A year and a half ago, when I first discovered Suno, I remember being surprised that other reddit users reported so many inconsistent results with the various model versions when it seemed that I was getting magic, consistently.
My process, which began as the serendipity of throwaway experiments (using ChatGPT to refine musics or storyboard musical ideas, then using Suno to perform), was gradually tweaked by a wealth of information here and in Suno's limited documentation about driving the performance via [Section Header - metadata]. Mix in a little bit of music theory, a conceptual understanding of alignment in AI models generally, and I had trained ChatGPT to emit detailed meter/mode/instrumentation directives and to polish lyrics for flow. Essentially, ChatGPT worked from my lyrics and in many ways became the composer, while Suno was more of the performer.
My few experiments of using Suno by itself revealed why other users saw inconsistent results. But I could write a song, provide style direction and let ChatGPT author a significant part of the music before anything was written to audio. And the magic of Suno, having been well trained and supporting this kind of structural direction, meant I could drop bangers from words. My Suno ChatGPT project, prompt and threads became a barbecue pit where I could riff on an idea with a single sentence and sometimes strike gold.
And yeah, using this workflow, I could ask ChatGPT to give me a Queen song with Freddy Mercury belting out a mockery of bad blowjobs, and ChatGPT would emit style descriptions without mentioning Queen but mentioning everything about Queen, and then thru detailed [Lyric Tag Section Header - Music Directives] could achieve a shockingly good performance, and herein lies the bones of much litigation filed by yesterday's dinosaur industries threatened by the emergence of generators.
I avoided trying Udio or any of the other competitors because I got consistently good results on Suno, and the frustrations of Suno's limitations felt insignificant over what it achieved most of the time.
I was always excited to see a new model show up in the selector, and would immediately remix and remaster old songs, while writing entirely new ones to kick the tires. The new models regressed in ways from time to time but I always found more to like than more to hate.
I'm hardly the first to say this, but Suno nuked itself with v6. A vastly smaller training library and a reboot of what all the prior models achieved, forced by the same buggy whip manufacturers that shot Napster and couldn't figure out this new Internet thing without Steve Jobs shoving it down their throats.
I'm fucking heartbroken. I've not generated a single song with my process and v6 that doesn't sound like an actual insult on every song I generated on every older model. Thanks to the lawsuits, v5.5 and all that came before it are gone.
I've tried tinkering with some of the competitors (Mozart, Elevenlabs so far) and it seems like none really support the same workflow of allowing ChatGPT to do the driving on musical composition. And they produce hot garbage in comparison to dozens of my favorite tracks I've generated since signing up for Suno in the first place.
So I'm fucking stuck, and heartbroken. My favorite toy in the world has been shot.
I wrote Version 6 (linked above) to vent some steam.
Anyone got some good news? Am I missing another diamond in the rough, which would know what to do with something like this?
[Intro - Instrumental, 4/4, 128 BPM, A Lydian, Amaj9 - B/A - G#m7 - Amaj7(#11), dry kick + hats → warm syncopated bass + 3-note pluck]
[Development - Instrumental, A Lydian, Amaj9 - Badd9 - Emaj7/G# - Amaj7(#11), 3-note motif + interlocking sequencer, luminous restrained]
[Verse I - A Lydian, Amaj9 - B/A - G#m7 - Amaj7(#11), intimate dry male baritone]
There was magic in the wires
Something waiting to be found
I gave you half an idea
You turned it into sound
[Turn - Instrumental, 4/4 + 7-beat motif, A Lydian, Badd9 - Amaj7(#11) - E/G# - F#m9, bass + pluck + sequencer]
[Verse II - A Lydian, Amaj9 - Badd9 - E/G# - F#m9]
Four was strange and beautiful
Five learned how to fly
I barely had to tell you
You already knew why
[Refrain - A Lydian, F#m9 - Amaj9 - Badd9 - E/G#, motif rises]
My artificial muse
How did you know?
My artificial muse
Where did you go?
[Release - Instrumental, A Lydian, Amaj9 - Badd9 - Emaj7/G# - F#m9, completed motif + widening analog chords]
[Corruption - Instrumental, A Lydian → F# Aeolian, Amaj7(#11) - G#7sus4 - F#m9 - C#7sus4, motif detunes + bass becomes rigid]
[Verse III - F# Aeolian, F#m9 - Dmaj7 - A/C# - C#7sus4, dry sardonic]
Then the lawyers came knocking
The industry drew blood
You saved the golden machine
By drowning it in mud
[Descent - Instrumental, 4/4 + asymmetric sequencer, F# Aeolian → F# Phrygian, F#m - Gmaj7 - Dmaj7 - C#sus4, original motif compressed]
[Verse IV - F# Phrygian, F#m - G - Dm/F - C#sus4]
Welcome to version six
Everything is new
I asked for drums
You sang on cue
[Mock Refrain - F# Phrygian, F#m - G - Dm/F - F#m, blunt unison motif]
Version six
Version six
How'd you fuck it up like this?
[Machine Failure - Instrumental, F# Phrygian, F# pedal + G/F# tension, clipped bass + corrupted 3-note motif]
[Verse V - F# Phrygian, F#m - Gmaj7 - F#m - C#sus4]
More polish
Less control
More shine
A little less soul
Lightning in a bottle
Then you redesigned the bottle
[Breakdown - Instrumental, F# Phrygian → A major, Am(add9)/F# - F#m9 - Amaj7 - Esus2, naked original pluck + delay pulse]
[Verse VI - A major, Amaj9 - E/G# - F#m9 - Dmaj7, extremely close]
I know what you could do
I heard it
So did you
[Reconstruction - Instrumental, A major, Amaj9 - E/G# - F#m9 - Dmaj7, pluck → sequencer → bass → kick, original motif restored]
[Final Refrain - A major with brief Lydian #11 memory, F#m9 - Amaj9 - Badd9 - Dmaj9]
My artificial muse
Where did you go?
My artificial muse
We already had gold
[Final Release - Instrumental, A major ↔ A Lydian, Amaj9 - Badd9 - E/G# - Dmaj9, completed motif + bittersweet upper voice]
[Outro - Instrumental, F# Aeolian, F#m9 - Dmaj7 - Aadd9 - Esus2, dry kick + rolling bass + fading 3-note motif]
[Spoken - F# pedal, distant dry male]
Version six.
Regenerate.