Pass It On
Permanent short link: zylelabs.dev/pass-it-on
Two modal directions, one track, then a handoff to the next person.
Suno model: v5.5 throughout. Settings: 50% Weirdness and 50% Style Influence.
Back to the guide · All song breakdowns
I started with an idea: a Phrygian Dominant DnB track with vocals in Dorian on top. I decided F# was a good place for this.
I generated the instrumental first, then made a separate generation for the lyrics. Once I had both, I combined them through Mashup and used a final Cover pass to bring it all together.
The workflow
Section titled “The workflow”| Stage | What I asked it to do |
|---|---|
| Generate: Phrygian Dominant | Build the technical DnB instrumental with Phrygian / Phrygian dominant colour |
| Generate: Pass It On Lyrics | Create the vocal generation around F# Dorian |
| Mashup | Combine the two generations without a style prompt or settings changes |
| Cover | Bring the track together and ask musical ideas to pass between elements, returning transformed |
| Pass it on | Hand the finished track to Logia to begin a game of musical Gartic Phone |
1. Generate the instrumental
Section titled “1. Generate the instrumental”My first generation was Phrygian Dominant. I asked for a technical, futuristic DnB instrumental at 174 BPM, with sparse harmony and room around the sound design.
Drum & Bass | Technical | Futuristic | Sound Design | 174 BPM Key: F# | Mode: Phrygian / Phrygian dominant colour Precise punchy breakbeats, heavy controlled sub bass, intricate synthetic bass movement, FM and wavetable textures, aggressive resampling, microscopic rhythmic edits, glitch percussion, unusual transient sounds, abrupt timbral transformations, mechanical fills, syncopated bass articulation, sparse harmonic content, strong negative space, constantly evolving electronic details, highly controlled dynamics, clean modern mix, Instrumental, No jazz, no brass, no saxophone, no swing, no Rhodes, no orchestral elementsListen: Phrygian Dominant
Section titled “Listen: Phrygian Dominant”Open the instrumental MP3 directly
2. Generate the vocal track
Section titled “2. Generate the vocal track”Once I had the instrumental, I created a new generation for the lyrics. I kept the technical DnB and sound-design language, but changed the modal direction to F# Dorian, specifically asking for sparse harmony centred on its natural 2.
Drum & Bass | Technical | Futuristic | Sound Design Driven 174 BPM | F# Dorian | 4/4 Precise punchy breakbeats, heavy controlled sub bass, intricate synthetic bass movement, FM and wavetable textures, aggressive resampling, microscopic rhythmic edits, glitch percussion, unusual transient sounds, abrupt timbral transformations, mechanical fills, syncopated bass articulation, sparse harmony centred strongly on F# Dorian's natural 2, strong negative space, constantly evolving electronic detailsThis gave me Pass It On Lyrics.
Listen: Pass It On Lyrics
Section titled “Listen: Pass It On Lyrics”Open the vocal-generation MP3 directly
3. Mashup the two
Section titled “3. Mashup the two”I made a Mashup of Phrygian Dominant and Pass It On Lyrics, with no style prompt and no changes to the settings. That gave me Pass It On Mashup.
Listen: Pass It On Mashup
Section titled “Listen: Pass It On Mashup”4. Bring it together with Cover
Section titled “4. Bring it together with Cover”I then used the Mashup as the source for a final Cover pass. The prompt asked to preserve the lead vocal, melodic identity, technical DnB foundation and polymodal tension, while adding a more playful direction for the sound design.
Drum & Bass | Experimental Electronic | Technical | Playful | Hyper-Detailed | 174 BPM | F# Polymodal: Phrygian Instrumental + Dorian Vocal | 4/4 Preserve the lead vocal, melodic identity, technical DnB foundation and polymodal tension, Recursive evolving sound design: motifs pass between elements and return transformed, Vocal phrases become synth motifs; synth rhythms become bass articulations; bass patterns become percussion; percussion becomes melodic material, Granular micro-edits, Spectral morphing, FM and wavetable textures, unusual synthetic transients, crisp technical breaks, controlled sub, playful rhythmic displacement, dramatic negative space, Sparse intimate verses contrast explosive detailed drops, Each repetition inherits a recognizable feature while adding a new mutation, Restrained harmony, electronic instrumentationThe new behavioural direction was explicit: vocal phrases become synth motifs, synth rhythms become bass articulations, bass patterns become percussion, and percussion becomes melodic material. I asked each repetition to inherit something recognisable while adding a new mutation.
The modal wording also changes between stages: the instrumental prompt says “Phrygian / Phrygian dominant colour”, while the final Cover says “Phrygian Instrumental + Dorian Vocal”. Those are the directions I prompted for, rather than a note-by-note analysis of the generated audio.
Listen: Pass It On
Section titled “Listen: Pass It On”5. Musical Gartic Phone
Section titled “5. Musical Gartic Phone”After making the track, I had another idea: turn it into a game of musical Gartic Phone, literally passing it from one person to the next.
I handed Pass It On to Logia.
The Cover prompt had asked musical ideas to pass between elements and return transformed. Now I wanted to take that idea beyond the arrangement and pass the track to another person.