Music cue
Also known as: cue, music entry
A single piece of music used in one section of a video, and the point where it enters or leaves, which shapes how that section reads.
Updated
What it means
A music cue is one musical statement within a video rather than the whole Soundtrack. A film has dozens; a short highlight usually has one, occasionally two where the footage changes character halfway, and each one needs its own Cue point to enter on.
The word also covers the entry itself, which is where most of the effect lives. Music arriving on a cut lands differently from music that was already playing when the cut happened.
Treating it as a cue rather than as background encourages a decision about when it starts. Beginning in silence and bringing music in on the first action is a choice with an obvious effect.
How it works in practice
Entries work best on a visual event. Starting the track on the first real movement rather than on the first frame gives the opening a reason to exist, and makes the music feel like a response to the footage.
A cue leaving is as useful as one arriving. Dropping to camera audio for a few seconds before the end makes the return land, and a short Audio fade is what keeps the exit clean.
Two cues in one video need a reason, usually a change of location or activity. Swapping tracks without one reads as indecision rather than structure.
What to watch out for
Music that runs from the first frame to the last with no variation flattens everything. With no entry and no exit there is no shape, however good the track is.
Cutting a cue off at the end of the video rather than resolving it leaves a video that stops instead of ending, which no amount of Pacing elsewhere repairs.
A second cue that shares the tempo of the first fools nobody, because the arrangement changes and the grid does not, so the join sounds like a mistake rather than a transition.
How RawClip handles it
A highlight uses one track, brought in on the first real movement rather than on the first frame, and resolved at the end rather than cut off. That is a small thing that separates a video that ends from one that merely stops.