이미지: The Verge AI 영상 갈무리
Summary
- Suno released version 2.0 of its music editing tool, Suno Studio, adding MIDI support for the first time
- Third-party plugins and VST are still unsupported, meaning editing is limited to the built-in synth
- The move comes as Suno, which topped Apple's App Store music charts this summer, continues efforts to build trust
- 제품
- Suno Studio 2.0 (2026년 8월 13일 공개)
- 핵심 추가 기능
- MIDI 지원 — 수노가 밝힌 이용자 최다 요청 기능
- 한계
- 서드파티 플러그인·VST 미지원, 자체 내장 신스만 사용 가능
- 신스 사양
- 2-오실레이터 웨이브테이블 신스, 엔벨로프 3~4개 수준으로 알려짐
- 배경 1
- 수노, 올여름 애플 앱스토어 음악 앱 1위 여러 주 유지(블룸버그 인용, 2026-08-13 확인)
- 배경 2
- 수노, 지난 8월 6일 워터마킹·핑거프린팅 등 책임있는 AI 음악 원칙 공개
- 배경 3
- 기타 부품업체 D'Addario, 홍보 영상에 수노 음악 몰래 썼다가 2주 만에 시인(2026-08-12)
MIDI, finally arrives
Suno has released version 2.0 of its music editing tool, Suno Studio. The biggest change is MIDI support. MIDI is a standard format that captures performance data—pitch, duration, and velocity of notes—allowing instrument sounds to be freely swapped out, and it's effectively a baseline requirement for virtually every modern digital audio workstation (DAW). Suno said MIDI was the single most requested feature among its users. Until now, Suno Studio functioned more as a light editor for refining AI-generated output; with this update, users can directly draw and adjust individual notes.
A synth, but no plugins
That said, third-party plugins and VST support are still missing. VST is the standard format for external virtual instrument and effect plugins favored by music producers, and without it, users can't bring over the synths or effects they normally rely on. Instead, Suno offers only its own built-in synth, reportedly a relatively simple setup—a wavetable synth built around two oscillators, with a few envelopes (controls for how a sound changes over time) attached. It's not meant to emulate famous vintage synth plugins, but rather to allow minimal shaping of melodies drawn in via MIDI.
| Item | Suno Studio 2.0 | Traditional DAW (e.g. Ableton, Logic) |
|---|---|---|
| MIDI editing | Newly supported | Standard/built-in |
| Third-party plugins/VST | Not supported | Supported |
| Built-in synth | One 2-oscillator wavetable synth | Access to numerous third-party synths |
Why aim for a "real DAW" now
The timing of Suno's push to strengthen its editing features is notable. Suno said, citing Bloomberg, that it topped Apple's App Store music app charts for several weeks this summer. Downloads reportedly surged as word spread about its text-to-song capability. At the same time, on August 6, Suno announced plans to introduce audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology, and disclosed anti-plagiarism principles including blocking specific artist names from being used in prompts. Adding to this, guitar parts maker D'Addario was caught using Suno-generated music in a promotional video without disclosure, and admitted to it two weeks later. In short, as Suno's popularity has grown, so has the pressure to shed the "AI cranked this out" label. MIDI support in Studio 2.0 fits into this broader trend—an attempt to shift from being a tool people use as-is to a production tool producers can directly shape.
How to use it
The original announcement didn't specify detailed access paths, but since Suno Studio has existed as an editing tool within the Suno platform, the 2.0 update is expected to follow the same access route. Based on the confirmed feature set, the likely workflow is as follows:
- Load an AI-generated track into Suno Studio.
- Open the newly added MIDI track to edit melodies or chords note by note.
- Adjust tone using the built-in 2-oscillator wavetable synth.
For example, if a certain section's pitch in an AI-generated accompaniment doesn't sound right, previously users had to change the prompt and regenerate from scratch—now they can directly move and fix MIDI notes. However, users hoping to bring in their favorite external synths or effect plugins may still find this update falls short.
What actually changes
Until now, Suno has largely been used as an auto-generation tool—type a few sentences, get a song. The new MIDI editing feature opens the door for users to manually shape that output. It aligns with a broader shift from simply receiving a finished product wholesale to a workflow where AI provides a draft and humans refine it. Still, as long as the lack of VST support remains, it's understandable that some would argue it's too early for professional producers to fully migrate their existing workflows to Suno.
