4 Free AI Song & Music Makers: Tested

Producer vs. Sonauto vs. Suno vs. Udio: Who wins?

Time to switch things up a bit.

I’m guessing y’all are getting quite tired of my endless Claude Code posts by now.

Also, it’s been a year since the last chapter of the “Battle of the Bands” trilogy, so I figured it’s worth revisiting the AI music scene.

Things haven’t changed nearly as much with AI music generators as they did with AI video, but there’s still new stuff to test.

So let’s prompt us some AI songs, shall we?

The contestants

Our roster of contestants has expanded for this battle.

Today, I’ll be pitting four models against each other:

• Producer (formerly Riffusion): This veteran has had quite a journey, from its early “spectrogram” days to its 12-second jingles to its FUZZ model to recently being acquired by Google and merging with the company’s Lyria 3 model. Can this new corporate version compete with the others? We’ll find out!

• Sonauto: New entrant to my band battles, Sonauto recently launched v3 of its music generation model in preview. Let’s see if it can go neck-to-neck with our usual suspects.

• Suno: The classic AI songwriter you have likely heard of. From its humble Discord beginnings as Suno Chirp Bot to its Microsoft Copilot integration to its long standalone career, can this old-timer prove it still has the chops with its v5 model?

• Udio: Coming out in spring 2024 as a direct Suno competitor, but ending up in last place in our previous Battle of the Bands, will Udio be able to redeem itself?

With introductions out of the way, let’s see what the competition format looks like today:

The contest

Just as the last time, our challengers will face off in four distinct categories:

1. Creative interpretation: What will our participants cook up when given a vague recipe without clearly specified ingredients like genre, style, or instruments?

2. Instruction following: What happens when we flip the script and make instructions ultra-precise? Will the contestants accurately recreate every detail or will some ingredients get overlooked?

3. Song from lyrics: How will each participant handle themselves when given the same lyrical and prompt constraints?

4. Tonal shifts: We know our contestants can usually stick to a given genre, mood, and tempo, but what if we ask for surprise shifts mid-song? Will any of them be able to keep up?

Most models automatically create two songs per prompt. Producer generates one at a time, so I ran it twice. In all cases, I pick my favorites from each pair to compare.

All models give you free daily credits for song creation, and Sonauto doesn’t currently appear to even have any credit system at all: It’s just 100% free.

In some cases, I picked the v5 song versions for Suno, even though they cut off after one minute on free accounts. I believe v5 best represents the model’s potential, so it only seemed fair.

Let’s roll!

The results

We’ve got 16 songs to get through, so without further ado…

1. “Thunderstorm at a Carnival” (creative interpretation)

We’ll kick off with our genre-free and instrument-free prompt. Simply:

Thunderstorm at a carnival

How will our contestants interpret this perfectly vague direction?

Only one way to find out:

Producer:

You know what? That checks out.

Polka is way down on my list of favorite music genres, but the circus-y carny vibe works, along with the ambient downpour and thunder sounds. Some might say it’s too on the nose, but you can’t fault its instruction following on this one.

Sonauto:

This one’s a tad too experimental for my liking.

Spoken word routine laid over an alt-rock-country fusion track? I dunno, man. I ain’t feeling it. Also, not the most coherent or inspiring lyrics. But it is vaguely about carnivals and thunderstorms, so there’s that.

Suno:

I dig this track a lot. Kind of makes me want to upgrade just to hear the rest.

It is about a thunderstorm at a carnival, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s bangin’.

Udio:

Udio.

Buddy.

You’re doing it again.

Exactly like before, you’re being all contrarian just to stand out.

I mean, this is technically about thunderstorms, but what part of this is carnival-adjacent? Certainly not the lyrics or the music genre.

Verdict

I’m torn between Producer’s hyper-instruction-following and Suno’s banger.

And because there’s nobody here to stop me, I’ll go ahead and just split the win between them.

Winners: Producer (best prompt adherence), Suno (best track)

2. “Upbeat Funk” (precise instructions)

Now let’s see what happens when we throw a couple of specific instruments and genres at our models, even if those don’t typically go together:

An upbeat funk track with a female vocalist, synth bassline, handclaps, and a prominent accordion

Here’s what our models cooked up:

Producer:

Prompt adherence: 100% (it even squeezed in the hand claps in the outro).

Vibe: Okay-ish.

Lyrics are more like disjointed snippets, and some of them are sung awkwardly.

Sonauto:

I had to laugh at the literally whispered “Accordion riff” and “Handclaps.”

Nice try, Sonauto, but you can’t replace an instrument with spoken references to it.

That’s not how this works.

Other than that, the funky beat is neat, even if the lyrics are again semi-coherent snippets. I’m starting to see a pattern here, Sonauto.

Suno:

Damn. Another banger.

So much so that I’m almost willing to forgive the lack of audible handclaps and off-the-wall lyrics like “Two hands talking like they’re spilling the tea.”

Udio:

Not too bad, Udio. See? I knew you had it in you.

Strong Jamiroquai vibes here.

But no accordion or handclaps.

And the entire track is kind of flat and unvaried.

Verdict

I’m honestly tempted to go for the same two-way split here again between Producer and Suno. But since this specific test was all about prompt adherence, Producer is the only fair winner.

Winner: Producer

3. “Parking Ticket Supervillain” (song from lyrics)

I’m quite excited for this one. Same lyrics. Different models.

How will each of them handle the constraints?

The genre prompt was simply:

Dramatic rock ballad. Male vocalist.

The lyrics, courtesy of ChatGPT:

[Verse 1]
Parked outside, quick run inside
Meter said I still had time
Ran back out—receipt in hand
Yellow ticket on the glass

Thirty bucks. Time: 9:08
My phone said 9:07
I knocked on glass—you drove away
Didn’t hear a word I’d say

[Pre-Chorus]
Called the office, pled my case
“Just pay the fine,” they said to my face

[Chorus]
It’s just a ticket, so they say
“Pay the fine and walk away”
But something snapped inside my head
You should’ve checked the time instead

Just a fine? Just thirty bucks?
Now the whole damn city’s stuck
One small slip on my windshield blade
That’s how a supervillain’s made

[Verse 2]
Judge looked down, barely awake
“Says 9:08. Case closed. Next case.”
Walked outside in pouring rain
Thirty dollars, burning brain

That’s when I made my simple vow:
You will notice me now

[Bridge]
Meters flashing citywide
Parking apps all crash and die
Gates are open, alarms scream
Every screen shows ME

[Chorus]
It’s just a ticket, so they say
“Pay the fine and walk away”
Now the meters all obey
Nobody pays today

Just a fine? Just thirty bucks?
Look around—the system’s stuck
One small slip on my windshield blade
That’s how a supervillain’s made

[Outro]
Next time you write a ticket fast
Make sure the minute’s really passed.

Let’s hear ’em!

Producer:

Welp, it’s a rock ballad with a male vocalist, and that’s not nothing.

Unfortunately, I feel the delivery is often awkward and mistimed, and the whole thing is kind of…meh?

Sonauto:

While I like the tune better than Producer’s, it’s not quite a ballad now, is it?

Also, why swallow the “oh” sound in “9:07” and “9:08” Sonauto? What do you have against zeros? And then there’s some weirdness with instrumental timing and pre-chorus / chorus transitions.

Suno:

This is a rock ballad.

I might not particularly like the melody, but the build-up is effectively delivered, including the dramatically escalating bridge section. Also, we don’t have the same awkwardness with spoken timing or mispronounced words.

Udio:

This is more pop-punk than a rock ballad.

It’s also quite flat.

I like Blink-182 as much as the next guy (assuming the next guy likes Blink-182), but this wasn’t quite what we were going for.

You don’t have to be different to be cool, Udio.

Verdict

I’m handing this one to Suno for the effectively delivered supervillain origin story arc and the rock ballad prompt adherence.

Winner: Suno

4. “Punk Lullaby” (tonal shifts)

Finally, let’s see if our contestants can switch gears mid-song and do so without losing the red thread. Here’s what I gave them:

A song that starts as a slow, dreamy lullaby, explodes into a fast, aggressive punk in the middle, and ends with a peaceful piano outro

And here’s what they created:

Producer:

On paper, we have perfect prompt adherence again.

One might argue the punk section wasn’t particularly “aggressive,” but it was punk nonetheless. The piano outro section is also there, but it feels more like a tacked-on, separate fragment than part of the song.

Sonauto:

What the actual fuck, Sonauto?

Where did you find that “lullaby” opening? The pits of Hell?

If I ever played that to my kids at night, my entire family would need years of therapy.

And what’s with your fetish for disconnected lyrical snippets and unfinished half-thoughts? Are you afraid to string a full sentence together for once?

Suno:

Okay, we gotta talk about Suno, folks.

Forget the fake-pretend-live-concert audience cheering and the fact that it’s more pure rock than punk. And yet…

Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something about Suno’s ability to string tracks together that feels…I don’t want to say “human”…but at least believable. Something with a storyline and a hint of a deeper message between the lines.

I know, I know.

It’s an uncaring algorithm that’s simply matching and recombining patterns it learned by eating insane amounts of training data acquired in an ethically questionable way.

But listen to the first and only freely playable minute of the V5 version and tell me it didn’t do anything for you:

You can even hear hints of the punk section starting up in the final notes, so it might’ve just nailed the prompt adherence on that one, too.

Udio:

“Lullaby,” Radiohead Edition.

Still going against both the grain and the prompt.

Udio gonna Udio, am I right?

Verdict

I think you could probably tell where I’m landing on this one.

Winner: Suno

Final thoughts

I believe we’re ready to crown the winners…and de-crown the losers?

🏆Producer & Suno

I’m handing out a shared first place today.

Producer and Suno each have their unique strength.

If you want something highly steerable, Producer seems like a safe bet. It typically follows instructions to a tee. This means it rarely ventures into truly creative territory, but it’s great if you want a high degree of control.

As for Suno…it’s likely your quickest path to something that sounds like a fully realized song with a minimum of effort.

Honestly, I’m not sure quite how to feel about that, yet here we are.

👎Sonauto & Udio

If I had to seriously dive into the world of AI music, neither of these would be my first choice.

Sonauto has a strange tick when it comes to unfinished sentence fragments, and the general quality of its output sounds “muddy.”

And Udio…Udio just keeps Udio-ing it up with strange decisions on genre and phrasing, as well as ignoring most of the instructions most of the time.

You’ll notice that this ranking is pretty consistent with the last Battle of the Bands, where I handed first place to Producer (then “Riffusion”) and a very close second to Suno.

I guess I really meant it when I said the AI song maker scene wasn’t changing quite as quickly as most other GenAI areas, huh?

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoy my work, here’s how you can help:

• ❤️Like this post if it resonates with you.

• 🔄Share it to help others discover this newsletter.

• 🗣️Comment below—I love hearing your opinions.

Why Try AI is a passion project, and I’m grateful to those who help keep it going. If you’d like to support me and unlock cool perks, consider a paid subscription: