Cues

Inkweaver plays the music you make in your DAW. Bounce your audio, save the files anywhere in your workspace, and Inkweaver will find them.

A cue can be a single track that plays once, or a dynamic score that changes with the story, beat by beat.

Anatomy of a cue

A cue is made of short audio files called blocks. Each block is one musical phrase, bounced as a .ogg or .wav file.

A static cue is a single block in a single file. A dynamic cue uses many blocks, arranged in two directions:

• Horizontally, blocks play one after another to form a sequence.
• Vertically, blocks play at the same time to form a stack.

Tails

When you bounce a block, leave some room at the end for the phrase to decay naturally. This is the block’s tail.

When the music moves to a new sequence, Inkweaver waits for the current block to finish before starting the next one. The first block’s tail rings out over the start of the next, so the change sounds smooth.

Use the same tail length for every block in a cue, even blocks that don’t need one. Inkweaver uses the tail length to work out where each block ends.

Triggering a cue

Cues start from labels in your screenplay. For a static cue, the label is the cue’s filename without the extension. The cue starts when the reader reaches that line.

EXT. ABYSSAL GAME ROOM - PROLOGUE
<abyssal-theme>

Static cues end with the scene

A static cue plays once, and stops when the scene changes. To keep it playing into the next scene, add the same label to the first beat of that scene. The cue keeps playing without a break.

For a dynamic cue, the label is the cue’s name followed by one of its sequences or mixes:

INT. ABYSSAL GAME ROOM - MIDNIGHT
<abyssal-theme prelude>

To change the music as the story goes on, use the label again with a different sequence or mix:

HOST
So, which of you will be the next to go, hmm?
<abyssal-theme debate-begins>

Here, Inkweaver moves the cue to the debate-begins sequence at the next block boundary, when the current block ends.

Dynamic cues are arranged in Inkweaver Studio

You’ll arrange dynamic cues in Inkweaver Studio. The rest of this page explains how a dynamic cue fits together, so you know what to compose for. For step-by-step instructions, see dynamic cues.

Sequences

A sequence is a row of blocks that play one after another. Each block has a role:

• Intro blocks play once, as the cue begins.
• Body blocks play in the middle, and can loop until the cue moves to another sequence.
• Outro blocks, if there are any, play before the cue ends or moves to another sequence.

Fills

A fill is a short block that plays between two sequences. Use it as a turnaround to smooth a change in key, tempo, or intensity.

Each fill belongs to one transition, from one named sequence to another. Fills are optional. Without one, the new sequence starts as soon as the previous one ends.

Mixes

A cue’s stack can hold separate stems, like individual instruments or vocals, that play at the same time. A mix adjusts those stems independently.

A mix can change each stem’s volume and panning, position it in 3D, and add effects like a low-pass filter or reverb.

To apply a mix, use its name in a label:

<abyssal-theme strings-swell>

Stingers

A stinger is a one-shot flourish that plays over a cue while the music underneath keeps going. It lets the music react to a moment in the story without interrupting the soundtrack.

Like a cue, a stinger starts from a label:

CLAIRE
I know who the murderer is!
<abyssal-theme shock>

A stinger can play immediately, or wait for the next block boundary:

• Immediate stingers react right away. They work best with long blocks, where waiting for the boundary would delay the moment.
• Boundary stingers wait for the current block to end, so they stay in time with the music. They work best with short blocks.

Ending a cue

A cue ends when it reaches a sequence with no looping body. That sequence plays once, and then the cue stops. It’s common to give it a name that signals the ending, like coda:

<abyssal-theme coda>

Exporting from your DAW

Export your blocks the way you normally would:

1. Compose or slice your music into phrases. It helps to compose in modular stems from the start.
2. Leave the same length of tail on every block, so reverb and other time-based effects can ring out. Most DAWs can render a tail, including REAPER, Logic, and Ableton.
3. Make every stem in a stack the same length.
4. Export each stem as a .ogg or .wav file.

Then save the files in your workspace, and use them to build dynamic cues.