Suno AI Tutorial Part 2: Advanced Mode & Custom Lyrics

Rohan from Humanitarians AI follows up his simple-mode Suno tutorial with a walkthrough of the Advanced tab, the same song generator with the lid off. Where simple mode takes one sentence and lets Suno decide the rest, advanced mode breaks that decision into individual controls over what a song sounds like, what it sings, and how strictly it follows your input.

Writing custom lyrics with section tags

The first control in advanced mode is the lyrics box, where you write what the song actually says. Mark each section by putting a label like verse or chorus in square brackets alone on its own line, and Suno treats everything that follows as that section. A button next to the box can draft lyrics for you if you want a starting point rather than writing from scratch.

Style tags: naming genre, instruments, and production

Below the lyrics box is the styles field, which works differently than a plain description. Instead of a sentence, you write comma-separated tags: name the genre, then the instruments, then the production qualities. Rohan gives an example: acoustic folk, fingerpicked guitar, brushed drums, warm, intimate. He notes that naming specific instruments moves the result more than the genre word does on its own.

The extra controls under "more options"

Opening more options reveals six additional controls. A mode switch lets you choose how lyrics are handled: write it yourself, describe it in a prompt and let Suno write it, or instrumental for no vocals at all. An exclude styles field lets you name anything you don't want in the track. A vocal gender control picks male or female, or you can leave it untouched and let Suno decide. Two sliders both start at 50 percent: weirdness runs from safe to chaotic, controlling how conventional the result is willing to be, and style influence runs from loose to strong, controlling how literally Suno follows your style tags. Rohan recommends raising style influence when a tag keeps getting ignored. Duration sits on auto by default, switchable to a custom length when needed.

The one habit that matters more with more controls

Rohan's core piece of practical advice is about process, not any single control. With this many options available, when a track comes back wrong, change one thing and generate again. Changing the styles, the sliders, and the lyrics all at once means the result can't tell you which change caused the problem. He recaps the whole tab this way: styles is what it sounds like as comma-separated tags, lyrics is what it says (written, prompted, or instrumental with section tags), more options holds exclude styles, vocal gender, and the two sliders, and duration, title, and workspace sit at the bottom.

Key takeaways

• Advanced mode splits Suno's simple one-box generation into separate controls for lyrics, style, and how strictly the model follows your input.
• Custom lyrics use square-bracket section tags like verse and chorus, each on its own line.
• Style tags are comma-separated, and naming specific instruments has more effect on the result than the genre name alone.
• The weirdness slider controls how conventional the output is; the style influence slider controls how literally your style tags are followed.
• Change only one setting between generations so you can tell which change caused a given result.

Who this is for

Anyone using Suno to write and produce music with AI who has already tried simple mode and wants direct control over lyrics, sound, and how much the model deviates from what's asked. Part three of the series covers adding your own voice, the sounds tab for effects and loops, and what to do with a finished track.