An AI singer sings exactly what you give it. It will not fix a line that is too long, guess where your chorus is, or skip a note to yourself that you left in the text. That is good news: a few writing habits make a bigger difference to the final song than any setting.
This guide covers structure, line length, the chorus, how much to write, script choice for Indian languages, and what to do when a line comes out wrong.
Start with structure tags
Put a section tag on its own line above each block: [Intro], [Verse], [Pre-Chorus], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Outro]. The tags tell the song where to build, where to land the hook and where to change melody. Without them, a long block of text tends to be sung with the same shape all the way through.
You do not need to type the brackets perfectly. Autunes recognises labels such as 'Verse 1:' or 'Chorus:' on their own line and converts them, and it understands Indian song terms too: Mukhda and Sthayi are treated as the chorus, Antara as a verse, Pallavi and Charanam in South Indian songs as chorus and verse, and Doha or Chaupai in devotional text as verses. So a bhajan written with Mukhda and Antara labels works as written.
- A simple shape that works for most songs: [Verse] [Chorus] [Verse] [Chorus] [Bridge] [Chorus].
- For a reel or short song: [Verse] [Chorus] is enough.
- For a devotional song: [Intro] with an alaap or a short invocation, then alternate Antara and Mukhda.
Keep lines singable
Long lines are the most common cause of rushed, mumbled vocals. A useful rule of thumb is a line you can say aloud in one comfortable breath, often around 6 to 12 syllables. If you run out of breath reading it, the singer will rush it.
Before: 'Main tere bina is sheher ki in lambi raaton mein akela baitha sochta rehta hoon'. After: 'Teri yaadon mein / jaagi raatein / sheher hai chup / main bhi chup'. Each new line gives the melody a place to breathe.
Keep the lines within a section roughly the same length. Matching line lengths help the verse settle into a steady rhythm, and your chorus will sound like a chorus because it repeats a pattern.
Write a chorus that repeats
The chorus carries the title and the feeling, and it should be the simplest part of the song. Two to four short lines, with one line or phrase that repeats, is enough. Example in Punjabi: 'Nach le, nach le, aaj di raat / Dil di gall kar, chhad saari baat / Nach le, nach le'.
Repeat the chorus in full each time it comes back rather than writing '[Chorus] repeat'. If you want one line sung twice, add (x2) at the end of it; Autunes sings it twice, and (x3) three times. It does not go beyond three, which is plenty for a hook.
How many lines do you need?
Song length follows the amount you write. As a rough guide, a sung line takes around five seconds, so 20 to 32 lines sits comfortably in a three-minute song, which is the limit on the Free and Pro plans. Creator songs run up to five minutes, so you can write more verses there.
Writing far more than fits makes the vocal rush; writing too little gives long instrumental gaps. For very long texts such as a full chalisa or a long aarti, Long Forms (on Pro and Creator) takes 70 to 140 lines and builds a piece of up to about 12 minutes for 30 credits. Under 70 lines, a normal song sings the text at a more natural pace.
Script choice for Hindi, Punjabi and other languages
You can write Hindi in Devanagari or in Roman script, and Punjabi in Gurmukhi or Roman. Both work. Native script has one advantage: it spells sounds exactly. In Roman, 'kal' could be yesterday or tomorrow and is fine either way, but 'bala' and 'bhala', or 'sher' and 'shair', depend on spelling choices people make differently. In Devanagari, बला and भला leave no doubt.
If you write in Roman, be consistent and spell the way the word sounds: 'pyaar' rather than 'pyr', 'kya' rather than 'kia'. Avoid chat shortcuts like 'k' for 'ke' or 'u' for 'you', write numbers as words (do din, not 2 din), and set the language picker to the language you are singing in.
What to keep out of the lyrics box
Everything in the lyrics box is a candidate to be sung. Autunes cleans up a lot of common clutter, such as titles, credit lines, bullet points, bold markers and emoji, and it moves style lines like 'Mood: romantic' into the style prompt. Some things it cannot know to skip.
- Notes to yourself, such as 'sing this softly' or 'guitar here', unless written as a section tag.
- Chord names written above the words.
- Translations in brackets after each line; the singer will try to sing both.
- Speaker names in a duet, such as 'Ravi:' before each line.
After the song is made: check and fix
Every finished vocal on Autunes is transcribed and checked against your lyrics, and lines that came out wrong are flagged. If one line is off in an otherwise good song, you do not need to start again. On Pro and Creator, edit section re-sings just that line for 3 credits, and auto-fix pronunciation (10 credits) re-records the flagged lines on the same melody.
If a whole section feels wrong, the lyric is usually the cause: shorten the lines, make the chorus simpler, and generate again. Pasting your own lyrics also means a Free account renders on Zori5.5 XL, the richer engine.