u/QuellMusik

https://open.spotify.com/album/6ofyyIvQMtHcmGOh4mePiz?si=mg0K6HCdQE-aq-VUp4JTPg&utm_source=copy-link

Six track EP featuring six songs - dark pop, metalcore, and electronic

Check it out!

https://www.instagram.com/quellmusik?igsh=NHFneGtmNWdsaTA2&utm\_source=qr

My post yesterday about production / meta tags in Lyrics was well received so I thought I might post another guide on how I wrote my recent Industrial song "Rotten in Place".

This article will focus on how I used production tagging to refine the song over the eight or so generations that it went through from start to final.

Note: this isn't at all about promoting my song - this is intended to be helpful. I don't care about likes or plays at all - I make zero money from this hobby. I have a real career and family. I do this for fun. It is more useful to use a real example for this article.

Here is the mastered final version: https://suno.com/s/8wHz5LVeOBhszqRR

(I'm actually not that happy with my master EQ so I might re-do it but whatever that isn't the point here).

Here is the unmastered / suno final version: https://suno.com/s/bpvTlhmCDU1Lp8SZ

This was my intial stab at it after writing the lyrics and some guesses at the prompts (first generation): https://suno.com/s/AQcv9P82LLqdVxPU

This initial version will be interesting to compare with the final as we go through this.

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Ok, so what I normally do is have some idea first of what I'm looking to create. I had recentely worked on some pop, alt rock, and pop puck (blink 182 ish) songs so it was time to return to my home base of Industrial.

I had a boring ass week last week and the idea behind the lyrics was rotting away as the world moves past me. I typically sketch out the lyrics before I start any music. I also decide on the genre, instruments, and song structure before hand.

So I wrote the lyrics out and decided to use a Intro / Verse 1 / Chorus A / Verse 2 / Chorus B / Verse 3 / Chorus C / Break / Outro format as I've been interested in exploring new writing structures.

What I usually do is I fill out the lyrics box with my pre-written lyrics then I write out an initial style prompt to form the foundation of the song. Think of a song like a screenplay, the Style sets the background, charatcters, sets, and genere out. The Lyrics box is where we direct the play (song).

I went with this below. I wanted something that didn't have a big anthemic chorus. Some of this is standard prompts I use for mix and production like compression, soundfield, instrument positioning and such. Style should say something about the Genre, Tempo, Instruments, Mood, and Producdtion (these five things are our core. It doesn't have anything to do with structure! A lot of people try and handle structure in the style box and have poor results or say Suno doesn't listen to them. Well, it is not the right place for that.

dark industrial metal, menacing brooding nocturnal mood, grinding synths, distorted bass, mechanical drums, raspy gravelly male vocals, studio-quality pristine wide dynamic range, minimal compression, 128 BPM, wide stereo field, instruments on edges, no center clustering, consistent medium intensity, sparse to medium density, no explosive sections

Ok, we have our basic's here - dark industrial metal (one of my fav's), our mood, some cool instruments that fit this, my typical production (wide soundstage with low compression and varied instrument placing in the soundfield) and some sweeping thematic instructions like no explosive sections and 128 BPM tempo (128 is right where a lot of dance music / EDM lives - I wanted something up tempo).

Next I posted my lyrics in and formatted them per my inital Section thoughts. I also decided to add a [Fragment] of spoken word in the middle and an try [Outro Fragment] instead of [Outro] (which didn't work well so we will see that gets changed to [Outro] later.

I aslo added some initial production instructions. Remember, I have zero music at this point so I'm kinda guessing a bit here.

Here is the inital Lyric. Skip down past this for the next part:

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
(Low mechanical hum, distant distorted bass, no vocals)
Clock hands bleed through concrete walls
Another night, another fall
Phone don't ring, I let it die
Friends turned ghosts beneath the sky

White line promise, hollow taste
Everything I loved, diluted waste
Said they'd stay, said we were strong
Now I'm singing to an empty room, alone

[Chorus A]
(Medium intensity — still brooding, not screamed, just more present)
I'm rotting in place while the world moves on
Wasting the hours, the voices gone
Friends dissolved in a chemical haze
Lost to the poison, lost to the days

[Fragment]
(Spoken, almost whispered — interrupted)
Tick... tock...
They said... soon...
Never...

[Verse 2]
(Same low tone as Verse 1 — colder now)
Used to laugh, used to fight
Now there's just the hollow night
Your name's carved in ash and smoke
Another ghost the streets exhale

Promises turned to powder lines
Every "soon" became "not mine"
Said it once, said it twice
Now the silence is the only price

[Chorus B]
(Same medium intensity as Chorus A — maybe slightly more layered vocals)
I'm rotting in place while the world moves on
Wasting the hours, the voices gone
Friends dissolved in a chemical haze
Lost to the poison, lost to the days

[Echo Section]
(Vocal echoes, no new lyrics — just repetition)
Rotting... in place...
Rotting... in place...
Voices... gone...

[Verse 3]
(Low, more exhausted — voice cracking slightly)
Clock's still bleeding, walls still close
Another friend I never chose
To let slip through my fingers dry
Now there's just the ghost and I

[Chorus C]
(Same medium intensity — but add a second vocal layer underneath, haunting)
I'm rotting in place while the world moves on
Wasting the hours, the voices gone
Friends dissolved in a chemical haze
Lost to the poison, lost to the days

[Break]
(No vocals — just heavy mechanical drums, distorted bass, industrial noise)
(6 seconds)

[Outro Fragment]
(Spoken, fading — defeated)
Tick-tock...
Tick-tock...
Nothing left...
Just the rot...
Just... rot...

Ok we have soild Style and Lyrics sections ready to rock!

We get to the generation stage. I work in 4.5 almost all of the time for this part. I typicaly generate two times for four ideas. If nothing works I generate until it does. Usually I find at least one I like. My sliders are almost always at 50% weirdness and 100% style. I almost never mode the style slider off 100% for any reason. I don't want the AI to guess and make stuff up beyond my prompts.

I did this and all four actuallly sounding interesting. I picked the one I posted above as the inital version as I liked the driving nature of the song and I thought it sounded good.

Next I start to refine the idea. A few times I'm blown away at the intial generation so I skip to the Remaster to 5.0 part of the process but most of the time I refine the idea.

I do this by using the "Cover" feature. I hit cover and then make changes to Style and Lyrics prompts then regenerate. I Cover at 50% weirdness, 100% style, and 25% Audio Influence. 25% Audio Influence sounds low but I've found any higher than this and I get lots of glitchy generations where the song is screwed up at one point. No idea why but actually 25% Audio Influence seems to work fine for following the base audio and incorporating any changes I've made.

The first change was adding distorted electric guitars panned hard left and right. I added these to the style prompt and then put in the Lyric prompt [distorted guitars L/R] in the sections I wanted them. The next change after a new generation was adding synths to the mix. I then aded double tracked vocals and some vocal harmonies. I also added pre-chorus and hook sections, changed outro fragment to outro, redid the intro, and changed around the spoken word and break section. A guitar solo and intrumental was inserted.

All of this happend over I think eight cover generations. Anyways, I finally got it close to final.

These are the final Lyric prompts:

[Intro]
[Low mechanical hum]
[distant distorted bass]
[no vocals]
[electric guitars L/R power chords]

[Verse 1]
[Low brooding vocal]
[guitars open chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

Neon leaks through hollow walls
Same old crash, another fall
Screen stays dark, I let it fade
Names like smoke that slowly fray

[pre-chorus]

Bright line shimmer, empty rush
Everything I held reduced to dust

[hook]
[vocal harmonies L/R]

Swore they'd stay, swore we were one
Now I'm talking to a vacant room, undone

[instrumental]

[Chorus A]
[medium intensity]
[brooding]
[double layered vocals]
[distorted guitars power chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

I'm stuck in decay while the world moves past
Burning the minutes, nothing lasts

[vocal harmonies L/R]
Faces dissolve in a vapor gray
Gone to the poison, gone to the days

[Fragment]
[distorted guitars power chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

Tick... drag...
They said... wait...
Never...

[instrumental]
[four bars]

[Verse 2]
[Same low tone as Verse 1]
[distorted guitars power chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

Used to burn, used to feel
Now it's just a muted reel

[hook]
[vocal harmonies L/R]

Swore they'd stay, swore we were one
Now I'm talking to a vacant room, undone

[pre-chorus]
Every vow turned into lines
Every "soon" just slipped behind

[vocal harmonies L/R]
Said enough, said it twice
Now the quiet is the only price

[Chorus B]
[Same medium intensity as Chorus A]
[double layered vocals]
[guitars power chords L/R]
[synths chords off center]
[vocal harmonies L/R]

I'm stuck in decay while the world moves past
Burning the minutes, nothing lasts

[vocal harmonies L/R]
Faces dissolve in a vapor gray
Gone to the poison, gone to the day

[Echo Section]
[Vocal echoes]

Stuck... in decay...
Stuck... in decay...
Voices... fade...

[breakdown]
[distorted guitars]
[distorted synths]
[808's]

[instrumental]

[bridge]
[distorted guitars power chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

Screen stays dark, I let it fade
Names like smoke that slowly fray

[Verse 3]
[Low exhausted voice]
[voice cracking]
[distorted guitars power chords L/R]
[synths L/R]

Time keeps bleeding, pressure grows
Another ghost I never chose

[hook]
[vocal harmonies L/R]
Swore they'd stay, swore we were one
Now I'm talking to a vacant room, undone

[pre-chorus]
[vocal harmonies L/R]
Bright line shimmer, empty rush
Everything I held reduced to dust

[guitar solo]

[Chorus C]
[high intensity]
[double layered vocals]
[second vocal layer haunting]
[guitars power chords L/R]
[synths chords L/R]
[double tracked vocals L/R]

I'm stuck in decay while the world moves past
Burning the minutes, nothing lasts

[vocal harmonies L/R]
Faces dissolve in a vapor gray
Gone to the poison, gone to the days

[Outro]
[double layered vocals]
[guitars single note riff L/R]
[Spoken fading defeated]

Tick-drag...
Tick-drag...
Nothing stays...

The next step for me is to then Remaster my pick into 5.0. I typically remaster once at Subtle, Medium, and High so three generations for six tracks. I then listen to them and pick the one I like.

I went with a Subtle remaster version as I thought the song was fairly nailed down.

Next step is to download the WAV file, put it into my outside mastering tool, master it, then reimport into Suno. This one was annoying as it came up with a Copyright flag when importing but all I had to was increase the speed 2% and it passed.

I then format the Song Details a bit and Publish!

That's it, this is pretty long but I thought it might be useful. I'm certainly not the grand wizard of Suno so maybe you all have some suggestions on improvments. I am also open to answer any sort of question.

Thank you!

Quell

https://suno.com/@quellmusik

Maybe I'm the only dum dum that didn't know this but I just discovered it is possible to take my tracks that I've mastered using a professional tool back into suno and post them unaltered.

What a game changer!!! I love how my tracks sound now.

I've only done a few now but check out Bloom, Signal, Front Door, Counting Down, or Decay on my recents. They sound SO much better now!!! I do industrial metal with electronic influences.

Anyways, just a tip for anyone that didn't realize this. I've been putting a Google Drive link in my description before this to the mastered version but to actually have that as the audio is super cool!

Good example of the sound quality I mastered: https://suno.com/s/ibtDHDRmYuIsCQut

✌️

Not self promoting. I don't care about likes or whatever. I do this for fun.

https://suno.com/@quellmusik

PS I've had one track get rejected as it said it sounds like a copyrighted song. Whatever 😂 in no way did I copy anything. It's my only little cool dance track too :/. https://suno.com/s/u48iPvOeZ4MxTAdO