Style recipe for Suno v5
Synthwave
Retro synthwave from the 2010s: overdriven bass synth, shrieking lead synth, gated reverb snare, aggressive and menacing in feel. A name-free Suno recipe that reproduces the signature sound without tripping the artist-name filter.
History
Synthwave rebuilds a 1980s its makers mostly knew as children, through films and games. It took shape in the 2000s among French house producers such as Kavinsky and David Grellier of College, who wrote tracks in the manner of old film scores, and among younger artists whose view of the decade was turned from parody to homage by the 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Its reference points are few and named: John Carpenter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, above all his score for Blade Runner. The sound is analogue synth leads and basslines, drum machines and gated reverb, mostly instrumental, though acts like The Midnight lean on songs. One subgenre, outrun, took its name from the 1986 arcade racer Out Run, and the word later stretched to the look of the covers: magenta neon, gridlines, 1980s cars. The breakthrough was the 2011 film Drive, which carried Kavinsky's "Nightcall" and "A Real Hero" by College and Electric Youth, followed by the Hotline Miami games and Stranger Things. The darker offshoot darksynth turned to horror scores. A horror blog called Carpenter Brut a synthwave icon. In 2020 the Weeknd's synthwave-tinged "Blinding Lights" topped the US charts.
The recipe
Opening the recipe…
Tag breakdown
Every descriptor in this style, listed one at a time.
| # | Tag |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retro synthwave |
| 2 | 2010s |
| 3 | aggressive |
| 4 | menacing |
| 5 | triumphant |
| 6 | overdriven bass synth |
| 7 | shrieking lead synth |
| 8 | gated reverb snare |
| 9 | analog poly pad |
| 10 | arpeggiated sequence line |
| 11 | electronic tom fills |
| 12 | church organ stab |
| 13 | portamento lead runs |
| 14 | stacked saw chords |
| 15 | instrumental |
| 16 | no vocals |
| 17 | heavy sidechain pump |
| 18 | neon tape shimmer |
| 19 | saturated analog drive |
| 20 | wide chorus spread |
| 21 | dense synth wall |
| 22 | arpeggio under lead |
| 23 | cavernous gated tail |
| 24 | huge stereo width |
| 25 | driving straight eights |
| 26 | pulsing sixteenth arp |
| 27 | filtered build intro |
| 28 | full drop chorus |
| 29 | breakdown before finale |
| 30 | polished professional master |
| 31 | wide dimensional stereo |
| 32 | 154 BPM |
| 33 | for workouts |
Built from 33 tags across 629 characters, this 2010s style runs at 138–170 BPM with an instrumental vocal delivery.