Prompt Vocabulary

Parts

On a follow-up, the part-only words above no longer cut a clip down to one part, so asking for a new bassline keeps your chords. To strip a clip to one part, remove the others by name: “remove the chords and the melody”.

Sections and Lengths

Name sections in a fresh request and Aether lays out the form in that order, repeats included. This works while the Sections editor is off; while it is on, the editor's list is used instead. On a follow-up, section names change the section you name, and the clip keeps its form. “Hook” counts as a section only next to other section names, and “drop” only as a noun (“the drop”, “an 8 bar drop”), so in a follow-up “drop the bass” takes the bass out.

Contrast

Every piece with more than one section gets some contrast between them. In a fresh request, these words ask for more: “contrasting”, “contrast between”, “dramatically different”, “way bigger”, “dynamic range between” and “make it pop”.

Meter

With Time Sig on 4/4, its default, these words replace it for that request. Any other Time Sig you pick, or Lock to Host, still wins. On the Drums tab, with Time Sig on Auto and Lock to Host off, a meter your message names is used too.

Key

Naming a key in your message (“in F# minor”, “key of D”, “Am”) wins over the Key and Scale controls: Aether sets both aside for that request, and on Any key it also stops Aether picking one at random. Give the mode with the key, since Scale is set aside too, and write it in English. “In a minor key” names no key, because the “a” reads as an article; write “in A minor”. Chords spelled out by name (“C F G C”, “Dm7 G7 Cmaj7”) also stop the random pick on Any key, and leave a Key you set as it is, unless they include a minor chord such as “Am”, which names a key as above. Roman numerals such as I-V-vi-IV name no key, so they still get one picked.

Genres

The 16 genres on the Genre menu can be named in a message instead, while the menu is unset: Pop, R&B / Neo-Soul, Jazz, Lo-Fi / Chillhop, Pop Ballad, Cinematic / Film Score, Trap / Hip-Hop, Classical, Blues, Rock / Alt-Rock, Funk / Soul, Gospel, Bossa Nova / Latin, Ambient / New Age, Ragtime / Boogie and Electronic.

Aether weighs everything you wrote. A genre name decides on its own. A subgenre name, such as baroque or deep house, is nearly as strong, and a composer or artist a little less. Descriptive words only nudge, but they add up: “dreamy” and “ethereal” together are enough to land a piece in Ambient / New Age when nothing stronger is named. Genre words are matched whole, so “popular” never counts as Pop and “greenhouse” never counts as House. When one name contains another, the longer one counts: “rhythm and blues” is R&B / Neo-Soul, not Blues. A genre you name beats “ballad”, so “a slow jazz ballad” is Jazz, and “make it pop” or “make the chorus pop” never counts as Pop, while “a pop song” does.

Electronic Subgenres

Electronic covers a lot of ground, so Aether reads your words for a subgenre and writes to that style specifically: its tempo, its groove and its structure. This works whether Electronic came from the menu or from your words. Say nothing in particular and you get house.

If you name more than one, the one higher in this table wins, so “dubstep with a trance breakdown” is dubstep.

Classical Forms and Periods

With Classical as the genre, from the menu or from your words, these add a form or a period on top. A piece can have one of each, such as a baroque fugue.

A Genre's Other Styles

Five genres carry a second style you can call up by name. Naming it replaces the genre's usual patterns.

Drum Styles

On the Drums tab, the Groove menu picks one of six families and your words pick the style inside it. With Groove on Auto, your words pick both. A family named with no style words gets its default: Boom Bap, House, Breakbeat, Rock, Afro-Cuban or Pop. With nothing to go on at all, the beat is Rock. When your words match styles in two families, the longer phrase wins. Common spellings work too, such as lofi, boom-bap and rnb.

Swing Words

On the Drums tab, swing is a control rather than a prompt. These words move the Swing slider, behind the Processed ⚙ button on the transport bar, rather than being written into the notes. Styles that are swung by nature write their own triplet feel and leave the slider alone.

Removing a Part

In a follow-up, a removal word together with a part's name takes that part out and keeps it out: remove, delete, drop, get rid of, strip out, replace or without, followed by the part's job (the bass, the chords, the harmony, the melody, the lead), its own name (the horns) or its instrument (the trumpet). “No melody” works too.

In Other Languages

Of everything on this page, only the genre names and drum style names are recognized in other languages. The rest is read in English only; see Prompting Guide.