INPAINTING - Udio's Swiss Army Knife

Introduction

When listening back to a generated clip, one often comes across otherwise great music marred by some flaw. Maybe it's a wrong or missing word. Maybe a fill in the middle is muddy or boring. Anytime this happens, the solution is Inpaint – the semi-secret Swiss army knife of udio.

Hidden within the triple dot menu on the desktop (if you're a mobile user, put your browser in desktop mode) to the right of a song clip, behind the Edit selection, lies the most versatile tool in the udio toolbox: Inpaint.

With it, one can correct mispronounced words, change or remove lyrics, regenerate a new instrumental section, add lyrics to an instrumental section, change lyrical or tonal flow, or remove artifacts and other unwanted noises. While it can be used to change parts in similar ways to remix, it's not as creative, so it's only recommended for making minor corrections rather than regenerating whole sections.

UI

After selecting Inpaint, the working track gains a blue border, and the left side of the screen changes to the Inpaint interface.

At the top of the screen, one will see the familiar prompt box. It will display the current prompt, but it can be changed to anything you like in order to influence the Inpaint. Alternatively, one can use styles and upload audio to guide it instead.

Below is the name of the current working track, and under that is the context window and selection box.

One can slide the selection box over to the place in the song that needs correction, or, x Clear the selection, place the cursor near the affected area, pause the playback at the correct point and hit + Add Region.

The bars on each end of the selection box can be moved at will. Making the interface wider will facilitate precision. Do this by dragging the gray bar located in between the Library and Inpaint windows.

Selections can be small enough to change a single syllable or note, or long enough for a whole phrase. However, the longer the selection, the more likely it is to make a mistake somewhere. The same is true of multiple selections.

If using lyrics or lyric tags, the next 2 steps are ESSENTIAL, otherwise, they can be ignored.

1. Place the cursor at the beginning of the context window and put *** in the lyrics before the first word you hear during playback

2. Jump near the end of the context window and listen for the last word. Place *** in the lyrics after that word. This shows udio where in the song the selection box is relative to the lyrics so it can accurately re-render the vocals.

In this image you can see the placement of the ***. The lyrics which lie within the selection have been highlighted for clarity, to illustrate the part being Inpainted in the example.

1. From here one can adjust the advanced settings, if necessary. These can often be left in their default settings unless udio is having a hard time getting all the words correct, in which case increasing the lyric strength will help. If you find that the resulting output is too mechanical after using high lyrics strength, doing a second inpaint in the new clip in the same location with low lyrics strength will produce the correct words with a more natural sound.

2. Hit the Inpaint button at the bottom of the screen. If nothing happens, double-check the lyrics box to ensure both sets of *** are in place, or if too many are present.

Simple corrections generally work on the first try, but more complex changes may require multiple generations – and tweaking the prompt and settings – in order to obtain the desired result. Do not give up! You will get it in time.

🧠 Contributor: The One Mark