Dorian Duerinckx
Independent artist, guitarist & producer
Practical notes for independent studio workflows
Leverage AI for speed and inspiration while keeping full artistic control over your music and releases.
AI tools have matured enough that they can genuinely accelerate parts of the creative process — but only if you treat them as a skilled assistant rather than an autonomous artist.
Here’s exactly how I integrate them into my workflow without diluting my voice or ending up with generic results.
I use Suno and Udio to generate 10–20 quick song ideas in a session. I prompt with specific genre, mood, tempo, and lyrical themes from my own notes. Most are throwaways, but 1–2 usually spark something I develop manually in my DAW. This compresses weeks of writer’s block into an afternoon.
I feed my rough ideas and reference tracks into Claude or ChatGPT and ask for structural suggestions, rhyme scheme variations, and arrangement roadmaps. I never copy-paste — I use the output as a mirror to see what I might have missed or overused.
For final masters I still use my ears and iZotope Ozone 11 (Master Assistant is shockingly good as a starting point). For distribution assets I use LANDR or eMastered for quick reference masters and Descript for any video/podcast content tied to the release.
AI is a powerful creative multiplier when used with intention and strong editorial judgment. The artists who thrive with these tools are the ones who stay firmly in the driver’s seat.