Suno for actual songwriting

davros

I messed around a bit with Suno at the start of the year. Version 3.5 was a bit of a novelty, surprisingly good generated songs but not really usable. Version 4.0 was a big step up in quality but the lack of decent editing meant that songs would all have an issue, like a lyric that didn't track well, or a wierd structure. If you didn't have it worked out at the start, you were pretty stuck with the outputs.

Recently, with 4.5, the ability to upload up to 8 minutes of audio, and much enhanced 'cover' capability has made it really usable.

First application, Ive taken a load of demos recorded over 20 years, that have been okay songs but poorly recorded and mixed (i don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it well, and my singing voice is OK at best). Uploading them, and covering them has resulted in some really usable results. I had a song I always thought would be better sung by a female, I pitched it up in studio one then imported it and covered it in Suno with a 'female vocals' style prompt.

Second, I have a load of voice notes on my phone of little riffs or chord sequences. Ive uploaded them and added lyrics (human or AI written), and turned them into some really decent full songs that I feel I've had a part in writing.

Third, I have generated some songs with Suno with lyrics partly written, partly ai assisted. I've downloaded the vocal stems and re-recorded instrumentation underneath, changing bits of vocals by recording them myself. Then, uploading back to Suno to cover and make perfect.

I'm finally able to compile an album of songs I've been missing around with for decades.

2 important notes though,

1) I'm a Pro subscribers (a tenner a month), this is essential to have ownership of anything generated.

2) The quality of generations, both sound quality and just general musicality, apparently reduces massively when server load increases.This morning, one or two generations led to something perfect. This afternoon when the US came online I burned through hundreds of credits generating absolute dogshit. Time to stop and start again in the morning!

Any experiences you've had? Tips you can share?