AI music generation has advanced rapidly. Whether you’re a producer looking for new tools or a non-musician wanting to create music, there’s now an AI workflow that fits your use case.

AI Music Tool Categories

Text-to-music (no music knowledge required):

  • Suno: Best for complete track generation with lyrics
  • Udio: Better audio quality, more genre flexibility

AI-assisted production (for musicians):

  • Splice AI: AI sample generation within a sample library
  • Landr: AI mastering and stem splitting
  • iZotope RX: AI-powered audio repair and cleanup

AI in your DAW:

  • Melodyne (DNA): AI-based pitch and timing correction
  • Output Arcade: AI suggestions for samples and loops
  • Steinberg SpectraLayers: AI audio separation

Suno: Complete Track Generation

Suno generates complete songs with vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation.

Suno Basics

  1. Go to suno.com → Create
  2. Describe what you want in the text box
  3. Click Create → get 2 variations

Basic prompt:

Upbeat pop song about summer road trips, female vocals, catchy chorus, 
radio-friendly production

Advanced Prompting

Genre specificity:

Lo-fi hip hop beat, chill study music, warm vinyl crackle, 
soft piano melody, 85 BPM, jazzy chord progressions

Instrumentation:

Acoustic folk song, fingerpicked guitar, harmonica, warm vocals, 
storytelling lyrics about leaving home, Americana style

Era and influence:

80s synthpop, inspired by Depeche Mode, driving drum machine, 
pulsing synth bass, nostalgic lyrics about neon lights

Mood and energy:

Dark electronic ambient, building tension, cinematic soundtrack style, 
no lyrics, dystopian atmosphere, perfect for thriller opening credits

Custom Mode (Lyrics + Style)

For full control:

  1. Click Custom mode
  2. Write your own lyrics
  3. Specify style: [Genre] [Tempo] [Mood] [Instruments]

Example lyrics + style:

Style: Indie rock, 120 BPM, driving guitars, anthemic chorus

Verse 1:
[write your lyrics]

Pre-Chorus:
[write]

Chorus:
[write]

Udio: Higher Quality Generation

Udio is Suno’s main competitor with excellent audio quality.

Where Udio excels:

  • Longer tracks (full song length without seams)
  • More nuanced genre blending
  • Better instrumental quality
  • More control over production style

Udio prompt structure:

Genre tags + mood tags + instrument tags + additional description

Example:
jazz fusion, sophisticated, electric guitar, trumpet, piano, complex chord progressions,
Herbie Hancock style, 1970s fusion sound, instrumental

Extending Tracks

Both Suno and Udio let you extend generated clips:

  1. Generate an initial section
  2. Click Extend at the point where you want to continue
  3. Optionally add a new prompt for the next section

This is how you build full song structures (verse → chorus → verse → bridge → chorus).

AI for Music Producers

Stem Separation

Extract individual tracks from mixed audio:

Spleeter (free, Python):

pip install spleeter
spleeter separate -p spleeter:5stems -o output/ input_song.mp3

Outputs: vocals, drums, bass, piano, other

Lalal.ai: Web-based, higher quality stem separation, paid.

Adobe Podcast: Free vocal isolation (designed for speech but works for simple tracks).

Use cases:

  • Isolate vocals from a track for sampling
  • Extract the drum track for studying patterns
  • Get acapellas for remixes
  • Remove vocals to create karaoke versions

AI Mastering

Landr: Upload a mix, get mastered audio back in minutes. Good for quick results.

Ozone AI (iZotope): In-DAW AI mastering assistant. Analyzes your track and suggests settings for compression, EQ, limiting, and stereo width.

CloudBounce: Budget option for AI mastering.

What AI mastering is good for:

  • Quick masters for demos and reference tracks
  • Learning mastering (analyze what the AI suggests)
  • Consistent masters across an album when you don’t have a mastering engineer

When to hire a human mastering engineer:

  • Commercial releases that need to compete with major labels
  • Complex mixes with issues that need surgical fixes
  • Vinyl masters (requires specific expertise)

AI for Sound Design

Using AI to Describe Sounds for Synthesis

Describe how to create this sound in a synthesizer:

Sound I want: [warm, slightly detuned pad with slow attack, spacious reverb, 
that sounds like early 80s analog synths]

For a subtractive synthesizer (e.g., Moog, Prophet):
1. Oscillator settings (waveform, tuning, detune)
2. Filter settings (cutoff, resonance, envelope)
3. Amplitude envelope (ADSR)
4. Effects chain
5. Any special techniques

Then tell me which specific synthesizer preset to look for as a starting point.

Sample Pack Curation

I'm making [genre] music and need samples. Describe:

1. What types of samples/sounds are characteristic of this genre
2. Key tempo ranges and time signatures
3. Typical effects chains on key elements
4. What to look for in a sample pack for this style
5. Free resources to find these samples

Genre: [lo-fi hip hop / dark techno / future bass / indie folk / etc.]

AI-generated music:

  • Suno and Udio output: you own the music for personal use; commercial use varies by plan
  • AI tools trained on copyrighted music face legal uncertainty
  • Publishing AI-generated music as your own on streaming platforms is generally allowed but platform policies vary
  • Sampling AI-generated music and releasing it commercially: check your platform’s specific TOS

Best practice:

  • Read the TOS for whatever platform you use
  • For commercial releases, use a platform that explicitly grants commercial rights (Suno Pro, Udio Pro)
  • Keep records of what you created vs. what was AI-generated if you’re releasing commercially

Workflow: AI Music for Content Creators

For YouTube, podcasts, and video:

  1. Generate background music in Suno/Udio (instrumental versions)
  2. Download as MP3
  3. Import to your video editing software
  4. Use Suno’s “Song” or Udio’s track separation to get stems if you need just the instrumentation
  5. Check: Suno and Udio grant rights to use in content under their paid plans

Prompt for background music:

Instrumental background music for a [YouTube tutorial / podcast intro / product demo video]

Style: [upbeat and modern / calm and professional / dramatic and cinematic]
Tempo: [fast/medium/slow]
Instrumentation: [corporate pop / electronic / acoustic / orchestral]
No lyrics, designed to play under speech