How to use Adapt: Epidemic Sound’s AI-powered soundtracking tool
Learn how to use Epidemic Sound’s new AI-powered tool, Adapt.
Epidemic Sound has launched Adapt, an AI-powered tool that helps creators shape tracks to better fit their content — all in a few clicks.
What is Adapt?
Adapt enables you to instantly tailor Epidemic Sound’s tracks, which are all created by world-class artists. Whether you want to tweak a track’s vibe to match a scene, calm it down to make room for dialogue, or add an extra instrument, Adapt’s got you covered.
All adapted tracks are safe to publish across any platform, just like other Epidemic Sound tracks. Adapt is available in Epidemic Sound Labs, which is where you can try new features and give us feedback.
Developed alongside artists, Adapt gives back to those who created the original music. Artists are paid when users download their adapted tracks, and can opt out of Adapt if they wish.
Adapt kick-starts Epidemic Sound’s next era of soundtracking, in which AI will amplify creativity while keeping artists’ interests first. You can read more about our commitments to artists and content creators here.
How to use Adapt
Your guide to Epidemic Sound’s Adapt will cover:
1. How to access Adapt
Adapt is available to all Epidemic Sound subscribers on the Creator or Pro plan. If you’re an Enterprise customer, you’ll need to ask your Customer Success Manager for access.
Here’s how to access Adapt:
1. Log in to your Epidemic Sound account
You’ll see the “Labs” tab at the top of the page. It’s handily accompanied by an icon of a laboratory flask.
2. Click the Labs tab and enter the Labs page
This is your space to explore new tools that make soundtracking simpler, faster, and more intuitive. The tools found here are in development, and will change based on your feedback.
3. Click the “Try Adapt” button on the left-hand side
This will take you to the Adapt workspace.
2. How to adapt music
Now that you’ve accessed Adapt, it’s time to understand how it works. Here’s how to adapt music.
1. Search for the track you’d like to adapt
If this is your first time using Adapt, a sample track will appear in the workspace. If you want to use a different track, click “New track” on the right-hand side.
Use the free text field to search for a track, or browse the tracks presented below the field. Preview the tracks by clicking the “Play” icon, scroll through their waveforms, and search to your heart’s content. Once you’re happy with your selection, click “Adapt.”
2. Your track’s waveform will appear in the Adapt workspace
Your track will be broken into segments, including the intro, verses, choruses, bridge, and outro. Each of these segments can be manually rearranged via drag-and-drop, or deleted.
If you rearrange or delete track segments and want to see them as they first appeared, just click “View original” at the bottom of the page.
3. Click the “Adapt music” button below your track
This opens the Adapt music panel below the waveform. A selection of mood presets will appear on the left, covering everything from “Sad” and “Suspense” to “Romantic” and “Epic” — variety’s the spice of life, after all.
Choose which moods you’d like, or describe how you want your track to feel in the free text field below.
4. Choose additional instruments
You’ll find additional instruments to the right of the Adapt music panel. Electric guitar, synth pads, upright piano, flute, and more are available. Choose the additional instruments you’d like to use.
The instrument and mood presets are great starting points, but if you want to get the most out of Adapt, you’ll need to describe what you want. Learn how to prompt Adapt like a pro.
5. Choose which stems you’d like to adapt
Each Epidemic Sound track is broken down into four stems: melody, instruments, bass, and drums. This makes it easier to fine-tune the sound.
Instruments are selected as the default stem. To change the stem you’d like to adapt, click the drop-down below the mood presets. You can adapt one stem, a few, or all of them — whatever works for you.
6. Let Adapt work its magic
Press the arrow to the right of the free text field, and let Adapt work its magic. When your track is adapted, it will appear as a new waveform. Click the “Stems” dropdown on the left-hand side to view how the individual stems have been adapted.
Both the adapted and original track previews are available in the “History” panel to the right-hand side, letting you toggle between versions.
7. Adapt again, if you like
You can adapt a track as many times as you like. Note that all adaptations are applied to the original track, so you can’t adapt a track that’s already been adapted. All of your adaptations will appear in the “History” panel, so you can easily listen to and compare them.
8. Download and use your adapted track
Once you’re happy with your adapted track, you can download it from the top-right corner, just above your waveform. This downloads the track to your device as a WAV file.
You can now use your adapted track in your content, just as you’d use any other Epidemic Sound track.
3. How to adapt a track’s length
Now that you’ve learned how to adapt music, it’s time to learn how to adapt a track’s length.
You can adapt the length of a track after you’ve adapted the music, or adapt the length and then the music. The order is up to you.
Here’s how to adapt a track’s length:
1. Follow the first three steps of the previous section
Go to Adapt, find your track, and open it in the Adapt workspace.
2. Click the “Adapt length” button below your track
This button sits next to the “Adapt music” button you found in the previous section.
3. Find the right length for your track
Select a preset or a custom length. Presets are available at 15, 30, and 60-second intervals. If you’d like the track to stretch longer than the original, that’s no problem — the “custom” option lets you adapt the track for up to five minutes. You can also loop the track.
4. Adapt the track and download it
Adapt and download your track as you did during the previous section. As an Epidemic Sound subscriber, you’ll have unlimited downloads.
All of your adaptations are available in the “History” panel on the right-hand side. You can switch between them, compare them, re-edit them, re-download them, and delete them. You can also compare your work-in-progress with the original track at any time by clicking “View original” or “Reset track.”
4. How to prompt Adapt like a pro
Want to prompt like a pro? Here are some best-practice tips and tricks for using Adapt.
1. Describe the sound, not the change
Adapt works best when you describe the sound you’d like to hear, rather than general changes to the track. Let’s start with a basic prompt for Ooyy’s dance-pop banger, Through, with just the Instruments stem:
“Strings, dreamy, hopeful, chill.”
This prompt may be simple, but it’s clear enough for Adapt to understand. Check out the adapted version of Ooyy’s track below.
Original track:
Adapted track:
As only the Instruments stem has been adapted, the new version doesn’t stray too far from the original. But you can still hear the strings in the background, the way the bridge has been tweaked — Adapt’s done a great job with a small prompt.
2. Use tags to describe genre, mood, instruments, and themes
Include tags from Epidemic Sound to describe genre, mood, instruments, and themes. This gives Adapt more context, since it understands those tags.
You don’t have to use tags exclusively from Epidemic Sound — they’re just there as a guide. Once you become more familiar with Adapt, try your own.
Let’s flesh out the prompt a little more with Zorro’s jaunty pop tune, The Best You’ll Never Have. This time, we’re adapting both the Instruments and Melody stems:
“Heavy & ponderous electric guitar and synth, with an epic, cinematic mood, in an industrial metal style.”
This prompt gives Adapt more to work with, describing which instruments should be included, what the mood should be, and the desired genre.
Original track:
Adapted track:
The result gives the track’s upbeat sensibility a more atmospheric feel. The huge hooks are still there, but they’re surrounded by off-kilter keys and the razor-wire, distorted guitars often used for industrial metal.
3. Use emotive, descriptive language
Music makes people feel things, which is why tracks can be adapted based on emotion. How do you want it to impact your audience? Tell Adapt.
Use clear, precise terms. For example, “tense, dark, and sophisticated” gives more context than “scary.”
A healthy mix of the above steps can transform a track. Take the prompt below, and apply it to Janset’s hip-hop rager, Indulgence:
“A jazz noir style featuring upright bass plunging through sudden tonal shifts, guitar coloring each modulation with sharp textures, sparse cymbal taps, and saxophone lines bending like shadows across a streetlight. The mood is tense, dark, and sophisticated.”
The description outlines the sound, uses tags as a guide, and lays out some emotive, highly descriptive language. Here’s what Janset’s track sounds like when that prompt is used to adapt the Instruments, Melody, and Drums stems.
Original track:
Adapted track:
It’s still recognizably Janset’s track, but the prompts play a much larger role. There’s a jazz-noir vibe, brooding saxophone, and an unsettling undertone.
4. Tell Adapt what the track will be used for
If you feel you can’t express your prompt with a musical description, that’s OK. You can always describe what the track will be used for.
Now it’s time to adapt the full mix. Here’s the prompt, which we’ll apply to all the stems of The Yard Woman’s brash techno floor-filler, Drink Me, Shrink Me:
“Cinematic, epic soundtrack for a Scandinavian crime drama.”
This prompt subdues The Yard Woman’s track, lending it a sense of mystery and misery — perfect for a Scandinavian crime drama.
Original track:
Adapted track:
While the prompt isn’t as detailed as the previous example, it still delivers results. The specified intent and full-mix adaptation gives the new version a significantly different flavor to The Yard Woman’s original.
5. Don’t like the results? Keep trying
Some users find that adapted versions sound best when they stick closer to the original track’s genre and mood. They may discover artifacts and elements they didn’t expect or want, while other users don’t face these issues.
If you don’t get the results you want, keep trying. Experiment. Start with the tags as a foundation, and build your adaptations from there. Add more detail, reword things, and explore different prompt variations.
Because Labs is a developmental space, the results produced by AI tools like Adapt may vary. Your use and feedback helps shape the future of Epidemic Sound’s products and features.
Once you’ve used Adapt, we’d love to hear from you. Click “Feedback” to the bottom-right side of your waveform and let us know what you think.
Prefer to share your feedback with other Epidemic Sound users? Join our Discord community below.