
Start from a working prompt
Every entry names genre, tempo, key and instruments, because those four decide most of the result.
26 prompts written to be edited rather than used verbatim. Each names a genre, a tempo, the instruments and whether there are vocals — the four things that actually change the result. Swap any of them.
To hear what these turn into before you spend a generation on one, the worked examples pair each prompt with what came back and say plainly which attempt missed.
A track at — . Instrumental, .
lo-fi hip hop, 78 BPM, warm and unhurried. Instrumental, vinyl crackle, highs rolled off.
Showing 26 of 26
Cinematic orchestral trailer in D minor, 90 BPM. Starts with a lone piano motif and low strings, adds taiko drums at 20 seconds, full brass and choir hit at 45 seconds, hard stop at 60. No vocals. Leave two beats of silence before the final hit.
Restrained documentary underscore, 72 BPM, A minor. Felt piano, sustained cello, light shaker. Keeps a steady emotional level with no builds or drops so it can sit under narration. Instrumental. Midrange kept sparse for voiceover.
Modern tech-product launch bed, 118 BPM, F major. Muted plucked synth arpeggio, soft four-on-the-floor kick, rising white-noise sweep into a bright pad at 22 seconds. Confident but not aggressive. Instrumental, resolves cleanly at 30 seconds.
Warm acoustic montage track, 84 BPM, G major. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar, brushed drums, soft strings entering on the second chorus, gentle handclaps. Hopeful and unhurried. Instrumental, with room for a spoken vow to sit on top.
Podcast intro, 105 BPM, 12 seconds. Warm Rhodes chord, upright bass walk, brushed snare, one vibraphone flourish at the end. Conversational and inviting rather than corporate. Instrumental, ends on a clean resolved chord.
True-crime underscore, 68 BPM, C minor. Sub-bass pulse, sparse detuned piano notes, faint tape hiss, a single high sustained string. No percussion after the first bar. Unsettling but flat in dynamics so dialogue stays on top. Loops seamlessly.
Podcast outro, 105 BPM, 20 seconds, same Rhodes and upright bass palette as a warm jazz intro. Starts at full level, thins out to just piano over the last eight seconds for credits. Instrumental.
Combat music, 140 BPM, E minor. Driving low strings in ostinato, syncopated percussion, brass stabs on the offbeat, occasional cymbal swell. High energy sustained throughout with no resolution, loops cleanly for indefinite battles. Instrumental.
Chiptune level theme, 150 BPM, C major, NES-style four channels: pulse lead, second pulse harmony, triangle bass, noise percussion. Bright and bouncy, eight-bar melody that loops. Instrumental.
Open-world exploration ambience, 60 BPM, A minor. Long evolving pads, distant solo woodwind phrases every 20 seconds or so, no percussion. Sparse enough to leave space for footsteps and wind. Instrumental, loops without a seam.
Punchy 15-second loop, 145 BPM, half-time trap feel. Detuned bell melody, 808 slide on the downbeat, crisp hi-hat triplets, one vocal chop stab. Grabs attention in the first half second. Loops seamlessly for short video.
Bright indie-dance loop for short video, 124 BPM, A major. Clean electric guitar riff, disco hi-hats, punchy kick, handclaps on 2 and 4. Cheerful and immediate, no long intro — the hook lands within two seconds. Instrumental.
Chilled stream background, 92 BPM, F major. Dusty lo-fi drums, warm electric piano, soft sub-bass, faint vinyl crackle. Stays at one level for hours without becoming irritating. Instrumental, loops seamlessly, nothing sharp in the vocal frequency range.
Fifteen-second advertising bed, 120 BPM, C major. Plucked synth, light claps, rising sweep at 10 seconds, resolved chord landing exactly at 15 with a clean stop, not a fade. Instrumental, midrange left open for a voiceover.
Contemporary pop song about the week after a breakup, 102 BPM, F# minor. Female vocal, conversational verses and a big open chorus. Piano and programmed drums in verses, guitars and layered harmonies in the chorus. Two verses, chorus twice, bridge, final chorus.
Indie folk song, 88 BPM, D major. Male vocal, close-mic’d and unpolished. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar, upright bass, brushed drums entering in the second verse, a single mournful pedal steel line. Lyrics about leaving a small town, specific and concrete rather than abstract.
Slow R&B, 72 BPM, Bb minor, half-time feel. Smooth female lead with stacked background harmonies, warm Rhodes, deep round sub-bass, crisp finger snaps, tape saturation. Intimate and late-night. Verse, pre-chorus, chorus structure.
UK drill, 142 BPM, G minor. Sliding 808 bass, sparse dark piano motif, skittering hi-hats. Sixteen-bar verse with a four-bar hook, conversational cadence, internal rhyme rather than end rhyme. Clean lyrics, no profanity.
Country story song, 96 BPM, G major. Male vocal with a slight drawl. Acoustic guitar, pedal steel, fiddle on the chorus, brushed snare. Narrative lyrics with concrete nouns — a truck, a diner, a name. Two verses, chorus, bridge, final chorus.
Arena rock anthem, 128 BPM, E major. Group vocal chorus with a singable four-note hook, driving eighth-note guitars, big open snare, tambourine. Verses restrained so the chorus lands harder. Chorus lyric short enough for a crowd to shout back.
Focus music, 70 BPM, C major. Soft repeating marimba figure, warm low pad, no percussion, no melody that resolves. Deliberately uneventful — nothing that pulls attention. Instrumental, loops for long stretches without variation that would register.
Sleep ambience, extremely slow, A minor. Long sustained pads with slow attack, occasional distant piano note, no percussion, no transients. Gentle low-pass filtering so nothing is bright. Instrumental, fades in and out without a defined start or end.
Meditation underscore, 60 BPM, D major. Singing bowl resonance, soft drone, occasional harp harmonic. No rhythm, no build, no resolution. Midrange kept clear for a spoken guide. Instrumental, loops seamlessly.
Relaxed café jazz, 98 BPM, F major. Brushed drums, upright bass walking, warm electric piano comping, muted trumpet playing a loose melody. Conversational volume, nothing showy. Instrumental, loops for hours.
Sparse solo piano, 64 BPM, E minor, with soft rain and distant thunder underneath. Wide spacing between phrases, sustain pedal held long, felt-damped hammers. Melancholy and slow. Instrumental.
Every prompt above names five things: genre, tempo, mood, instrumentation, and an explicit decision about vocals. Tempo does more work than any other word — the same instrumentation at 70 BPM and 140 BPM is two different pieces of music. Naming what you do not want (“no drums”, “no build”) steers as effectively as naming what you do.
Inside
Copy one, change one thing, and hear what moved.

Every entry names genre, tempo, key and instruments, because those four decide most of the result.
1 / 5
"72 BPM" is unambiguous across genres. "Slow" is not.
Timbre carries more emotion than harmony. A felt piano and a bright synth are two different records.
Asking for a sparse first verse gives the arrangement somewhere to build to.
An uncluttered midrange is the single most useful instruction for anything that sits under a voice.
Name genre, tempo in BPM, instrumentation, vocal type, mood and production era. Twenty to forty words covering those beats a poetic sentence every time.
Whenever tempo matters. Models honour explicit numbers far more reliably than words like "upbeat", which different genres interpret sixty beats apart.
Poorly, and often backwards — naming a thing tends to summon it. Ask for the positive alternative instead: request a sparse arrangement rather than saying no drums.
Most platforms filter artist names, so those words are simply discarded and you lose the space you spent on them. Describing the actual sound works everywhere.
Sampling is random by design, so identical prompts produce variations. Treat that as a way to explore an idea, and save anything good before regenerating.
Long enough to name the parameters that matter and no longer. Padding past about forty words dilutes the terms that were doing the work.
Copy a prompt, change one thing, and generate.