Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW • Hacker News Board

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#111

Post by thw_9a83c » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 1:33 AM UTC

Without a doubt, Suno Studio boasts some impressive features. One of the introductory videos features a voice-to-saxophone demonstration. The result sounded surprisingly good to me and was perfectly usable.

I wonder how AI-assisted music production like Suno will change the profession of being a musician. I think people want their favorite music artists to be real humans they can relate to. For that reason, I guess real singers won't be out of a job anytime soon. The same may apply to performers of real musical instruments. No one wants to see music played entirely from a computer during a live concert.

However, I predict that it will be very difficult to become even moderately well-known as a musician by just being a Suno Studio creator alone. A lot of good-sounding content will be created this way, and if an artist can't perform live or doesn't have a unique persona or story to attract an audience, it'll be hard to stand out from the endless mass of AI-generated content.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#112

Post by Nursie » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 2:02 AM UTC

tummler wrote: post #19

Suno is moving toward becoming a browser-based DAW that happens to use AI. There are already more capable and established DAWs, and I see no reason they can't implement AI into their workflows-- in a more precise manner, where it's actually useful, instead of wholesale as a gimmick. Many are already doing this. So I don't understand where Suno is going with any of this. It either needs to be: 1. So easy anyone can pr…

> And listeners/consumers can tell the difference between art created with intent and soul, and a pale imitation of that.

Respectfully I disagree. We have had curated, manufactured pop, built by committee and sung by pretty mouthpieces with no emotional connection, for a long time now, and they make big money.

And look at the vocaloid stuff too.

Those who care, care. Everyone else?

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#113

Post by lz400 » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 2:08 AM UTC

tummler wrote: post #19

Suno is moving toward becoming a browser-based DAW that happens to use AI. There are already more capable and established DAWs, and I see no reason they can't implement AI into their workflows-- in a more precise manner, where it's actually useful, instead of wholesale as a gimmick. Many are already doing this. So I don't understand where Suno is going with any of this. It either needs to be: 1. So easy anyone can pr…

> And listeners/consumers can tell the difference between art created with intent and soul, and a pale imitation of that.

Strong disagree there. I think that's true of a very small % of consumers nowadays. I mean, total honesty, I think that Suno is not worse than a large fraction of the commercial pop made by humans (maybe) that tops the charts regularly. It's already extremely formula based artificial music made by professional hit makers from Sweden or Korea.

The objective was never to grab discerning listeners but the mass of people. It would work even if they grab 50% but honestly I think it's going to be higher.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#114

Post by int_19h » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 2:16 AM UTC

tummler wrote: post #19

Suno is moving toward becoming a browser-based DAW that happens to use AI. There are already more capable and established DAWs, and I see no reason they can't implement AI into their workflows-- in a more precise manner, where it's actually useful, instead of wholesale as a gimmick. Many are already doing this. So I don't understand where Suno is going with any of this. It either needs to be: 1. So easy anyone can pr…

> And listeners/consumers can tell the difference between art created with intent and soul, and a pale imitation of that.

Um, have you seen the pop charts at any time in the past... well, since forever, actually?

The majority of commercially produced music today is created with intent to take your money and nothing else, with performers little more than actors lip-syncing to the same tired beat. Because it sells.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#115

Post by int_19h » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 2:20 AM UTC

CollinEMac wrote: post #87

jjangkke wrote: post #10

What's special about Suno 5 is that the songs are actually good to listen to in place of professionally produced songs. For example, my favorite genre is new jack swing and there is a very limited number of this genre as it was briefly popular during the 90s. Now I have an endless supply of it and you can't tell that its AI produced anymore. Sure to an expert they might be able to detect it but for consumers its just…

> I really think we are headed towards and over supply of content where there will be more stuff to read, watch, listen with very real value in all of them. We're already here with human created content.

Yes, but not uniformly so - some niches are very popular, but there's plenty of obscure ones where if you're a fan you literally know everyone making music in some very niche genre because there are so few of them.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#116

Post by npinsker » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 2:26 AM UTC

songeater wrote: post #107

Tools like Suno are fundamentally enabling. I'm about 40 years old and never "had the music" - not for lack of trying (music lessons at a young age)... but could never carry a tune or keep rhythm. I suppose its what being dyslexic feels like. If I were educated in a culture where music was fundamentally as important as reading or math, I suppose would have spent enough hours on it to eventually be passable... but I g…

I see it as like having the answer key to every homework assignment for a course. It's easy to convince yourself that it doesn't hurt learning -- but there's probably a reason the answers aren't given to you. The struggle, the experience of "being stuck", the ability to understand why things don't work -- may be necessary precursors to true understanding. We're seeing pretty discouraging results from people who are learning to "vibe code" without an understanding of how they would write the code themselves.

You may wish that learning Suno is no different than learning guitar, but I think the effects of AI may be a bit pernicious, and lead to a stagnation that takes a while to truly be felt. Nobody can say one way or the other yet. That said, I'm happy you can make music that you enjoy, and that Suno enables you to do it. Such tools are at their best when they're helping people like you.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#117

Post by shooly » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 3:16 AM UTC

songeater wrote: post #107

Tools like Suno are fundamentally enabling. I'm about 40 years old and never "had the music" - not for lack of trying (music lessons at a young age)... but could never carry a tune or keep rhythm. I suppose its what being dyslexic feels like. If I were educated in a culture where music was fundamentally as important as reading or math, I suppose would have spent enough hours on it to eventually be passable... but I g…

> "learning Suno" is no different than "learning guitar"

What an insanely disrespectful take.

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#118

Post by htrp » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 3:17 AM UTC

thw_9a83c wrote: post #111

Without a doubt, Suno Studio boasts some impressive features. One of the introductory videos features a voice-to-saxophone demonstration. The result sounded surprisingly good to me and was perfectly usable. I wonder how AI-assisted music production like Suno will change the profession of being a musician. I think people want their favorite music artists to be real humans they can relate to. For that reason, I guess r…

>No one wants to see music played entirely from a computer during a live concert.

Tomorrowland begs to differ

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#119

Post by vunderba » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 3:19 AM UTC

songeater wrote: post #107

Tools like Suno are fundamentally enabling. I'm about 40 years old and never "had the music" - not for lack of trying (music lessons at a young age)... but could never carry a tune or keep rhythm. I suppose its what being dyslexic feels like. If I were educated in a culture where music was fundamentally as important as reading or math, I suppose would have spent enough hours on it to eventually be passable... but I g…

If you enjoy it, I'd leave it at that - that's all that matters.

It's a pretty absurd claim to say that learning Suno is no different than learning a musical instrument. My 8 year old nephew was cranking out "songs" in Suno within an hour of being introduced to it. Reminds me of when parents were super impressed that their 3-year old could use an iPad.

Generative tools (visual, auditory, etc.) can serve as powerful tools of augmentation for existing creators. For example, you've put together a song (melody/harmony) and you'd like to have AI fill out a simple percussive section to enrich everything.

However with a translation as vast as "text" -> to -> "music" in terms of medium - you can't really insert much of yourself into a brand new piece outside of the lyrics though I'd wager 99% of Suno users are too lazy to even do that themselves. I suppose you can act as a curator reviewing hundreds of generated pieces but that's a very different thing.

I always get a little confused when I hear non-musicians say that something like Suno is empowering when all they did was type in, "A Contrapuntal hurdy-gurdy fugue with a backing drum track performed by a man who swallowed too many turquoise beads doing the truffle shuffle while a choir gives each other inappropriate friendly tickles".

Re: Suno Studio, a Generative AI DAW

#120

Post by ares623 » Sat, Sep 27, 2025, 3:22 AM UTC

jonesetc wrote: post #110

songeater wrote: post #107

Tools like Suno are fundamentally enabling. I'm about 40 years old and never "had the music" - not for lack of trying (music lessons at a young age)... but could never carry a tune or keep rhythm. I suppose its what being dyslexic feels like. If I were educated in a culture where music was fundamentally as important as reading or math, I suppose would have spent enough hours on it to eventually be passable... but I g…

Guitar, make it sound more like someone else's hard work.

The year is 2027. A 16 year old at a house party pulls out his laptop and asks his friends to gather round. He starts typing “a song about a wonderful wall” and completely original music starts playing. A girl in the corner, hearing the heartfelt melody, starts to fall for the boy.