Using Scaler to drive Opus Orchestrator in Cakewalk

[Steve Harder]

Here's my Cakewalk setup for using Scaler to drive Opus Orchestrator.  It took some trial and error to sort this out.

I found that I needed to use Scaler VST2,  VST3 caused some Audio Engine dropouts (9).  Possibly just my setup but VST2 works.

Basically it's Scaler to intermediate Midi track to Opus.  I had a number of issues when trying to go Scaler to Opus directly.  Possibly just my setup ...

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Then when I want to capture the midi out from Opus.

I set up 16 midi tracks. First set to Opus Ch1, etc.

Conveniently Opus Orchestrator is consistent is assigning a slot to a midi channel, so  you can provide a generic name for each track.  And then you can replace with name of actual articulation or target instrument.

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I'm currently exploring the Ostinato - 16th Notes Accents Orchestrator presets. 

The Scores presets get old pretty fast.  But the Ostinatos provide a rich departure point for creating your own unique patterns.  Many of the staccato instruments have long series of notes all on the same step.  So going in and tweaking to Step+1, Step -2 starts to get the arpeggiator juices flowing.  And some of the "accent" presets have nice variation in note velocity.  The trick is to move those notes to new locations because setting velocity on new notes is not overly friendly.  And CC1 is nice but hard to dial in on a note by note basis.

The Orchestrator Arranger Modes provide an opportunity to "get lucky" without the total randomness that some other arpeggiators' "random" modes create.  

And driving Opus with Scaler brings another dimension to the party.  My current instinct is to stick with a midi track driving Scaler into midi into Opus for the time being.  I'm not at all ready to commit to capturing midi and then sending that on to other non Opus instruments.  Lots of layers to peel apart as we learn how to utilize Opus.

I wish the Orchestrator midi editor was friendlier but early days yet.