4 ms·

I used Suno AI to cover my own demo album

27 points by yanis_t 1y ago

sshine 1y ago
Honest take: Those demos have soul. The AI versions don't. They succeed in some ways at capturing the human emotion in the demo, and fall flat in other ways. - The lyrics capture - The melody captures - The production is too polished - The voice doesn't have the same emotion at all It's not any worse than a human cover by a skilled but uninspiring human artist. Depending on how you evaluate, it's either amazing it gets this far, or not impressive at all. :-) I'd add the demos to my playlist, I wouldn't add the others. (I'm not against AIs in general.)
- niux 1y ago
  I'm wondering if we'll ever reach a point where the differences you listed truly become indistinguishable.
- lopis 1y ago
  Right now all AI songs I've heard have this dead emotion to it that makes me cringe a lot. This crispness of the vocals also don't match the song at all, I'm surprised the author didn't mention this.
  - dkh 1y ago
    Yeah, but here’s the question: If/when A.I. can nail those things, will that be good or bad?
    - lopis 1y ago
      Of course it will be good at some point. If AI can match the range of vocals, emotions, pronunciations, why not? Whatever intent behind the art can be attached to generated music after the fact. What boggles me is that some people find the current level of AI acceptable for anything else than playing around or find inspiration.
    - briangriffinfan 1y ago
      The way I see it is, AI cannot nail these things until you can imbue it with a comprehensive set of human experiences, knowledge and opinions, and the knowledge of every step of the artistic creation process, AND how to weave these two different things together to create something that conveys inherent meaning to other humans by virtue of being the thing that it is. Basically until we can actually model a human brain in real time, AI generated media will always be kinda shit. Not exceptionalism - just the truth.
- takinola 1y ago
  I would love for someone to make this type of post but switch which songs were AI and which are human created. I would bet there would be people saying the humnan-created songs were soulless and the AI songs had that "je ne sais quoi".
  - sshine 1y ago
    I bet an experiment like that could fool us. What I'd like to see is a "tormented artist" filter. I'm sure the emotion of the lyrics can be synthesized. If humans can fake their own emotions, surely computers can.
- dyauspitr 1y ago
  Eh, I felt the soul more in Suno’s version, especially the second song.
TrackerFF 1y ago
One thing I’ve always wondered - what happens if/when fans want to see these AI bands live? Or will this be the «sorry we don’t play live» era? Or maybe if something goes viral, one has to hire in musicians that can play/sound close enough? Anyway, I liked the sound of the instruments better in the demo/first versions. Sounded less mushy.
- amelius 1y ago
  Holograms is one solution that is already being used, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_concert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_concert Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_Voyage
- lopis 1y ago
  How do you think it works currently when artists who make highly edited music perform live? And I guess if Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku can do concerts, this isn't really a problem.
  - TrackerFF 1y ago
    I’d say it is highly dependent on the style of music. I mainly go to metal and jazz festivals. I just can’t imagine someone on stage lip syncing to music, some holo/avatar, or whatever.
- rumori 1y ago
  It’s pretty standard for electronic / sample based music acts to have live bands assembled for touring after the completely sequenced studio album takes off. It’s a hit or miss depending on how well the musicians can reinterpret the source material.
  - satyrun 1y ago
    It is also pretty standard for a DJ to move knobs and sliders as performance art even when the knobs/sliders are doing nothing. It adds to the performance much more than just standing there.
jesucresta 1y ago
dude, the demos are better.
Sprotch 1y ago
You're way better than you give yourself credit for. Those demos trounce the AI.
- dkh 1y ago
  Makes me wonder how often A.I. will be used by creative people to write themselves out of the equation voluntarily because they are self-critical or have imposter syndrome
GardenLetter27 1y ago
This is really cool, the original demos were great to start with too. The AI vocals still feel too "easy listening" and smooth in general though. It works great for mastering the instruments though, I wonder if it'd work better using it just for that with the original vocals.
ygritte 1y ago
> Not a single song is quite ready to publish. Even if they were, what would be the point? If AI can copy any music, why would your copy be better than any of the infinitely many others?
renegat0x0 1y ago
I like experimenting with suno. This is the only way for me to create music. I do not have time to learn fruity loops, or something. Most of the lyrics are generated using chatgpt, but I often force it to have some parts of chorus, and there are many 'themes' I want the song to have. So I play with lyrics, play with tools, and sometimes I am surprised by the final effect. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q2FiqrppN4g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q2FiqrppN4g I created also a concept album. Folk metal about technology and fantasy. That is how "PC goblin", or "Trolls in the motherboard" were created. Some parts of songs are better than other, but in reality I see not so many other songs exploring that niche tech-fantasy area. The other time I created power metal fantasy album, about AI and end of times. It was really a fun time for me. I upload these videos to youtube, expecting no views. Unexpectedly shorts get views. I am not sure why. Probably youtube forces any shorts it can find to users.
- latexr 1y ago
  You keep using the word “create”, but did you really create any of it, or did you commission someone else (which happens to be a machine) to generate it as they saw fit, with some minor guidance? Let’s say LLMs and generative AI did not exist and your chat sessions were with a human. Could they not have delivered the same (albeit taking a bit longer)? Would you also have claimed you had “created” the music then? Basically the difference here is that with AI you can take the credit without the other party complaining. I’m glad you had fun. Nothing wrong with playing with a toy and entertaining yourself. But to claim you created something while simultaneously brushing off taking the time to learn the skill doesn’t quite feel right. Like saying “I made this table. I don’t have the time to learn carpentry or something, so I asked a guy to do it for me. I did specify it needed four legs and a back, though, so I did it”.
  - Mashimo 1y ago
    He is a producer :)
  - TheAceOfHearts 1y ago
    It feels very nitpicky to police the use of the word create. If GP hadn't willed it, the song wouldn't exist at all, it was only created due to their action. But I guess it depends on how much creative input is given. If I write the lyrics for a song, I feel like that's a significant contribution in creating a musical piece. If I made a detailed sketch for a table design and I hired someone to help correct any oversights and to build it, I think you can take some credit for the creation of the table, because your design was a key input.
nonvibecoding 1y ago
I’ve got a friend who sends me happy birthday wishes using Suno. I hate it. I love the friend though. It feels a bit like watching an old movie where the scene drags for no reason and the background’s kinda off, but you still enjoy it. Then you go watch Netflix and everything is smooth, predictable, perfect, and somehow super boring. I honestly like your version more, with all its imperfections. Feels more alive.
- latexr 1y ago
  > I hate it. I love the friend though. Have you mentioned it to them? Presumably you can be honest about it with such a friend. I’m curious as to how the conversation went and what you both learned.
  - nonvibecoding 1y ago
    Yeah, he knows. We just laughed about how cringe we are. For his last birthday I downloaded our entire chat history, ran it through Claude, and sent him a visual of our most used words. I also added a few of the funniest lines we’ve had (It wasn’t actually that funny by normal standards, just to be clear) Honestly, I have no idea how that’s birthday-related but we both enjoy it
LongjumpingCat 1y ago
Really intriguing use of Suno.ai, generating AI-backed demo tracks to accompany your album feels like a reverse collaboration. What stands out is how this method reframes demos—not just rough pre-production but fully formed creative statements in themselves. Curious: for anyone working with AI in music, does this shift in workflow change how you iterate creatively? And how do you balance AI-generated backbone with your own unique touches?
- A_D_E_P_T 1y ago
  lol This is actually subtle, funny, and insightful commentary. To me it says, "just as AI-written text is characteristic, annoying, and hard to miss, so too is AI-generated music." Not sure I necessarily agree, but I get it.

27 points by yanis_t 1y ago

Honest take: Those demos have soul. The AI versions don't. They succeed in some ways at capturing the human emotion in the demo, and fall flat in other ways. - The lyrics capture - The melody captures - The production is too polished - The voice doesn't have the same emotion at all It's not any worse than a human cover by a skilled but uninspiring human artist. Depending on how you evaluate, it's either amazing it gets this far, or not impressive at all. :-) I'd add the demos to my playlist, I wouldn't add the others. (I'm not against AIs in general.)

niux 1y ago
I'm wondering if we'll ever reach a point where the differences you listed truly become indistinguishable.
lopis 1y ago
Right now all AI songs I've heard have this dead emotion to it that makes me cringe a lot. This crispness of the vocals also don't match the song at all, I'm surprised the author didn't mention this.
- dkh 1y ago
  Yeah, but here’s the question: If/when A.I. can nail those things, will that be good or bad?
  - lopis 1y ago
    Of course it will be good at some point. If AI can match the range of vocals, emotions, pronunciations, why not? Whatever intent behind the art can be attached to generated music after the fact. What boggles me is that some people find the current level of AI acceptable for anything else than playing around or find inspiration.
  - briangriffinfan 1y ago
    The way I see it is, AI cannot nail these things until you can imbue it with a comprehensive set of human experiences, knowledge and opinions, and the knowledge of every step of the artistic creation process, AND how to weave these two different things together to create something that conveys inherent meaning to other humans by virtue of being the thing that it is. Basically until we can actually model a human brain in real time, AI generated media will always be kinda shit. Not exceptionalism - just the truth.
takinola 1y ago
I would love for someone to make this type of post but switch which songs were AI and which are human created. I would bet there would be people saying the humnan-created songs were soulless and the AI songs had that "je ne sais quoi".
- sshine 1y ago
  I bet an experiment like that could fool us. What I'd like to see is a "tormented artist" filter. I'm sure the emotion of the lyrics can be synthesized. If humans can fake their own emotions, surely computers can.
dyauspitr 1y ago
Eh, I felt the soul more in Suno’s version, especially the second song.

TrackerFF 1y ago

One thing I’ve always wondered - what happens if/when fans want to see these AI bands live? Or will this be the «sorry we don’t play live» era? Or maybe if something goes viral, one has to hire in musicians that can play/sound close enough? Anyway, I liked the sound of the instruments better in the demo/first versions. Sounded less mushy.

amelius 1y ago
Holograms is one solution that is already being used, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_concert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_concert Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_Voyage
lopis 1y ago
How do you think it works currently when artists who make highly edited music perform live? And I guess if Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku can do concerts, this isn't really a problem.
- TrackerFF 1y ago
  I’d say it is highly dependent on the style of music. I mainly go to metal and jazz festivals. I just can’t imagine someone on stage lip syncing to music, some holo/avatar, or whatever.
rumori 1y ago
It’s pretty standard for electronic / sample based music acts to have live bands assembled for touring after the completely sequenced studio album takes off. It’s a hit or miss depending on how well the musicians can reinterpret the source material.
- satyrun 1y ago
  It is also pretty standard for a DJ to move knobs and sliders as performance art even when the knobs/sliders are doing nothing. It adds to the performance much more than just standing there.

jesucresta 1y ago

dude, the demos are better.

Sprotch 1y ago

You're way better than you give yourself credit for. Those demos trounce the AI.

dkh 1y ago
Makes me wonder how often A.I. will be used by creative people to write themselves out of the equation voluntarily because they are self-critical or have imposter syndrome

GardenLetter27 1y ago

This is really cool, the original demos were great to start with too. The AI vocals still feel too "easy listening" and smooth in general though. It works great for mastering the instruments though, I wonder if it'd work better using it just for that with the original vocals.

ygritte 1y ago

> Not a single song is quite ready to publish. Even if they were, what would be the point? If AI can copy any music, why would your copy be better than any of the infinitely many others?

renegat0x0 1y ago

I like experimenting with suno. This is the only way for me to create music. I do not have time to learn fruity loops, or something. Most of the lyrics are generated using chatgpt, but I often force it to have some parts of chorus, and there are many 'themes' I want the song to have. So I play with lyrics, play with tools, and sometimes I am surprised by the final effect. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q2FiqrppN4g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q2FiqrppN4g I created also a concept album. Folk metal about technology and fantasy. That is how "PC goblin", or "Trolls in the motherboard" were created. Some parts of songs are better than other, but in reality I see not so many other songs exploring that niche tech-fantasy area. The other time I created power metal fantasy album, about AI and end of times. It was really a fun time for me. I upload these videos to youtube, expecting no views. Unexpectedly shorts get views. I am not sure why. Probably youtube forces any shorts it can find to users.

latexr 1y ago
You keep using the word “create”, but did you really create any of it, or did you commission someone else (which happens to be a machine) to generate it as they saw fit, with some minor guidance? Let’s say LLMs and generative AI did not exist and your chat sessions were with a human. Could they not have delivered the same (albeit taking a bit longer)? Would you also have claimed you had “created” the music then? Basically the difference here is that with AI you can take the credit without the other party complaining. I’m glad you had fun. Nothing wrong with playing with a toy and entertaining yourself. But to claim you created something while simultaneously brushing off taking the time to learn the skill doesn’t quite feel right. Like saying “I made this table. I don’t have the time to learn carpentry or something, so I asked a guy to do it for me. I did specify it needed four legs and a back, though, so I did it”.
- Mashimo 1y ago
  He is a producer :)
- TheAceOfHearts 1y ago
  It feels very nitpicky to police the use of the word create. If GP hadn't willed it, the song wouldn't exist at all, it was only created due to their action. But I guess it depends on how much creative input is given. If I write the lyrics for a song, I feel like that's a significant contribution in creating a musical piece. If I made a detailed sketch for a table design and I hired someone to help correct any oversights and to build it, I think you can take some credit for the creation of the table, because your design was a key input.

nonvibecoding 1y ago

I’ve got a friend who sends me happy birthday wishes using Suno. I hate it. I love the friend though. It feels a bit like watching an old movie where the scene drags for no reason and the background’s kinda off, but you still enjoy it. Then you go watch Netflix and everything is smooth, predictable, perfect, and somehow super boring. I honestly like your version more, with all its imperfections. Feels more alive.

latexr 1y ago
> I hate it. I love the friend though. Have you mentioned it to them? Presumably you can be honest about it with such a friend. I’m curious as to how the conversation went and what you both learned.
- nonvibecoding 1y ago
  Yeah, he knows. We just laughed about how cringe we are. For his last birthday I downloaded our entire chat history, ran it through Claude, and sent him a visual of our most used words. I also added a few of the funniest lines we’ve had (It wasn’t actually that funny by normal standards, just to be clear) Honestly, I have no idea how that’s birthday-related but we both enjoy it

LongjumpingCat 1y ago

Really intriguing use of Suno.ai, generating AI-backed demo tracks to accompany your album feels like a reverse collaboration. What stands out is how this method reframes demos—not just rough pre-production but fully formed creative statements in themselves. Curious: for anyone working with AI in music, does this shift in workflow change how you iterate creatively? And how do you balance AI-generated backbone with your own unique touches?

A_D_E_P_T 1y ago
lol This is actually subtle, funny, and insightful commentary. To me it says, "just as AI-written text is characteristic, annoying, and hard to miss, so too is AI-generated music." Not sure I necessarily agree, but I get it.