Suno Synthwave prompt
Synthwave in Suno lives at 80–118 BPM, usually around 100. Below is a Styles prompt that passes our Styles checker, the Exclude list that stops v6 drifting toward distorted guitars, rap verses, lo-fi tape hiss, a 3:31 arrangement in bars and the cued lyric headers. Copy it, change the mood and the parts you hear differently, paste.
Styles
synthwave, 100 BPM, euphoric. 80s analog synths, VHS haze, gated reverb. Close, breathy lead in the verses opening to a belted, doubled chorus with stacked octave harmonies. Steady drum machine with a gated-reverb snare, pulsing 16th-note analog bass, wide detuned poly-synth pads, a soaring saw-lead solo in the bridge. Arrangement: intro 4 bars, verse 1 16 bars, pre-chorus 4 bars, chorus 8 bars, post-chorus 4 bars, verse 2 16 bars, pre-chorus 2 4 bars, chorus 8 bars, post-chorus 4 bars, bridge 8 bars, final chorus 8 bars, post-chorus 4 bars. Lead vocal loud and dry in front, kick and sub tight and centered, chords pumping wide, backing vocals panned out, a short plate on the lead and a long throw at phrase ends. Ends cold after the post-chorus.
Exclude styles
distorted guitars, rap verses, lo-fi tape hiss, dubstep wobble, country twang
Lead tag: open Styles with synthwave, word for word. It’s the wording Suno’s own tags use, so it carries more weight than a description.
Vocal: sung lead by default. Variety at 0 keeps Suno from rewriting the prompt on a final take.
What makes it Synthwave
Name the parts, not the vibe.
Suno plays what you name. “Synthwave vibes” gets you its idea of the average synthwave track; the parts below are what make the genre itself, so they go in the prompt as instructions to the band.
- steady drum machine with a gated-reverb snare
- pulsing 16th-note analog bass
- wide detuned poly-synth pads
- a soaring saw-lead solo in the bridge
Production colour: 80s analog synths, VHS haze, gated reverb. One phrase like this sets the era better than a list of adjectives.
Why the Exclude list matters. v6 leans toward pop and toward whatever the neighbouring genres share. For synthwave that means distorted guitars, rap verses and lo-fi tape hiss creeping in. Put those in Exclude, never as “no …” in Styles: a negative in Styles names the thing and often adds it.
Mix placement beats quality words: “lead vocal loud and dry in front” tells Suno where things sit. “Radio-ready” or “professional” tells it nothing.
Song structure
A 3:31 radio edit at 100 BPM.
| Section | Bars | Starts | What plays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro | 4 | 0:00 | filtered synth chords and the vocal chop riff |
| Verse 1 | 16 | 0:10 | half-time beat, vocal close |
| Pre-Chorus | 4 | 0:48 | drums build, one-bar drop-out |
| Chorus | 8 | 0:58 | four-on-the-floor kick, full synths, doubled vocal |
| Post-Chorus | 4 | 1:17 | vocal chop riff on the title |
| Verse 2 | 16 | 1:26 | — |
| Pre-Chorus 2 | 4 | 2:05 | — |
| Chorus | 8 | 2:14 | — |
| Post-Chorus | 4 | 2:34 | — |
| Bridge | 8 | 2:43 | stripped to piano and voice, then a build |
| Final Chorus | 8 | 3:02 | key lift or extra harmonies |
| Post-Chorus | 4 | 3:22 | — |
| End | — | 3:31 | cut on the last chop, reverb tail |
Lyric headers
[Intro | filtered synth chords and the vocal chop riff] [Verse 1 | close and conversational] [Pre-Chorus | rising, building into the hook] [Chorus | full voice, hook up front] [Post-Chorus | chanted post-hook, light and catchy] [Verse 2 | close and conversational] [Pre-Chorus 2 | rising, building into the hook] [Chorus | full voice, hook up front] [Post-Chorus | chanted post-hook, light and catchy] [Bridge | stripped back, softer] [Final Chorus | full voice, biggest lift] [Post-Chorus | chanted post-hook, light and catchy] [End | clean ending]
Every header carries a direction after the bar, [Section | how it’s performed]. A bare [Verse] leaves the delivery to chance. The last line, [End | clean ending], is what stops the fade-out and the bonus minute of noodling.
Lyrics
Writing words for synthwave.
Pop lyrics say one feeling so plainly that a crowd can sing the chorus by its second time round: the title is the chorus's first or last line, short (4 to 6 syllables) with an open vowel to hold. Verses are specific and conversational (one place, one gesture, one thing someone actually said), and the pre-chorus climbs with shorter lines. The post-chorus repeats a chopped piece of the title, never new words. Prefer one small physical detail to a big statement; every line should sound like something a person would say out loud.
Synthwave lyrics are cinematic and nocturnal: one scene in motion told plainly, few lines, long held vowels, a chorus that lands like a closing line.
Keep verse lines to about 10 syllables and hook lines to about 8. Longer lines get rushed or swallowed; our lyric checker counts them for you.
Phrases that make it sound generated
- lose control
- lose myself
- losing control
- feel the beat
- feel the music
- feel the rhythm
- hands up
- hands in the air
- all night long
- move your body
- take me higher
- on the dance floor
Every one of these turns up in thousands of AI songs. Swap each for the specific thing it stands in for: a place, an object, what someone actually said.
Borrowing
Use synthwave as an influence.
Want a touch of synthwave in another genre? Don’t put “synthwave” in the lead tag of a different song: Suno will switch genres. Borrow one part and say where it goes:
- a pulsing 16th-note analog bass under the verses
- a soaring saw-lead solo over the bridge
- wide detuned poly-synth pads under the breakdown
Get the whole synthwave package.
This page is the starting point. Session Sheet writes the full song for your idea — Styles in your own sound, cued lyrics, Exclude and the settings card — and checks every line before you paste.
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