Two singers. A mid-song rest. A different delivery.
The lyrics guide covers tags and the Style box. This handbook is the next layer on Create, Custom, Rao / Suno models: duets, an instrumental stretch inside a vocal song, switching how they sing, and the tools that actually exist to repair a take.
Plan the relationship in Styles. Assign the lines in Lyrics.
Tags are strong hints, not switches. [Male] does not lock that line to a male voice. Put duet, instruments, and vocal character in Styles. Put who sings and how this section is sung in Lyrics, one tag per line. Leave Vocal Gender unset for two singers. Generate two takes, keep the better one, then Replace only the span that fails.
STYLES — who is in the room
Genre, mood, instruments, and the overall vocal. For a duet write duet, male and female vocals once, comma-separated, most important words first.
LYRICS — who sings this block
Structure, role, and delivery tags on their own lines. Unbracketed lines get sung. Empty lines under [Instrumental Break] stay empty.
Where each control lives on Create
Open /create, switch to Custom, pick any Rao or Suno model. Simple mode has no lyrics box, so this handbook does not apply.
You want to control
Genre, mood, instruments, overall vocal
Put it here
Styles — comma-separated, most important words first.
Do not put it here
Square-bracket tags. Styles is plain words.
You want to control
Structure, who sings, how this section is sung
Put it here
Lyrics — one tag per line, in English, even when the sung lines are not.
Do not put it here
The Style box, or a tag on the same line as lyrics.
You want to control
Whole-song male or female lean
Put it here
Vocal Gender: Male or Female.
Do not put it here
Locking it on a duet. Leave it unset so two voices can exist.
You want to control
How tightly the model follows Styles
Put it here
Raise Style Influence.
Do not put it here
Dumping twenty adjectives instead of turning the slider up.
You want to control
One bad span, not a full reroll
Put it here
Replace Section after generate — 10–60 seconds, at most half the song.
Do not put it here
Regenerating the whole track because verse 2 failed.
You want to control
The song cuts off, or you want another section
Put it here
Extend. Start the new lyrics with [Bridge] or [Outro].
Do not put it here
Opening the extension with another identical [Chorus].
You want to control
The same vocal identity on the next song
Put it here
Create Persona from a Rao or Suno take you like, then apply it in Custom.
Do not put it here
Treating Persona as a clone of your real voice. Replace Section, Add Vocals, and Add Instrumental do not carry the selected persona.
01 — Duets
Male / female duets use three layers
RaoMusic has no duet toggle. Vocal Gender is one choice at a time, so for two singers leave it unset. Skip any of the three layers and a single singer often takes the whole song.
duetmale and female vocalscall and responsealternating duetcontrasting timbres01
Styles — the real trigger
You need duet and male and female vocals. Without duet, lyric tags often do nothing. Write duet once — repeating it can make the model sing the word. Name the two sounds: raspy male baritone against airy high female vocal.
pop ballad, duet, male and female vocals, call and response, contrasting timbres, intimate verses, powerful harmonized chorus, piano and strings
02
Declare both roles at the top of Lyrics
A short header tells the model two people are in the room before any verse starts. Keep it to one or two lines.
[male lead, raspy and warm] [female harmony, airy and high]
03
Assign sections, then lines
Start with whole-section swaps. Move to line-by-line only after turn-taking is stable. Get [Male] / [Female] working before you add [Both] or [Harmonized]. Do not stack dense harmony on the first generate.
[Verse 1] [Male] I've been standing at your door [Verse 2] [Female] I've been hiding in the dark [Chorus] [Both] We can meet in the middle tonight
When the duet fails
One singer takes everything.
Leave Vocal Gender unset. Add duet, male and female vocals in Styles. Shorten the sections and alternate.
Roles swap mid-verse.
Do not reroll the song. Replace Section on that 10–60s span and spell [Male] or [Female] in the new lyrics — only the lines for that span.
Both voices sound like one person.
Contrast the timbres in Styles: raspy male vs airy high female.
The chorus turns to mud.
Keep the unison hook to one short line. Do not harmony every line on the first run.
The model sings the tags.
Tag on its own line, words on the next. Never [Male] I've been standing… on one line.
02 — Instrumental break
A rest inside a sung song is an empty tagged line
Whole-song instrumental is a different job — turn on Instrumental in Simple, or do not put sung lines in Custom. For a rest in the middle of a vocal track, put [Instrumental Break] or [Guitar Solo] on its own line with nothing sung underneath. A bare [Instrumental] at the top of a vocal sheet can suppress vocals for the rest of the song.
[Instrumental Break][Guitar Solo][Piano Solo][Interlude][Break][Bridge] is still sung
A bridge is a new angle and a new melody, with words. An instrumental break has no singing. Do not use one tag for the other.
Name the solo instrument in Styles
If Lyrics say [Guitar Solo], Styles should already mention the guitar. The model needs something to hand the section to.
Add Vocals / Add Instrumental are the wrong tools
Add Instrumental writes a backing for a vocal. Add Vocals writes a sung part over an instrumental. Neither inserts a solo into an existing vocal song. Use lyric tags, then Replace Section if vocals leak in.
Keep the skeleton short and identical
Paste the same chorus wording on every return. A bare [Chorus] with no text often invents a new tune. [End] is a hard stop. Do not pad the lyric sheet to force runtime — Extend a finished take instead.
Gets sung — do not write this
Empty break — write this
If vocals leak into the rest
Someone is still singing under the solo.
Confirm the tag sits on its own line with no lyrics under it. Name the instrument in Styles. Replace Section on the leaky 10–60s, and make the new lyrics only [Guitar Solo] or [Instrumental Break].
The whole song went instrumental.
You probably put a bare [Instrumental] at the top. Use [Instrumental Break] or [Guitar Solo] in the middle, and keep sung lines in the verses and chorus.
03 — Delivery
Change how they sing in one section, not the whole song
Styles set the resting voice. Lyric tags change delivery for one section. Contrast is the point: a whispered verse against a belted chorus. If Styles already say powerful anthemic epic, the whole song shouts.
[Whispered][Belted][Spoken][Rap][Falsetto][Harmonized]One delivery change per section
[Chorus][Belted][Whispered][Drop] fights itself. One structure tag plus one performance tag is enough.
Parentheses are weaker
(whispered), (spoken), (harmony) cue a single line and are sometimes ignored. Arrangement, solos, and who sings all go in square brackets.
Small writing tricks
Short lines feel closer. ALL CAPS and ! push a belt — remove them if it over-yells. Hyphens stretch a vowel: fa-a-a-alling. … fits spoken hesitation.
Local cues belong inside the section tag
[Verse 1: whispered vocals] and [Chorus: soaring vocals] change one block without rewriting Styles. Keep the instruction short.
Spoken, rap, whisper, belt
04 — After generate
Treat the first run as a sketch
Each Custom generate returns two takes. Keep the better one, then edit. Twenty extra tags will not beat Replace Section on the twenty seconds that failed.
Replace Section
Good chorus, mumbled verse 2, wrong singer on one line, vocals leaking into a solo: select 10–60 seconds, no more than half the song. Keep the Style wording identical so the seam does not jump. For a duet miss, put [Male] or [Female] in that span’s lyrics only. For a solo, make the new lyrics [Instrumental Break] with no sung lines. Pick the take that joins, not the take that sounds best in isolation.
Extend
If the song cuts off, or you still need a bridge or outro, Extend from the cut. Reuse the original Style wording exactly. Start the new lyrics with a new section tag — [Bridge], [Final Chorus], [Outro]. An instrumental source stays instrumental.
Cover
Keeps the melody, remakes genre and vocal character. Use it when the structure is right and the suit is wrong. Cover is not a stem mixer — it remakes the whole song and does not stack two finished vocals into a duet. A selected Persona can ride along in Custom on any Rao or Suno model.
Persona
Create Persona from a completed Rao or Suno song you generated (subscription required; not uploads). It stores vocal character and style. It does not clone a real voice, does not output audio by itself, and does not appear on Replace Section, Add Vocals, or Add Instrumental. After it is selected, write less in Styles so you do not fight the saved identity.
A sensible order: Custom draft → keep the better take → Replace the broken span → Extend if you need length → save a Persona once the voice is right → Cover only for a genre swap.
Copy-paste templates
Paste any of these into Custom on /create. Tags stay in English. The Chinese template keeps Chinese sung lines.
Leave Vocal Gender unset on the duets. Lock it only when you want one lead.
Male / female duet ballad
Three-layer duet: Styles name both voices, Lyrics declare the roles, then whole sections swap.
Vocal GenderLeave unset
Styles
Lyrics
Easy to get wrong
Tag on the same line as lyrics — ignored, or sung.
Structure tags in Styles. That field is comma-separated words, not brackets.
(guitar solo) as an instruction — it gets sung. Use a square-bracket break with no lyrics under it.
Long tags, or five tags on one section.
Chorus wording that drifts between repeats.
No [Outro] / [End] — abrupt cut or a mumbled loop.
A single [Duet] at the top, no duet in Styles, Vocal Gender locked — one singer takes the track.
Dense stacked harmony on the first generate.
Regenerating the whole song instead of replacing twenty seconds.
A wall of lyrics — later sections get rushed. Write shorter, then Extend.
Plain-prose notes between lines (“now make it sadder”) — they get sung.
Treating Persona as a voice clone, or looking for it in Simple mode.
Lyrics tags vs Styles and Vocal Gender
Tags shape this section. Styles and Vocal Gender shape the whole song.
| If you want to… | Lyrics tags | Styles / Vocal Gender |
|---|---|---|
| Two singers in one song | [Male] / [Female] / [Both] on their own lines | duet, male and female vocals — and leave Vocal Gender unset |
| A rest in the middle of a vocal song | [Instrumental Break] or [Guitar Solo] with no words under it | Name the solo instrument. Do not use whole-song Instrumental. |
| Whisper the verse, belt the chorus | [Whispered] then [Belted], one per section | Set the resting voice once. Do not write powerful anthemic epic if you want quiet verses. |
| Lock one lead for the whole track | Role tags are the wrong tool for a single singer | Vocal Gender: Male or Female |
| Fix twenty bad seconds | Replace Section with only that span’s tags and lines | Reuse the exact Style wording so the seam does not jump |
Two singers in one song
- Lyrics tags:[Male] / [Female] / [Both] on their own lines
- Styles / Vocal Gender:duet, male and female vocals — and leave Vocal Gender unset
A rest in the middle of a vocal song
- Lyrics tags:[Instrumental Break] or [Guitar Solo] with no words under it
- Styles / Vocal Gender:Name the solo instrument. Do not use whole-song Instrumental.
Whisper the verse, belt the chorus
- Lyrics tags:[Whispered] then [Belted], one per section
- Styles / Vocal Gender:Set the resting voice once. Do not write powerful anthemic epic if you want quiet verses.
Lock one lead for the whole track
- Lyrics tags:Role tags are the wrong tool for a single singer
- Styles / Vocal Gender:Vocal Gender: Male or Female
Fix twenty bad seconds
- Lyrics tags:Replace Section with only that span’s tags and lines
- Styles / Vocal Gender:Reuse the exact Style wording so the seam does not jump
Advanced lyrics FAQ
No. Leave it unset. Vocal Gender can lock only one side. Duets need duet, male and female vocals in Styles plus [Male] / [Female] / [Both] in Lyrics.
A bare [Instrumental] reads as “no vocals on this block,” and at the top of the sheet it can color the whole song. For a rest inside a sung track, use [Instrumental Break] or [Guitar Solo] with nothing underneath.
Yes, but only for one-line delivery: (whispered), (spoken), (harmony). They are weaker than section tags and sometimes ignored. Arrangement, solos, and who sings all go in square brackets.
No. Only the selected span. Put the role tag and the lines for that span. Keep the Style wording identical.
No. Reuse the original wording. Start the new lyrics with a new section tag such as [Bridge], [Final Chorus], or [Outro].
This handbook is written for Rao / Suno models Custom lyrics. Other engines may not honor the same tags. Duets, Replace Section, and Persona follow whatever buttons Create actually shows for that model.
That guide is tag syntax, the Style box, and why chorus text must repeat. This one is duets, mid-song instrumental space, delivery changes, and how to land them with Replace Section, Extend, and Persona.
You probably wrote duet more than once in Styles, or put it in Lyrics unbracketed. Write it once in Styles. Role assignment belongs in [Male] / [Female] tags.
No. Cover keeps the melody and remakes style and vocals. It does not stack two finished vocal tracks. Write the duet in Custom lyrics, then Replace the span that misses.
No. Cover, Mashup, and ordinary Generate can carry a selected persona in Custom on any Rao or Suno model. Replace Section, Add Vocals, and Add Instrumental do not show the selected-persona bar.
Related guides
Paste a template. Generate two takes. Repair the span that fails.
Open Create, switch to Custom, pick any Rao or Suno model, and leave Vocal Gender unset if two people should sing.