Why AI songs sound harsh, and how to soften the edge

Play an AI song next to a commercial release and you can often hear it before you can name it. The top end is glassy. S sounds hiss. Cymbals fizz. The song feels loud but small. These are not your speakers.

Where the edge comes from

Music models generate audio through compressed internal representations, then decode back to a waveform. Fine high-frequency detail is the hardest part to rebuild, and decoders tend to fill it with bright, grainy energy. It collects around 3 to 6 kHz, the range human hearing is most sensitive to, which is why it tires the ear so fast.

The other tells

• Low-mid mud: haze around 200–500 Hz that hides the bass and the vocal on small speakers.
• Flat dynamics: the song is squeezed so loud and quiet parts barely differ.
• Wobbly stereo: the left and right sides drift apart, so the song feels unsteady on headphones.

Gentle fixes that work

Cut a little, not a lot. A broad dip of a couple of dB in the high mids, a de-esser on the vocal, and a small low-mid cut get most of the way. Do not add more compression to a song that is already flat. Pull a wandering stereo image a little toward the center.

Orbit Waves' Make it sound finished button listens for exactly these four things in the song you load and writes what it did: softened the sharp edge, cleared some mud, left the punch alone because the song was already squeezed. Pressing it again replaces its own moves instead of stacking a second copy.

What it cannot fix

Mastering cannot change a lyric, a wrong note, or a melody that drifts. It cannot fully remove a metallic shimmer baked into the vocal itself. If a part is the problem, regenerate that part. If the whole song is close, finish it.