length and set default bank colors.

to enter setup mode press down the shift button (little black one sticking out between the two encoders) while device is displaying the boot up animation.

after the initial animation you will see the pads light up displaying the current configuration.

the top right (1) green pad will save your current configuration and exit setup mode.

the three yellow buttons are the midi channels, first (3) is the buttonpad channel on which the note on and off messages are sent, also the cc messages if momentary mode is enabled. then there (4) is the controls channel on which the potentiometers and encoders send messages and finally (5) we have the sequencer channel on which the step sequencer sends messages. to avoid any mapping conflicts please use different channels for all three of them.

after pressing one of the channel buttons the button pad will update displaying the currently sellected channel lit yellow (*), pressing any of the pads will switch to that channel and return to the previous configuration menu. channels are layered out as follows

 

(6) is the momentary mode, white - disabled; purple - enabled. momentary mode is useful for mapping momentary switches in ableton live instead of the usual toggle switches. each button pad besides the usual note message sends also a cc 127 when pressed and cc 0 when released. 

(7) is ableton encoder mode, white - disabled; purple - enabled. ableton live and traktor differ in the way they interpret rotary encoders. when ableton encoder mode is enabled ableton optimized cc messages are sent, also the encoder values are updated and displayed locally on the device. when mapping encoders please select modes: bin offset in ableton and 7Fh/01h in traktor.

(8) is the banked encoders setting, white - disabled; purple - enabled. when enabled the encoders send and react to midi messages specific to that page, where as when disabled no matter on which page you are they will keep the same mapping.  

(9) enables the step sequencer, white - disabled; purple - enabled. the sequencer can be also turned on/off later through the pages menu

(10) is the sequencer length configuration. currently there are two options: white - 16 steps; purple - 32 steps. 

(11) is the step length parameter, it configures the duration of every step of the sequencer, 16th, 8th, quarter or half notes.

(12) enables the layering of voices in the pattern editor, active steps from other voices will be visually represented in yellow, where as active steps of the currently selected voice will be displayed with green as usual. very useful for keeping track which part of the sequence has room for more elements.

(13) enables midi through. any midi message received through the usb port that is not on the sequencer, control or button channels will forwarded to the midi din port.

(14) enables the midi sequencer output to the midi din port.

(2) is the default bank color setup. each bank (or page) will light up the button pads to the specified value if a note on with velocity 127 is received, other velocity values will trigger different colors.

when the color setup page is loaded, the lower half (1-8) button pads represent the 8 banks, by pressing each button will cycle through all the available colors. press the top right green button (9) to save the color configuration and return to the main setup page.

 

whenever you feel satisfied with your configuration press the top right green button (1) , your configuration will be saved in the device memory and the device will exit the setup mode.

digital warrior has only 16 button pads and 2 encoders, but they can have over 144 functions. this is archived by using banks (or pages) pretty much just like the tabs in your browser.

to switch pages press and hold the shift button (10) (between encoders) and the page select menu will appear. the currently active page (*) will be lit purple. press any of the lower half pads (1-8) and finally release the shift button.

when enabled, the step sequencer lives on pages 6 to 8. page 6 is the voice select page (white), page 7 are the steps 1 to 16 of the sequencer and page 8 are the steps 17 to 32 (blue). the currently active step page is lit cyan (if you have 32-steps enabled you will notice the two pages flipping from blue to cyan and vice-versa every 4 beats).

for the rest of the top half button pads please refer to the sequencer manual.

one of the main unique features of digital warrior is its step sequencer. you have 16 voices, 4 patterns per voice and up to 32 steps (2 bars) per pattern.

to use the sequencer first make sure that it is enabled on the digital warrior by holding down the shift button (1) (between the encoders). the top right pad (2) is the sequencer global mute, yellow - disabled, blue - enabled. also if you see banks 6 to 8 (8-10) light up it means that the sequencer is enabled. other wise refer to the setup mode page.

 

then you have to provide a midi clock signal to synchronize the beat

in ableton live you can do so by opening preferences and under the midi sync tab set on track and remote for input and track, sync and remote for output. note that you also might have to slightly adjust the sync delay setting (enable the metronome, sequence a four on the floor beat and adjust the setting until the sound is completely beat matched)

in traktor open preferences, go to the midi clock tab and tick send midi clock. again you might have to slightly adjust the offset (set a simple four on the floor sequence and adjust the setting until it's beat matched to the metronome)

then in the global section switch to the master clock tab (metronome icon) and click on the play/pause button in the send section. if the sequencer is off beat cue it on the downbeat by tapping sync in time

the step sequencer lives on pages 6 to 8. page 6 (8) is the voice select page (white), page 7 (9) is the pattern editor for steps 1 to 16 of the sequencer and page 8 (10) are the steps 17 to 32 (blue). the currently playing step page is lit cyan (if you have 32-steps enabled you will notice the two pages switching from blue to cyan and vice-versa every 4 beats). if the currently selected voice has a selected pattern with notes the clear pattern (4) and mute pattern (3) buttons will light up for that voice, yellow - muted, green - unmuted. by pressing (5) the save pattern button all four patterns of the selected voice will be stored on the device. each voice has available 4 patterns which can be selected from the second top row (6-7). the button presenting currently selected pattern is lit purple (6).

in the voice select (8) page, the currently active voice is displayed with a white pad (11) and any voices with patterns are shown with yellow (12). any voices with muted patterns are represented red (13). voices that triggered during the current step are flashing green (14). each voice sends an unique midi note message that represents a pad of the drum rack in ableton or an cell of the remix deck in traktor. each voice has its own four unique patterns over at page 7(9) and 8 (10) (only if 32 steps are enabled).

in the pattern editor (9-10) pages you will see a blue runner (15) passing through all the pads and green pads (16) showing the active steps of the sequence. every pad is one 16th step of a bar and whenever the runner passes through an active step an note on message is sent for that voice. white steps (17) are steps with a chance of triggering below 90%. to edit the chance of the last entered step twist the left encoder (a) and to change the velocity of that step twist the right encoder (b). each step by default has a 100% chance of triggering and a 127 velocity value.

 the velocity value is sent as the note on velocity value, but also as a control change message for that column at the sequencer midi channel.

the two endless rotary encoders, if enabled in the setup mode, are banked together with the button pads. this means that for each page they send and react to different midi messages, in other words can be independently mapped to different things and will automatically pickup the new values. if the banked encoders setting is disabled, the encoders will send and react to midi messages from the first page, no matter what page is actually active.

the value of the encoder is displayed for a second on the button pad in green for the left encoder and blue for the right encoder. if both encoders are displayed then the button pad is split into half showing both values condensed.

the two encoder modes change slightly the behavior and the messages they send. if ableton encoder mode is enabled (refer to the setup mode guide) the values are updated and displayed locally on the device and then synced to the incoming cc message. where as when the ableton mode is disabled, the values are displayed only upon receiving a corresponding cc message.

when mapping the encoders please select modes: bin offset in ableton and 7Fh/01h in traktor.

each of the encoders also feature a tri-color button which is also banked.

each of the button pads can take any of the 7 colors: red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, purple and white. the color is determined from the incoming note velocity value on the buttonpad channel, or the default bank color when the velocity is 127, which can be set from the setup mode.

for the rest of velocity values the colors set are as follows:

velocity	color
0	off
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
...	...
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127	default bank color

the rotary encoders can also take three colors, red, green and yellow. which is also determined from the velocity of the incoming note on message on the controls channel.

velocity	color
0	off
1
2
3
4
5
...	...
124
125
126
127

list of all midi messages sent and received.

component	page	note	cc	channel
sequencer voice 1	-	c1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 2	-	c#1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 3	-	d1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 4	-	d#1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 5	-	e1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 6	-	f1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 7	-	f#1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 8	-	g1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 9	-	g#1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 10	-	a1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 11	-	a#1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 12	-	b1	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 13	-	c2	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 14	-	c#2	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 15	-	d2	-	sequencer channel
sequencer voice 16	-	d#2	-	sequencer channel
potentiometer a	-	-	17	controls channel
potentiometer b	-	-	18	controls channel
potentiometer c	-	-	20	controls channel
potentiometer d	-	-	19	controls channel
encoder a	1	c#-2	1	controls channel
encoder b	1	c-2	0	controls channel
button 1	1	c-2	0	buttonpad channel
button 2	1	c#-2	1	buttonpad channel
button 3	1	d-2	2	buttonpad channel
button 4	1	d#-2	3	buttonpad channel
button 5	1	e-2	4	buttonpad channel
button 6	1	f-2	5	buttonpad channel
button 7	1	f#-2	6	buttonpad channel
button 8	1	g-2	7	buttonpad channel
button 9	1	g#-2	8	buttonpad channel
button 10	1	a-2	9	buttonpad channel
button 11	1	a#-2	10	buttonpad channel
button 12	1	b-2	11	buttonpad channel
button 13	1	c-1	12	buttonpad channel
button 14	1	c#-1	13	buttonpad channel
button 15	1	d-1	14	buttonpad channel
button 16	1	d#-1	15	buttonpad channel
encoder a	2	d#-2	3	controls channel
encoder b	2	d-2	2	controls channel
button 1	2	e-1	16	buttonpad channel
button 2	2	f-1	17	buttonpad channel
button 3	2	f#-1	18	buttonpad channel
button 4	2	g-1	19	buttonpad channel
button 5	2	g#-1	20	buttonpad channel
button 6	2	a-1	21	buttonpad channel
button 7	2	a#-1	22	buttonpad channel
button 8	2	b-1	23	buttonpad channel
button 9	2	c0	24	buttonpad channel
button 10	2	c#0	25	buttonpad channel
button 11	2	d0	26	buttonpad channel
button 12	2	d#0	27	buttonpad channel
button 13	2	e0	28	buttonpad channel
button 14	2	f0	29	buttonpad channel
button 15	2	f#0	30	buttonpad channel
button 16	2	g0	31	buttonpad channel
encoder a	3	f-2	5	controls channel
encoder b	3	e-2	4	controls channel
button 1	3	g#0	32	buttonpad channel
button 2	3	a0	33	buttonpad channel
button 3	3	a#0	34	buttonpad channel
button 4	3	b0	35	buttonpad channel
button 5	3	c1	36	buttonpad channel
button 6	3	c#1	37	buttonpad channel
button 7	3	d1	38	buttonpad channel
button 8	3	d#1	39	buttonpad channel
button 9	3	e1	40	buttonpad channel
button 10	3	f1	41	buttonpad channel
button 11	3	f#1	42	buttonpad channel
button 12	3	g1	43	buttonpad channel
button 13	3	g#1	44	buttonpad channel
button 14	3	a1	45	buttonpad channel
button 15	3	a#1	46	buttonpad channel
button 16	3	b1	47	buttonpad channel
encoder a	4	g-2	7	controls channel
encoder b	4	f#-2	6	controls channel
button 1	4	c2	48	buttonpad channel
button 2	4	c#2	49	buttonpad channel
button 3	4	d2	50	buttonpad channel
button 4	4	d#2	51	buttonpad channel
button 5	4	e2	52	buttonpad channel
button 6	4	f2	53	buttonpad channel
button 7	4	f#2	54	buttonpad channel
button 8	4	g2	55	buttonpad channel
button 9	4	g#2	56	buttonpad channel
button 10	4	a2	57	buttonpad channel
button 11	4	a#2	58	buttonpad channel
button 12	4	b2	59	buttonpad channel
button 13	4	c3	60	buttonpad channel
button 14	4	c#3	61	buttonpad channel
button 15	4	d3	62	buttonpad channel
button 16	4	d#3	63	buttonpad channel
encoder a	5	a-2	9	controls channel
encoder b	5	g#-2	8	controls channel
button 1	5	e3	64	buttonpad channel
button 2	5	f3	65	buttonpad channel
button 3	5	f#3	66	buttonpad channel
button 4	5	g3	67	buttonpad channel
button 5	5	g#3	68	buttonpad channel
button 6	5	a3	69	buttonpad channel
button 7	5	a#3	70	buttonpad channel
button 8	5	b3	71	buttonpad channel
button 9	5	c4	72	buttonpad channel
button 10	5	c#4	73	buttonpad channel
button 11	5	d4	74	buttonpad channel
button 12	5	d#4	75	buttonpad channel
button 13	5	e4	76	buttonpad channel
button 14	5	f4	77	buttonpad channel
button 15	5	f#4	78	buttonpad channel
button 16	5	g4	79	buttonpad channel
encoder a	6	b-2	11	controls channel
encoder b	6	a#-2	10	controls channel
button 1	6	g#4	80	buttonpad channel
button 2	6	a4	81	buttonpad channel
button 3	6	a#4	82	buttonpad channel
button 4	6	b4	83	buttonpad channel
button 5	6	c5	84	buttonpad channel
button 6	6	c#5	85	buttonpad channel
button 7	6	d5	86	buttonpad channel
button 8	6	d#5	87	buttonpad channel
button 9	6	e5	88	buttonpad channel
button 10	6	f5	89	buttonpad channel
button 11	6	f#5	90	buttonpad channel
button 12	6	g5	91	buttonpad channel
button 13	6	g#5	92	buttonpad channel
button 14	6	a5	93	buttonpad channel
button 15	6	a#5	94	buttonpad channel
button 16	6	b5	95	buttonpad channel
encoder a	7	c#-1	13	controls channel
encoder b	7	c-1	12	controls channel
button 1	7	c6	96	buttonpad channel
button 2	7	c#6	97	buttonpad channel
button 3	7	d6	98	buttonpad channel
button 4	7	d#6	99	buttonpad channel
button 5	7	e6	100	buttonpad channel
button 6	7	f6	101	buttonpad channel
button 7	7	f#6	102	buttonpad channel
button 8	7	g6	103	buttonpad channel
button 9	7	g#6	104	buttonpad channel
button 10	7	a6	105	buttonpad channel
button 11	7	a#6	106	buttonpad channel
button 12	7	b6	107	buttonpad channel
button 13	7	c7	108	buttonpad channel
button 14	7	c#7	109	buttonpad channel
button 15	7	d7	110	buttonpad channel
button 16	7	d#7	111	buttonpad channel
encoder a	8	d#-1	15	controls channel
encoder b	8	d-1	14	controls channel
button 1	8	e7	112	buttonpad channel
button 2	8	f7	113	buttonpad channel
button 3	8	f#7	114	buttonpad channel
button 4	8	g7	115	buttonpad channel
button 5	8	g#7	116	buttonpad channel
button 6	8	a7	117	buttonpad channel
button 7	8	a#7	118	buttonpad channel
button 8	8	b7	119	buttonpad channel
button 9	8	c8	120	buttonpad channel
button 10	8	c#8	121	buttonpad channel
button 11	8	d8	122	buttonpad channel
button 12	8	d#8	123	buttonpad channel
button 13	8	e8	124	buttonpad channel
button 14	8	f8	125	buttonpad channel
button 15	8	f#8	126	buttonpad channel
button 16	8	g8	127	buttonpad channel

since the mk2 the digital warrior features a 3.5mm jack connector that outputs midi messages. its meant to connect a jack to midi din cable and not headphones, even if you do it, your ears will not appreciate (believe me i've tried).

currently there are two options in the setup mode. to output the sequencer notes, and to act as a midi through port. this means that any midi notes or cc's received through the usb port that do not belong to any of the 3 channels the warrior is set up (button, control and sequencer) will be forwarded to the midi out port. this way it can be used as a simple midi interface. also the midi clock is being forwarded at all times.

note that the midi jack cable is constructed specially. and the ordinary audio to din5 cables will not work because the leads are connected to different pins than the midi protocol uses.

if you want to construct your own cables here is how you should connect them. (viewed from inner side of the connector).

the tip of the 3mm jack is connected to the second from the right pin in the midi din cable (voltage), sleeve is connected to the middle ground pin and the ring is connected to next one on the right(signal).

the new alternative firmware transforms the device into a stand-alone 4 track monophonic sequencer, it acts as a midi clock master for hardware only performances.

each track provides independent control over features like sequence lengths, direction, root note, scales, step length and midi channel. there are 4 clips per track that can be copied and edited while another sequence clip is active. 

each individuals step features parameters like octave, note, velocity and trigger probability, as well as note ties.

an additional display expansion board is developed to provide direct visual feedback for values and notes of each step. as well as extra buttons for fast access to common pages.

download the alternative firmware from here.

 

digital warrior commander edition

as soon as the device boots up, it loads to the sequence editor page (7) of the first track. note that there is no setup mode.

to enter a sequence, press the buttons corresponding to the steps of the sequence you wish to have notes on (2). to enter edit mode and set parameters like notes, velocities or step probabilities, press the edit button or the right encoder (4). the right encoder will light up red indicating that edit mode is enabled. also the selected step will turn red (1). by pressing different steps will change the selected step to it. 

to change the octave of the selected step. twist the octave potentiometer. if the sequence is paused it will send a note on to preview that step, otherwise if the sequence is running the change will be heard after that step is triggered.

to change the note of the selected step, twist the note potentiometer. the notes available is one octave of the notes provided by the selected scale, starting from the root note at the left most position of the encoder. by default the device boots up in chromatic scale that gives you all 11 semitones.

to change the velocity of the selected step, simply twist the velocity potentiometer.

the probability parameter determines how certainly will that step trigger, 127 means it will always trigger, 64 there is 50 percent of triggering and so forth. 

note that all of the parameter potentiometers are soft-takeover and will not change the value until the potentiometer meets the current setting for that parameter.

the length encoder determines the number of steps there are at the current track sequencer. it can be set from 2 steps up to 64 steps. the default is 16 steps.

finally while in edit mode you can also change the bpm in increments of 0.1 with the bpm encoder.

to create note ties press the first step from which you would like to start the tie and then by still holding down the first note press the last step of the tie, you will see that all the in between steps turned yellow indicating a tie (3). to disable a note tie repeat the process again.

 

by holding down the shift button, it is possible to switch through different pages like sequence editors, track and pattern selector, root note, sequence step length, scales, sequence midi channel, as well as some controls like direction, clearing the sequence, muting the sequence, pausing the whole sequencer and resetting all the sequences back to the first step.

to change the sequencer direction, simply press the shift button and one of the four sequence direction buttons (9). the first one is forward, then backwards, ping pong (cycling through forward and backwards every time the beginning or end of the sequence is reached) and random that triggers the sequence in no particular linear order.

the sequence step length (1) parameter configures the duration of every step of the current sequencer track, 16th, 8th, quarter or half notes.

the root note sets the first note for the sequencer (2). it is possible to transpose all of the four tracks together or each track individually. simply enable edit mode to transpose only the current track or transpose with edit mode disabled to set the root note for all of the tracks.

the scale select page lets you choose between a variety of scales (3). after selecting a scale, only notes in that scale will be available with the note potentiometer. the scales available are the following (starting from lower left)
melodic minor, harmonic minor, natural minor, major, harmonic major, minor pentatonic, major pentatonic, chromatic, blues, diminished, whole tone and bebop dominant. it is also possible to independently set scales for each sequence track or all of them at once, just like with root notes above.

setting a midi channel (4) defines the channel that midi notes will be sent for that specific sequence track.

resetting all sequences (10) back to the first downbeat step is useful for cueing up the tracks and the sequencer.

clear track (11) deletes all the steps of the selected track

mute track (12) mutes the current track

pause sequencer (13) will stop  the sequencer clock

 

at the track page (6) you can select and copy sequence clips for each track. the four playing clips for each track are shown green (3). if a clip contains a sequence it is shown yellow (4). if a track is muted then it is displayed purple (2). to select and edit a clip without triggering it, enable edit mode and then select a clip, the currently selected clip will be highlighted red instead of white (1). to copy a clip, while in edit mode press down the clip you wish to copy, and while holding it press the destination to which you wish to copy the clip.

 

loading and saving patterns can be done from the song page (5). up to 3 songs can be stored on the device, each song consists of the 4 clips for each of the 4 tracks and can be saved or loaded on the fly as the sequencer is running. due to limited memory capacity the step probability of each step does not get saved, also the velocity resolution of each step gets scaled down to 3-bits. 

to save the current song press the top left red pad (3).

the currently loaded song is shown with a green pad (1).

to load a new song press one of the yellow pads (2).