Using Suno to write demo songs without Suno writing the tune or lyrics!

Suno is great at resinging vocals using the cover feature. It's also good at coming up with production ideas. I never use the raw output, but stem split it with real instruments.

This works with Logic X on Mac - if you have a stem splitting tool, it will work for you in other DAWs.

You can hear the results of this on this Demo album (Indie, Female Vocals, Alt-rock, Alt-folk). https://on.soundcloud.com/J7C8bidqFmc3EDwA8

Here's what I do.

  1. Create a demo using Logic X, including vocals sung by myself with the full song structure.

  2. Upload the WAV of that demo into Suno. Note it can't take a whole track so you have to pick part of the song that includes examples of all the structural bits of your song - so one Verse, A Chorus and a Bridge.

  3. Add the lyrics to the uploaded song with structural markers, e.g. [Chorus], [Verse], [Intro], [Bridge]. Suno understands these as well as prompts like [Spoken] and others. Don't add too many.

  4. From the uploaded song click on the dot dot menu and under create choose cover.

  5. Check the lyrics are there. Now, choose the style of music you want. In my case, I want a British Indie female singer so enter 'Female Singer, British, Cheeky, Indie, Alternative Rock, Atmospheric'. Usually the more you do, the less attention it takes. You can add things like 'String Quartet' and other instruments or change the genre.

  6. I then get it to produce some covers, two at a time. It will not always stick to the original song and sometimes the structure is off. You can edit the lyrics in the cover lyrics window if they are not working. I copy these changes back to my original lyrics. Repeat until you get something close.

  7. Do this until you've got 1 to 3 tracks you like. Some tracks may have backing ideas you like and occasionally you get alternative vocals that work well as backing!

  8. If there is a bit that's not quite right or it is cut off use the edit tool to extend, replace those bits.

  9. I export the track(s) as a WAV and then bring them into Logic X and the original demo.

  10. Next task is to align them. Often Suno keeps the same tempo, other times you need to use the 'align track to project' and some manual alignment. The structure may be a bit different, just align the first verse so it sounds in time.

  11. Select the track you brought in and under functions you'll see the stem splitter. Use that to separate the vocals, bass, drums and other.

  12. Take/rename the vocals from the new folder and edit them to match the structure.

  13. EQ it (remove some top end to remove the apparent AI fizz), add some reverb (the new QRS is fantastic)

  14. Mix and mute your original vocals. And you have a new singer!

You can then explore if any of the backing track parts work, or see if you can combine more than one file for backing vocals, etc.

The advantage is the vocals are more natural than any other AI singer I've found. The disadvantages are a lot of noise if there is a lot of backing on the original track, and you don't get the same singer twice!

If this is useful to you, let me know, and I will make a video.