Cues

Inkweaver uses the music you create in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) directly. Bounce your audio, drop the files anywhere in your workspace, and Inkweaver will find them.

A cue can be as simple as a single track that plays once, or a dynamic score that responds to the story beat-by-beat. Either way, Inkweaver plays your music exactly as you composed it.

Anatomy of a Cue

A cue is built from short audio files called blocks. Each block is one phrase of your music, bounced from your DAW in the .ogg or .wav file format.

The simplest cue is a static cue, which is just a single block defined by a single file. A dynamic cue is many blocks, arranged across two axes:

• Horizontally, one block after another to form a sequence
• Vertically, as layered blocks that play at the same time to form a stack

Tails

What makes blocks join cleanly is the tail. When you bounce a block, you leave a little room at the end to accommodate the natural decay of the phrase.

When switching between sequences, Inkweaver waits for the current block to end before starting the next. As one block hands off to the next, its tail rings over the start of the new one, so every sequence is seamless.

The length of the tail should be the same across all blocks in a cue (whether a block needs it or not). This allows Inkweaver to find the end of the block using math instead of configuration.

Triggering a Cue

You trigger a cue from your screenplay with a label. For static cues, use the cue’s filename, without the extension. When the reader reaches that point in the screenplay, the cue starts.

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

Static Cues

Static cues play a single time, and will end when switching scenes.

To keep a cue playing across scenes, just include the same cue label in the first beat of the new scene. The cue will continue playing non-stop.

When using dynamic cues, use the name of the cue, plus one of its named sequences or mixes:

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

As the story unfolds, use the label again with a different sequence or mix to steer the cue that’s already playing:

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

Inkweaver moves the cue to the debate-begins sequence at the next block boundary.

Arranging a cue requires Inkweaver Studio

The sections that follow describe how a dynamic cue is put together. That arranging is done in Inkweaver Studio. For step-by-step instructions, see the dynamic cue guide.

Below, we cover the model so you know what you’re composing toward.

Sequencing

Along the horizontal axis, a sequence is a row of blocks that play one after another. You give them roles:

• Intro blocks play once, as the cue begins.
• Body blocks play in the middle, and may loop until transitioning to a new sequence.
• Any outro blocks play before the cue ends or transitions.

Fills

A fill is a short block that plays between two sequences as a turnaround that smooths a change of key, tempo, or intensity.

You tie a fill to a specific transition, from one named sequence to another. When the cue makes that change, the fill plays in the gap before the new sequence begins. Fills are optional. Without one, the new sequence follows the previous directly.

Mixes

Along the vertical axis, your cue can be separated into layered blocks that all play at once. This allows you to isolate individual instruments or vocals into stems that can be adjusted independently. These adjustments are called mixes.

A mix is activated by referencing its name in a label:

<abyssal-theme strings-swell>

In addition to volume, a mix can adjust panning, 3D positioning, and add effects like a low-pass filter or reverb.

Stingers

A stinger is a one-shot flourish that plays over a cue while the music underneath carries on. Like a cue, a stinger fires from a label, and can be configured to play immediately or on the next block boundary.

• Immediate triggers are highly responsive. They are usually the best choice when your cue uses long blocks where waiting for a block boundary would delay the emotional impact of the story beat.
• Boundary triggers are perfect for shorter blocks where you want the flourish to lock perfectly into the musical rhythm.

This allows the cue to respond to a beat in the story as it happens, without interrupting the soundtrack:

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

Ending a Cue

A cue ends when it reaches a sequence that doesn’t have a looping body. These sequences play once, and the cue ends. By convention, these are labeled in a way that signals that the cue should wrap it up:

<abyssal-theme coda>

Exporting from your DAW

Exporting your work is simple, and uses the same workflow that you’re probably already familiar with:

1. Compose or slice your music into phrases, ideally composing modular stems from the start.
2. Leave a consistent tail, allowing for the reverb at the end of the phrase. Most DAWs can carry time-based effects past the end of a render. REAPER, Logic, and Ableton all support a tail or second-pass render.
3. Keep every stem in a stack the same length.
4. Export each stem to .ogg or .wav format.

Drop the finished files in your workspace, and you can use them to define cues with dynamic sequences and mixes.