You typed gabber. Suno gave you hardstyle.

Ask Suno for "gabber" and you often get a 150 BPM hardstyle track with a reverse bass and a euphoric lead. Push the tempo up and it swings the other way: a 200 BPM uptempo track with a long, screeching, pitched kick that no Rotterdam DJ from the nineties would recognise.

Gabber is older and simpler than both. It is the Dutch hardcore sound of the early nineties: a distorted drum machine kick, a hoover synth, rave stabs and shouted samples, and very little else. Suno has heard much more hardstyle and modern uptempo than it has heard early gabber, so a short prompt lets the bigger genres win.

This guide covers what separates gabber from its neighbours, the words that hold Suno on the Rotterdam side, and three full templates of 1,000 characters each.

What makes gabber gabber

A distorted 909 kick. The classic gabber kick is a Roland TR-909 bass drum pushed through distortion until it booms and rings. It has body and some tail, but it is not the long, pitched screech of modern uptempo. The kick carries the whole track.
Tempo between roughly 160 and 190 BPM. Early tracks often sit around 170 to 180. Slower, heavier styles from the late nineties and 2000s go down to about 160.
The hoover. A detuned, sweeping synth sound, usually called a hoover, plus short rave stabs. It is the most recognisable melodic sound of early hardcore.
Shouted samples. Short MC shouts and film samples, in English or Dutch, used as rhythm and as hooks. Long sung vocals are rare.
Sparse arrangement. Kick, one synth, a clap or snare roll, and samples. Gabber does not stack pads and leads the way hardstyle does.

Gabber vs. its neighbours, in one list

Hardstyle (around 150 BPM): reverse bass, long euphoric leads, a pitched kick with a long tail. Our hardstyle guide covers it.
Uptempo hardcore (around 190-210+ BPM): long, screeching, pitched kick tail and screech leads. See the uptempo guide.
Frenchcore (around 185-210 BPM): short clipped kick, offbeat bass stab, melodic breaks. See the frenchcore guide.
Gabber (around 160-190 BPM): booming distorted 909 kick, hoover, rave stabs, shouted samples, sparse.

The practical rule: describe the kick by its machine and its distortion. Distorted 909 kick points at gabber. Distorted kick alone points at whatever Suno has heard most.

The three failure modes and their fixes

1. A reverse bass appears

Words like hard, festival, euphoric or anthem belong to hardstyle, and they bring its reverse bass with them. Gabber has no bassline separate from the kick. Say so in the bass field: the kick is the bass.

2. The kick grows a screeching tail

Above 190 BPM, and with words like extreme, rawstyle or screech, Suno reaches for the uptempo kick. Keep the tempo at or below 190 and describe the kick as booming and overdriven, not screeching or pitched.

3. The track fills up with pads

A prompt without an arrangement instruction gets a modern, layered arrangement. Write the list of what is allowed in the production field: kick, hoover, stabs and samples. A list is an instruction; minimal on its own is a mood.

Three full templates

These three were written by hand for this guide. The closest mode in the generator is Uptempo, the Hard universe mode that covers uptempo, gabber and frenchcore between 180 and 210 BPM; it is what the widget at the top of this page runs. Its prompts lean modern, so these templates pin down the classic sound.

They follow the same 19-field structure the generator uses, and each one is exactly 1,000 characters long: the full size of Suno's style box, with nothing past the cut.

Template 1: early Rotterdam gabber, 180 BPM

The reference version: distorted 909 kick, a hoover riff in A minor, a snare roll into each drop and a shouted sample. Start here.

{"style":"gabber, early Rotterdam hardcore, distorted 909 kick, hoover [180BPM A minor + rave stabs + shouted samples + 1992-1996 NL]",
"length":"3 minutes","bpm":180,"drop":"bar 16 beat 1","key":"A minor",
"kick":"distorted 909 kick, booming, overdriven, short tail",
"bass":"no separate bassline, the distorted kick is the bass",
"melody":"hoover synth riff A3-E4, detuned, 2-bar loop",
"vocals":"short shouted MC samples, English, as hooks",
"percussion":"909 claps on 2 and 4 + snare roll into each drop",
"swing":"straight four-on-the-floor, no swing",
"structure":"16-bar kick intro, drop bar 16, short break, drop 2",
"texture":"raw distortion, mono kick, gritty mids",
"atmosphere":"warehouse rave, strobe lights, thick smoke",
"production":"sparse: kick, hoover, stabs, samples",
"era":"1992-1996 early Rotterdam gabber",
"dynamic":"relentless kick, one breakdown with the hoover alone",
"mood":"aggressive dark raw relentless",
"negative":"no reverse bass, no screech lead, no trance pads"}

Template 2: millennium hardcore, 170 BPM

The slower, heavier style of the late nineties and early 2000s: a darker kick with more low end, a minor-key stab and a sample instead of a shout.

{"style":"millennium hardcore, gabber, heavy distorted 909 kick, dark stabs [170BPM D minor + slower heavier kick + film samples + 1998-2004 NL]",
"length":"3 minutes","bpm":170,"drop":"bar 16 beat 1","key":"D minor",
"kick":"heavy distorted 909 kick, deep boom, more low end",
"bass":"no separate bassline, the kick carries the low end",
"melody":"dark detuned rave stab D4-F4, sparse, minor",
"vocals":"spoken film sample, low and slow, English",
"percussion":"clap on 2 and 4 + closed hats + snare roll into drops",
"swing":"straight four-on-the-floor, no swing",
"structure":"16-bar kick intro, drop bar 16, break, drop 2, outro",
"texture":"thick distortion, dark mids, mono low end",
"atmosphere":"dark hall, low fog, heavy air",
"production":"sparse: kick, one stab, a sample, reverb on the stab",
"era":"1998-2004 millennium hardcore",
"dynamic":"heavy steady drive, one long break before drop 2",
"mood":"dark, heavy, menacing",
"negative":"no reverse bass, no screech lead, no trance pads"}

Template 3: fast gabber with MC, 190 BPM

The top of the gabber range with a shouted MC hook. At 190 BPM the render can lean towards uptempo, so the kick field repeats booming and short tail.

{"style":"fast gabber, Rotterdam hardcore, distorted 909 kick, hoover [190BPM F minor + shouted MC hook + rave stabs + 1994-1998 NL]",
"length":"2:30 minutes","bpm":190,"drop":"bar 8 beat 1","key":"F minor",
"kick":"distorted 909 kick, booming, short tail, not pitched",
"bass":"no separate bassline, the distorted kick is the bass",
"melody":"hoover riff F3-C4 + short rave stabs, 1-bar loop",
"vocals":"shouted MC hook, English, dry, call and answer",
"percussion":"909 claps on 2 and 4 + snare roll + crash on drops",
"swing":"straight four-on-the-floor, no swing",
"structure":"8-bar intro, drop bar 8, 8-bar break, drop 2",
"texture":"raw distortion, bright hoover, gritty mids",
"atmosphere":"packed rave at 5 am, sweat and smoke",
"production":"sparse: kick, hoover, stabs, MC hook, no pads",
"era":"1994-1998 Rotterdam gabber peak",
"dynamic":"relentless kick, short break, fast hard return",
"mood":"aggressive, energetic, raw",
"negative":"no reverse bass, no screech lead, no trance pads"}

Changing a field without breaking the prompt

Each template already uses all 1,000 characters. To change something, replace a value with one of exactly the same length, never append. Two swaps for the vocals field of template 1, both 43 characters like the value they replace:

"vocals":"short shouted MC samples in Dutch, as hooks"

"vocals":"a spoken film sample in each break, low mix"

After a swap, count the characters. Most editors show the selection length. The total should read exactly 1,000. If it reads anything else, the new value is not the length of the old one: fix that value until it matches. Never cut another field to make room, and never leave characters unused.

Negative words go in Exclude, not in the prompt

If your Suno screen shows the Exclude field, paste this there:

reverse bass, euphoric trance lead, screeching kick tail, dubstep wobble, trap hi-hats

The reverse bass and the trance lead block the hardstyle collapse, the screeching tail blocks uptempo, and the last two keep modern bass music out. The negative prompts guide explains how Exclude differs from "no X" inside the style.

Quick checklist before you hit create

Does the kick field say distorted 909, booming and overdriven?
Is there a hoover or a rave stab in the melody field?
Is there exactly one tempo, between 160 and 190?
Does the bass field say the kick is the bass?
Are reverse bass and screeching kick tail in Exclude?
Is the prompt still exactly 1,000 characters after your edits? Use all 1,000 characters, not fewer.

If all six are yes and it still sounds like hardstyle, regenerate before rewriting. Two or three renders of the same prompt usually include one that lands.

Generate a starting point

The widget at the top of this page generates a fresh Uptempo prompt with every click, free and without an account. For gabber, keep the tempo at or below 190, describe the kick as a booming distorted 909, and make each change a swap of the same length, so the prompt still uses all 1,000 characters.

Gabber Suno Prompts: The Rotterdam Kick at 160-190 BPM