Digital Warrior

Yet another MIDI controller project based on the Teensy development board, inspired by Ableton Push and NI Maschine. The concept behind this device is that it’s going to be used as a 3rd deck instrument ( sample launcher, drum pad, step sequencer ) in Ableton Live synced with my Traktor setup for some live, Reachie Hawtin style percussions on top of a DJ set.

Technology wise, there is an 4×4 white LED button pad connected through I2C, multiplexed on a MCP23008, which feels great for finger drumming. Two push rotary encoders with LED’s and four analog potentiometers and a shift button, when pressed down you can switched between 8 banks and 4 channels, plus some more settings. This gives us 128 unique mappable elements just on the button pad itself. The rotary encoders can also banked and when engaged, their value is displayed as a graph on the button pad. Every element can send a secondary CC or Note message for more mapping possibilities. The over all build is very light and small, I was also lucky to find silver cast acrylic which looks great.

If you are interested in this device please send me an email, if I get more than 10 people I will produce a number of units on a proper PCB, add RGB LED’s and more features.

The track from the video above can be found here, I recorded some samples with my old broken guitar, bassline, strings, sliced everything into clips and launch them while finger drumming.

NOW taking orders, just fill in this form and I will get back to you shortly: Form

8 thoughts on “Digital Warrior

  1. Can you build me one? Lets start a kick starter fund and you can build the thing we all want Traktor ableton controller with the push capabillities. You got skills!!

    Let me know

    • Yes you definitely could. I used the button pad board from spark fun and mcp 23008 chips. you could also find a lot of ways online to make your Arduino talk MIDI. If you want more specific details send me an email 🙂

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