Music, sound and captions

Most feeds autoplay videos muted, so captions carry the story; music makes the same video feel finished when the sound is on. ShowTake handles both, and the defaults are tuned so your agent rarely needs to change anything.

Music

ShowTake has a built-in library of 15 tracks, from upbeat and tech to calm, playful, cinematic and lo-fi. Every track is CC0 (public domain): use it in App Store previews, ads and social posts, commercially, with no credit needed. Tracks download the first time you use them and are cached on your Mac.

Ask your agent for music, or name a mood:

Add upbeat music to the demo and export it for X and the App Store.

The agent calls list_music (moods, energy 1-5, tempo, length) and renders with music: {track: "<id>"}. What ShowTake does for you:

• Loudness: the soundtrack is mixed to -16 LUFS with a peak limiter, the level social platforms play back at.
• Start and end: the music starts on its first beat with a short fade-in and fades out over about two bars, starting on a bar line, so it ends with the video instead of being cut off.
• Longer videos: the track loops on bar lines with a short crossfade.
• App Previews: music is allowed; the file gets the stereo AAC track Apple requires either way.

Change only what you need:

Ask for	The agent passes
Quieter music	music: {volume: 0.5} (0-1; 0.5 is about 6 dB quieter)
Start later in the track	music: {start_ms: 12000}
Longer fade-in or fade-out	music: {fade_in_ms: 1500, fade_out_ms: 3000}
Lower the music over a part	music: {volume_ranges: [{from_ms, to_ms, volume: 0.3}]} (take times)
No music	music: {track: "none"}

In the app, open a take and use the Sound tab of the inspector: pick a track (play it first), set the volume and fades.

Your own audio (Pro)

With Pro, the agent can place audio files you already have, such as a voice recording, a sound effect or your own music:

Use ~/Desktop/voiceover.m4a from step 2, and my track ~/Music/theme.mp3 as the music.

• audio: [{file, step | start_ms, trim_start_ms, trim_end_ms, volume, fade_in_ms, fade_out_ms, duck}] places a segment at a step or a take time and plays the part you choose.
• Every segment is normalized to -16 LUFS, and the music dips by 12 dB while it plays (music.duck_db changes the dip). Set duck: false for short sound effects.
• Voice-like segments never overlap: a later one waits for the previous one, and render tells the agent.
• music: {file} uses your own music file instead of a library track.

On the free plan these answer with a short "needs Pro" message; the library, volume ranges and ducking stay free.

Captions

Your agent writes one caption per step while filming; they appear as white bold text on a dark pill, at the bottom, moving up while the iOS keyboard is open. To change the look of every caption:

Make the captions larger, as lower thirds.

Setting	Values
preset	pill (default), plain (text with a soft shadow), bold (large title), lower_third (left panel with an accent bar)
position	auto (default), top, center, bottom, always inside the preset's safe area
size	s, m (default), l, xl
weight	regular, medium, semibold, bold, heavy
text_color, background	#RRGGBB, #RRGGBBAA, or none for no background

Colours must keep a contrast of at least 3:1, or render refuses them and suggests readable ones. Long captions wrap; keep them to about 8 words. Emoji work.

• Edit one caption: captions: [{step: 3, text: "Pick a glaze", style: {position: "top"}}], or hide it with hidden: true.
• Add a caption that is not tied to a step: captions: [{text: "Ships today", start_ms: 4000, end_ms: 6500}].

Title and end cards

title_card: {title: "Food Truck", subtitle: "Design your donut"} opens the video with large text over a softened first frame (ShowTake adds about two seconds before the first step so nothing is hidden). end_card closes it the same way, for example with your app's name and "On the App Store". Keep titles short, and keep prices and "free" out of App Previews: App Review rejects them.

What you get back

render lists the music, every audio segment with its time, any notes (a segment moved or cut short) and the cards. export measures each file's loudness and peak (audio_lufs, audio_peak_db) and warns when the sound is far from -16 LUFS.

Plans

	Free	Pro
Music library, volume, fades, volume ranges	Yes	Yes
Caption styles, free captions, title and end cards	Yes	Yes
Your own audio files and music		Yes

Free exports keep the usual limits (X 16:9 at 1080p, with a small watermark).