And now for something completely different.
Meanwhile Suno 4.5 happened, and I’m totally blown away by it!
Computer-generated music has fascinated me since my youth. I even wrote my master thesis at ETH Zurich on AI and music. But Suno is in a completely different league to all previous attempts (and there have been many). So it’s high time I played around with it. This technology definitely has a high addiction potential!
In this post, I explore Suno’s ability to create covers of existing songs – my songs, of course. As before, the songs are available under Creative Commons by-nc-sa. Since algorithmically generated works are not copyrightable in almost all countries, I am taking the liberty of making the covers generated by Suno available here as well.
This post even made it onto the front page of Hacker News!
Let’s start with the original track which I composed and recorded in last November (all instruments are played live by me simultaneously, without overdups): 2024-11-25/1 (from this album).
And here the first cover generated by Suno; as style I entered “prog jazz rock”; the result is pretty close to the original – just incredible how this algorithm works – like magic: 2024-11-25/1 Jazz Rock
For the second attempt I was more currageous and added a brass section with a sax solo, still in jazz rock style: 2024-11-25/1 Jazz Rock Brass Section. The result is just great and very groovy, even with a jazz guitar solo in the middle, and I like how the theme kicks in at the end.
And since my wive is very fond of the various house tracks she found on Suno, here a version in a combined jazz rock house style, still with brass, and some electronics in the middle: 2024-11-25/1 Jazz Rock House Funk. No one can keep still with this groove. Unfortunately the track just ends abruptly.
And last but not least, a rap version with lyrics about computers and music, put together for me by Perplexity; it has different parts and breaks and a great sax solo at the end: 2024-11-25/1 Jazz Rock House Funk Rap. Now if that isn’t a hit!
Here are some tracks from my ToyLand album, which I regenerated with Suno:
Let’s start with an improvised R&B multi-track piece; here is the original track from 2005. And here is what Suno made of it.
Now for RTS, an old jazz-rock piece from the eighties; here is the original track fed into Suno. And here what Suno made of it. It’s interesting to note that Suno had problems recognizing the chords of the bridge.
Now a bossa nova jazz rock piece I wrote for my band in the eighties called “Radha Kundha”; here is the original track fed into Suno. Here are two generated versions:
“Turn around” is yet another piece from the eighties which I composed for my band at the time; here is the original track fed into Suno. And here whate comes out:
“Lonely Friend” is a piece I wrote in the early nineties, which I wasn’t able to record until ten years later; here is the original track fed into Suno. And here the result:
Here are some tracks from this album from 1993:
Here is the original recording. And here two examples of Suno interpretations:
Here another original recording. And here again two examples of Suno interpretations.
And here another original jazz rock recording (as I did a lot in the nineties), and what Suno created from it.
Here are some tracks from a (not particularly good) live recording from this 1989 album.
“Türkis” is a 7/8 piece which is part of a larger composition of mine from around 1985; here is how we played it in 1989. And here is a version generated with the Bulgarien brass band by Suno; pretty accurate and I very much like the drums.
Here is a slow ballade which I wrote at the time of this concert: A Septembers War. And here is the interpretation by Suno; the piece apparently was a challenge for the algorithm; but still beautiful.
For people interested in a bit more experimental music, here is a piece my friend Beat and I improvised in 2004 (xylophone and grand piano). And here are three unbelievable interpretations made by Suno:
The following pieces are from this album from 1987, which I recorded on a Fostex eight track tape machine and mixed it down to DAT.
A jazz rock composition of mine, and the Suno interpretation, which is only a subset of the piece because of the two minute limitation.
Yet another jazz rock composition of mine, and the Suno interpretation; the harmonies were apparently a challenge for Suno.
Here is the original recording of a ballad called “High” which I wrote at the time. The interpretation by Suno is surprisingly accurate and comes very close to the original.
More to come.
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