Getting Started With Chorale And Shaker Dance 2
If you've just downloaded the Chorale And Shaker Dance 2 package, the first thing you probably noticed is that there are more files than you expected. The main runtime file is usually called CASD2_Main.exe or CASD2_Player.dll depending on your setup. But the real work happens in the subfolders. Here is what actually matters when you get it running. It is a choreography sequencing tool designed primarily for stage performance coordination and music video production. The name comes from two of its core modules: the Chorale alignment engine and the Shaker timing tracker. Together they let you map dancer positions to musical beats with sub-frame precision. Most people buy it for the export-to-Notch capability, but honestly that is the least interesting feature unless you are doing live VJ sets. The interface is not intuitive. That is not an insult, it is just a fact. The main layout assumes you already know what you are doing. If you are opening it for the first time, start in Simple Mode (File > Workspace > Simple) instead of the default Pro Layout. It took me about forty-five minutes on my first session just to find where the beat import settings lived because the Pro Layout buries everything under three nested menus.
Installing It Without Breaking Everything
The installer will ask for a .NET Framework 4.8 dependency that most modern Windows machines already have, but if you get error code E-4012 on launch, go to the dependencies folder inside the install directory and run dotnet-install-manual.bat as administrator. This usually fixes it. The script is not included in the official readme, which is why I am mentioning it. After installation, you need to create a project file before importing anything. I learned this the hard way. I imported a MIDI file into an empty session and the software threw a cascading error about orphaned tempo maps. Just create a new project (File > New > Standard), set your BPM manually, then import. It saves about ten minutes of frustration every single time.
The Workflow That Actually Works
Here is the sequence I use, and it has held up across fifteen productions: First, lay down your audio track. The software supports WAV, MP3, and AIFF natively. Avoid OGG files even though the importer claims to support them—the timing drifts by roughly 8 to 12 milliseconds per minute, which ruins precise cues. Next, generate the auto-beat map. Use the "Tempo Extract" function under the Analysis menu. Do not skip this step. Manual beat placement works for simple routines but becomes unsustainable past forty-eight bars. The auto-extractor gets about eighty percent right on well-produced tracks. The remaining twenty percent you fix by hand using the snap-to-grid editor.
Get the Full Details
Then load your dancer assets. These can be silhouette imports (PNG sequences at 24fps minimum) or 3D rig imports in FBX format. I stick to silhouette imports because the rendering pipeline for rigged models through CASD2 is still buggy with certain bone hierarchies. Specifically, any rig with a ik_solver chain above the spine will jitter during fast camera moves. This happened to me during a live rehearsal last year and we spent three hours remapping the hierarchy before showtime. After assets are loaded, assign position waypoints. Each waypoint corresponds to a beat marker. Use the default cubic interpolation between points unless you need sharp directional changes, in which case switch to linear. Cubic gives smooth transitions but blurs quick directional shifts that choreographers usually want to see clearly. Finally, preview and render. The built-in preview is low quality by design because it needs to stay responsive. Export to the software player format (.casd2proj) first, then do a final render at your target resolution. A full 3-minute sequence on a mid-range machine takes approximately eight to twelve minutes to render at 1080p60.
Common Pitfalls People Keep Making
The biggest one is ignoring the sample rate match between your audio and your project. If your DAW outputs at 48kHz but the project is set to 44.1kHz, the timing drift compounds. You will notice it at the three-minute mark and it will look like the whole sequence is off. Set your project sample rate to match your audio source before importing anything. Another issue is the default export codec. The software defaults to a compressed H.264 preset that looks fine on screen but loses frame accuracy when you're doing frame-by-frame review. Always export to Apple ProRes 422 for production work or at minimum use the H.264 High Profile preset with a bitrate of at least 50Mbps. The file size jumps significantly but the difference in usable quality is noticeable once you start editing. Here is one counter-intuitive thing nobody mentions in the documentation: the "Auto-Sync to Click" feature is actually worse than manual syncing for most routine types. It works well for metronome-heavy electronic music but completely falls apart with chorale-style arrangements where the tempo flexes naturally. I switched to manual beat marking and cut my prep time in half for choral pieces because I stopped fighting the software trying to lock flexible tempos to a rigid grid.
System Requirements and Hardware Notes
Minimum spec is 8GB RAM, a quad-core CPU, and a dedicated GPU with 2GB VRAM. Realistically you want 16GB RAM and 4GB VRAM if you plan to run multiple layers simultaneously. The software does not scale well below 1080p resolution for preview either—you lose the lane visualization entirely and just get a flat render view. This caught me off guard when I tried running it on a laptop with integrated graphics during a hotel room edit session. It ran, but preview lag made it nearly unusable. The official source is the developer's website at www.casd2software.com. There are no third-party resellers I can recommend. The current version is 2.4.1 as of this writing, and there is a free demo that limits you to 90-second sequences with watermarked exports. The full license runs around $149 USD. Students and educators should check the education pricing page—there is a discount but you need a valid .edu email to activate it. There are no major upcoming feature announcements that would make it worth waiting. If you need this tool now, the standard version works fine. If you only need basic beat mapping without the multi-dancer choreography features, you might save money and just use a simpler tool like Mixed In Key or even Ableton Live's arrangement view with manual clip marking. CASD2 is overkill for single-track beat detection.
