Make an AI guide vocal for your session singer
A guide vocal, also called a scratch or reference vocal, is a rough vocal a singer learns from before the real take. Upload your instrumental and lyrics, and Lyro’s vocal model sings the words on it and returns the vocal alone, so your singer hears the words, phrasing and structure. The melody is the model’s own: for your exact tune, sing a rough guide yourself. It costs 7 credits for up to a minute, on every plan.
Plans from $14 a month, enough for about 11 vocals on 1-minute beats. No free trial. Cancel in two clicks.
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How it goesThree steps
- Bounce the instrumental the singer will record toExport the section or the whole song from your music software without any vocal, at the session tempo and key, starting on a bar. Lyro reads the tempo and key in your browser; correct a half or double tempo.
- Paste the final lyrics and pick the nearest voiceUse the words as the singer will sing them, tagged [Verse], [Chorus] and [Bridge]. Choose the female or male voice type closest to the singer’s range. Make two or three takes and keep the clearest.
- Send the singer the files and a short noteDownload the vocal alone and the mix of vocal and instrumental, and send them with the lyric sheet. Say what to follow (words, breaths, where lines start and end) and what to ignore (the tune).
The details
What a guide vocal from Lyro tells your singer, and what it does not
Producers use “guide vocal”, “scratch vocal” and “reference vocal” loosely, and often mean the same thing: a rough vocal that shows someone what to sing. Here they all mean that. This is what the file from Lyro covers.
| What the singer needs | What the Lyro guide gives | Rely on it? |
|---|---|---|
| The words | Sung exactly as you wrote them, every repeat written out | Yes, but check each line against your sheet |
| Phrasing | Where each line starts and ends, and where the breaths fall, against your bars | As a starting point: the singer may phrase it their own way |
| Structure | Verse, pre-chorus, chorus and bridge in the order and lengths you set | Yes |
| The melody | The model’s own tune, new on every take | No. Do not ask the singer to learn it unless you chose to keep it |
| Key and range | Sung in the key Lyro read from your instrumental | Check it against the singer’s range |
| Style and feel | A voice type and a line of delivery, such as “soft, close, little vibrato” | A hint only |
| Harmonies and ad-libs | None. One lead vocal comes back | Not covered |
Four ways to make a guide, side by side
| You sing or hum it on a phone | Lyro’s guide vocal | Lyro’s topline (words by Lyro) | A paid demo singer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melody | Yours, exactly | The model’s | The model’s | The singer’s or topliner’s |
| Words | Yours, if you can sing them | Yours, sung clearly | Lyro’s, written for the beat | Yours |
| Cost | Your time | 7 credits for up to a minute, 11 credits for three | 6 credits for a beat of up to 5 minutes | A fee per song (rates vary a lot with the singer and the rights; see what a singer costs) |
| Use it for | Teaching the exact tune | Teaching words, phrasing and structure | Finding a hook idea first | A polished demo for a pitch |
The strongest guide often combines two of these. Let Lyro sing the lyrics so the singer hears the words in time, and record a few bars of the tune yourself on a phone, even badly, if the melody is already decided. Send both and say which is for what.
Some tools aim at the same job from the melody side. PeakTone, for example, describes on its site (read 10 Oct 2026) a tool that makes a topline melody, lyrics and a sung demo from your instrumental, lists topline MIDI, and says it is not a replacement for the final vocalist. See peaktone.com. Lyro returns audio, not MIDI or sheet music.
What to send your singer
- The instrumental with no vocal on it. The one they record to, at the session tempo and key. Check both with the BPM and key finder if you are not sure.
- The guide on its own, and the mix with the guide on top. In your library, Download vocal only saves the vocal alone and Download saves it mixed with your instrumental, both as WAV files.
- A lyric sheet with the parts marked. The same text you pasted into Lyro, so the sheet and the guide agree. Fix any line the model skipped or sang wrongly before you send it.
- Tempo and key at the top of the note. If the key sits badly for the singer, bounce the instrumental in a better key from your music software and make the guide again on that version.
- One sentence about the melody. Either “the tune is yours, ignore the guide’s” or “the tune is on the phone recording, the guide is for the words”. A singer who does not know this will try to copy the guide.
- The fact that the guide is AI. Tell the singer. It is a working file for them, and it never goes into the release.
Guides are an old part of studio work. LA Singers, which lists the SAG-AFTRA singer rates for film and television, says on its rates page (read 10 Oct 2026) that when a song demo is recorded to present for approval or to teach the song to a performer, the singers may be paid 25% of scale, and that anyone whose demo ends up in the final production is then paid in full. That is one union agreement for screen work, not a rule for pop sessions, so check what your own singer expects. See lasingers.org/rates.
How many credits a guide takes: a worked example
A guide only has to cover what the singer needs, so you rarely need the whole song.
- One verse, a pre-chorus and a chorus. Bounce a minute of the instrumental. At 100 BPM a bar lasts 2.4 seconds, so a minute holds 25 bars, and Lyro’s plan for it is 14 sung lines, about 80 words. Cost: 7 credits.
- The whole song. A three-minute instrumental at 100 BPM holds 52 sung lines, about 280 words. Cost: 11 credits.
- Two takes of the chorus. Upload only the chorus bars and generate twice, for double that cost. Each take sings it a little differently, so you can send the clearer one or both.
Write enough words for the bars. With only a few lines, the vocal model adds lines of its own, and a guide with invented words is worse than none. The lyrics written to your beat page shows how many lines a beat holds, and the syllable counter checks that lines which share a tune have a similar number of syllables.
Where the limits are
- The melody is the model’s. It writes its own tune for your words and a new one on every take. It cannot learn a tune you hum. If the singer must hit your exact notes, record them yourself, or use the topline generator to hear melody ideas first and then sing the one you like.
- You choose a voice type, not a singer. Lyro has no voice cloning and does not take an artist’s name as a style, so the guide cannot sound like your singer or like anyone real.
- One lead vocal only. No harmonies, doubles or ad-libs are stacked for you.
- A word can land slightly early or late. Move that phrase on the grid in the studio before you send the file. See AI vocals off beat?
- Names and slang can be mispronounced. Respell a word the way it is said and make the take again, and tell the singer the real pronunciation.
- Live, drifting instrumentals are harder. A piano or guitar part played without a click may not sit on a steady grid, and the guide will sit loosely on it. A programmed or clicked track works best.
- Do not release the guide. It is a tool for the session. If you do want an AI vocal in a release, that is a different choice, with its own rules; see music rights.
Credits, plans and rights
A guide vocal costs 7 credits for up to a minute of instrumental and 11 credits for three minutes, on every plan. Starter is $14 a month for 80 credits. Writing or fixing the lyrics uses writing-assistant requests, not credits. The studio and downloads use no credits and are never counted or capped, and a failed job gives back every credit automatically. See the pricing page.
Your lyrics and your instrumental stay yours: Lyro claims no rights in what you upload. Every paid plan includes a commercial licence for what Lyro generates, and each download carries an ID3 tag declaring it AI-generated. What your singer records is their performance, and the terms for it, fee, credit and rights, are between you and the singer, in writing. Lyro is not part of that agreement.
Questions
What is a guide vocal?
A guide vocal is a rough vocal recorded or generated so that someone else can learn the song from it. People also call it a scratch vocal or a reference vocal. It shows a session singer the words, the phrasing and the structure before the real take, and it is not meant for release.
Can AI make a guide vocal for my singer?
Yes. Upload your instrumental, paste the lyrics and choose a voice type. Lyro’s vocal model sings the words on your instrumental and returns the vocal alone, usually in two to three minutes. It costs 7 credits for up to a minute of instrumental, on every plan. The melody it sings is the model’s own, not yours.
Can my singer learn the melody from it?
Not reliably, and you should not ask them to. The model writes a new melody on every take and cannot follow a tune you have in your head. Use the Lyro guide for the words, the phrasing and the structure. If the tune is fixed, sing or hum it into a phone for the singer, or let them write their own.
Is a guide vocal the same as a demo vocal?
They overlap, and the files can be the same. A guide is a working file for the person who will record the real vocal. A demo is made to be heard by someone deciding, such as a buyer or an artist you are pitching. For that, see demo vocals for beats you sell or a song demo without singing.
Should I tell the singer the guide is AI?
Yes, in the note you send with the files. It is honest, and it helps them: they will know to treat the tune as a suggestion. Every download from Lyro carries an ID3 tag declaring it AI-generated, and the guide should stay in your session and out of the release.
Can the guide sound like my singer?
No. You choose a voice type, such as a soft or powerful female voice or a deep or smooth male one, not a person. Lyro has no voice cloning, and our acceptable use policy does not allow imitating a real person’s voice or naming a real artist as a style.
What does it cost?
7 credits for up to a minute of instrumental and 11 credits for three minutes, on every plan. Starter is $14 a month for 80 credits. See the pricing page.
Related: Song demo without singing, Demo vocals for beats you sell, Add vocals to a beat, AI topline generator, Turn a voice memo into a song, Lyrics written to your beat
Guides: How much does it cost to hire a singer for your song? (2026), How producers get vocals on their beats when they can’t sing