YuE2 pairs editable symbolic scores with AI vocals and accompaniment
- YuE2 generates an editable symbolic score before rendering a song with vocals and accompaniment, putting composition planning and audio generation in one model.
- The project claims its song quality rivals Suno v5, though the page presents demos rather than benchmark results or a model card.
- Its interactive demo exposes the generated plan as an ABC score with separate vocal and instrumental melodies, chords, tempo, meter, and lyrics.
- The displayed Bhangra example is set in E minor, 4/4 time, and 85 BPM, and lets listeners compare the generated song, symbolic score, and original score recording.
Hacker News opinions
I can finally make proper covers in other genres and change the lyrics with a local audio model. That was the missing capability for me.
That "Comedy" example sounds technically competent but completely soulless. It feels like the musical equivalent of corporate PR copy generated by an LLM.
I do not see much of a use case beyond playing 100 generated tracks at the same tempo simultaneously.
I see the use case as control. A musician can write the melody, harmony, and lyrics, then render the same composition repeatedly until they like a performance; a non-musician can do the same after generating the symbolic input.
It is depressing to start composing while these systems may devalue human work. Once quality improves, composing by hand could be treated like baking sourdough instead of buying supermarket bread.
I do not find the job-loss framing persuasive. This is an enormous creation machine, and people should build on the work that came before them.
I expect creative work to split into cheap AI output for routine use and human, experiential work such as vinyl, concerts, and upscale restaurants.
I make and value art because humans use it to express and share something. I do not know anyone personally who wants to listen to AI music, view AI art, or read AI books.
The vocals in the tracks I heard are clearly AI to me, and Suno sounds more credible in many genres. Suno Studio 2 costs $24 to $30 a month, which is getting close to Ableton Live 12 Suite rent-to-own pricing without ownership.
I have zero interest in music generated from the void, even if it becomes endless and personalized. What matters to me is that another human made it to express something.
Easy prompting may flood the world with middling work, but I think unique work will still rise above it. Artists may use AI, yet quality will still require substantial effort.
AI music makes me worry that taste will fragment further. When everyone can tweak a song to personal preference, we lose some of the shared experience of listening to the same release.