Style describes the world. Lyrics carry the words and local cues. Exclude names what you do not want. Title is a name, not a second prompt.
Simple and Custom do different jobs.
Simple mode is one readable song description. It is the right place to lock a first idea. Custom Mode is the right place when the song needs a shape: verses that stay quiet, a chorus that opens, a bridge that changes the room, or a list of things you do not want in the mix.
Suno’s Custom / Advanced workflow gives you separate Style, Lyrics, and Exclude surfaces, plus a title. HOME stores those four parts together so you can copy them without rebuilding the idea. Music generation still happens in Suno.
You do not need Custom Mode for every experiment. Use it when one paragraph is no longer enough to say where the sound belongs, where the words belong, and what should stay out.
Take one Simple mode description you already like. Decide whether it still fits in one paragraph, or whether Style, Lyrics, and Exclude now have different jobs.
Put the sound in Style.
Suno explicitly supports detailed natural-language Style instructions. Use Style for genre, era, mood, tempo or groove, instruments, vocal identity, production, and the overall arrangement. That is the world of the track.
Lead with the dominant genre, then the few details that make this song itself. If a direction applies from the first bar to the last, it belongs here. If it only happens in the bridge, it belongs in Lyrics.
Write audible language rather than praise. “Close-mic baritone, dry drums, warm bass” can be listened for. “Cinematic masterpiece” cannot. Keep the line short enough that you can explain every phrase.
Restrained late-night soul, live rhythm section, warm bass, short brass responses, close-mic gritty vocal, 86 BPM pocket, dry room with a gradual chorus lift
Put structure and words in Lyrics.
Lyrics are for the words, section labels, and a small number of local performance or arrangement cues. Suno’s current songwriting guidance treats labels such as Verse and Outro as a way to organize lyrics and signal intended flow. They still steer a probabilistic generation.
A useful lyric sheet looks like a production script, not a poem pasted into one block. One singable phrase per line. Blank space between sections. A chorus you can repeat exactly. Local cues only where the music actually changes.
Do not dump the whole Style brief into every section label. Repeating “soulful analog masterpiece” under [Verse 1] and [Chorus] does not add control. It competes with the words.
Move every global sound word out of a lyric draft and into Style. Leave only words, section labels, and cues that change from section to section.
Use Exclude for “don’t,” and keep the title short.
Suno documents Exclude as the place for unwanted elements. List instruments, genres, vocal traits, or textures you do not want. Use this dedicated field instead of relying only on a negative phrase inside Style. Keep the exclusion list short. Two or three real risks are easier to interpret than a paragraph of negatives.
Title names the track so you can find it again. It is a name, not a description of the arrangement. “Start Again” is a title. “Gritty 86 BPM live-band soul with brass responses” is Style leaking into the name field.
For a fully instrumental song, use Suno’s Instrumental control, add vocals to Exclude if unwanted voices still appear, and describe the arrangement positively in Style. A local [Instrumental Break] in Lyrics can reinforce a section, but the official toggle and Exclude field are the dependable controls.
Exclude: bright EDM synths, choir, trap hi-hats, glossy vocal polish
Write a four-part package: a two-to-six-word title, one Style line, a short lyric skeleton with section labels, and two exclusions. Check that no instruction appears twice.
Keep exploring.
For current platform instructions, see Suno’s Simple mode guide and Suno’s current songwriting guide. The workflow advice here is editorial guidance; it does not establish how Suno’s model works internally. For specific controls, see Exclude, Creative Sliders, and detailed Style instructions.