Music

The Drop

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The method

My algorithm for

Creating Great
AI Music

Start to finish

the base has to be human & homegrown

Start

Starting place

Pick the theme illustration

Pick the theme

I decide whether I want an upbeat song or a slow one, and what genre I want it to live in.

01

Stem:Ample

Build a unique musical prompt illustration

Build a unique musical prompt

I take that theme into Stem:Ample and select the cards I find interesting, doing a little experimentation until a very unique musical prompt develops.

02

Suno · Treblo

Generate the instrumental

The prompt goes into my AI music generator — I use Suno or Treblo — and an instrumental is generated. I like to hum a tune and add that as audio to give the chorus or hook structure a little more shape — and sometimes I just sit on the instrumental for a while until I'm ready to move on.

Generate the instrumental illustration
03

Re:Writ

Lay down the human baseline illustration

Lay down the human baseline

In Re:Writ I use Sketchpad or the Mood Pad to come up with an idea. Sketchpad can help me complete my lines without any AI assistance, but I almost always have the chorus, the bridge, and any pre-chorus or hook already laid out as the foundation.

Why the baseline comes first

For meaningful human authorship, I have to start with my own lyrical content. Then I can use AI to build on it or improve it — but the base has to be human and homegrown.

04

Suno

First pairing

First pairing illustration

I copy and paste the baseline lyrics into Suno or Treblo — whatever I'm using — with just the instrumental, to see what comes out. If I'm using Suno, I actually want the weirdness high for this setting, because it gives me a lot of variation in the song.

05

Assist

AI-assisted lyric pass illustration

AI-assisted lyric pass

I may bring in an AI generator to help improve the lyrical content — adding verses, sharpening a hook or a chorus. I like to keep it seventy percent human, thirty percent AI as much as possible, and I try not to go below that percentage. A lot of times, though, just listening to the song tells me exactly what's missing. Once the lyrics and the music are together, I start to hear it.

06

Suno

Producer mode illustration

Producer mode

Now I start changing and adjusting prompts across iterations, honing in on what I really want. It could be as big as a full genre change — ambient electronic to a hybrid or experimental trap-ambient mix — or as small as adding a persona just to hear the song in a different vocal style.

The consistency mix

To keep the things I like consistent between iterations, I use a 35/45/65 percentage mix in Suno. The 35% is weirdness, which keeps the variation down. The 45% is for style weight, and the 65% is audio influence — I keep the overall audio influence as consistent as possible, and my small changes between iterations come from correcting the style prompt.

07

Suno Editor

Re-chop the music illustration

Re-chop the music

After a few iterations I go into Suno Editor and re-chop the music, so the instrumentation shows up where I think the song needs it. If you're using Suno, don't skip this step — it lets me reorganize the instrumentation, move my bridge up, or rearrange my song easily. I don't worry about what the lyrics sound like after I've moved things around; once I hit the reiterate button and reapply my lyrics, the song goes back to where I need it to be.

08

Iterate

Hone the lyrics illustration

Hone the lyrics

A few more iterations, adjusting any lyrics that still seem to need it.

Line-by-line human authorship

One of the things I love about Re:Writ is that it keeps track of my line-by-line human authorship while I'm using AI tools. So by the time I finish a song with AI-assisted lyrics, I know exactly what percentage of those lyrics are still mine and what percentage would be considered AI. That matters when I'm copyrighting my music or streaming it on professional platforms — the new guidelines say a song needs to be substantially human-made, which means keeping track of how much AI is contributing to my song creation process.

09

Suno Studio

Mix and match the iterations

The song goes into Suno Studio, where I remove what I don't want and mix and match across iterations — I liked the way she sang the bridge in one take and the chorus in another, so I take both. I can also add whatever the song is missing: bongos, more synth work, double-time percussion.

Mix and match the iterations illustration

A deliberate trick

I don't worry about the end result being perfectly smooth. Sometimes I finish with bad breaks in it on purpose — then reiterate the song so Suno itself smooths out the bad editing.

Opt

Compose:EP

The outside ear illustration

The outside ear

Sometimes — only when I've done several iterations and the song still isn't exactly where I want it — I take my finalized lyrics and finalized music prompt and place them in Compose:EP's song critique, just to get an idea of where the song could go and what little changes I might still make.

Final output

Completed song on a turntable

This is how an idea in my mind becomes a completed song.

C. Niki · @renderedsound

The Veridem Ecosystem

One ecosystem · from the first prompt to the final release

6 products · 1 flywheel