How to Set Up YuE2: A Local, Open-Source AI Music Model
Written by Clement
YuE2 is a 3B open-source music model from M·A·P (Multimodal Art Projection), built around a two-stage idea most music generators skip: it first composes an editable musical score (melody, rhythm, chords, lyrics), then renders that score into a full song with vocals and accompaniment. Because the score is a real intermediate step you can see and edit, you can fix a bad chord progression or rewrite a verse without regenerating the whole track. This walks through running it on a rented cloud GPU via ComfyUI, the same RunPod path used for the local image-model setup.
What makes YuE2 different from a one-shot music generator
Most AI music tools go straight from a text prompt to finished audio: you get a song, and if a section is wrong, your only real fix is regenerating the whole thing with a different prompt and hoping. YuE2 splits the job in two. First it plans a score, an ABC-notation musical structure covering melody, rhythm, chords, and any lyrics, that you can view and hand-edit before anything is rendered to audio. Only then does it decode that score into 48kHz stereo audio with vocals and instrumentation.
That split is what the ComfyUI-FL-YuE2 node pack this setup installs exposes directly: a Piano Roll / Score Editor node you can open, read, and rewrite before the Render Music step ever runs. It's the closest thing to sheet-music-level control this category of model currently offers.
Create a RunPod account
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Add funds to your account
$10 covers a solid testing session. YuE2's checkpoints total under 8GB, so most of your pod time goes to actual song generation, not downloading.
Configure and deploy the pod
YuE2's upstream README states a 24GB VRAM minimum on a GPU with BF16 support; below that is untested. Pick a card that clears that bar rather than the cheapest one on offer.
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Pick a GPU with 24GB VRAM or more, with BF16 support
From the dashboard, click Pods in the left nav, then Deploy Pod. Sort by VRAM and price, and pick a current-generation card at or above 24GB.
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Set the pod template to a PyTorch build
Runpod Pytorch 2.8.0 is the current default template; it ships CUDA and PyTorch pre-installed. If a different template is selected, hit Change template and pick it from the list.
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Expose the ports ComfyUI needs
Under Expose HTTP ports, set 8888,4000,8188,8889. 8188 is ComfyUI's default port; the others cover Jupyter and any auxiliary service.
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Set container disk to at least 40GB
YuE2's checkpoints plus ComfyUI and its Python environment fit comfortably in 40GB.
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Deploy On-Demand
On-Demand bills per second of actual usage, no upfront commitment, right for testing before you know how much you'll use this.
Run the setup script in Jupyter
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Open Jupyter Lab
On the pod's Connect tab, port 8888 shows "Jupyter Lab, Ready." Click it.
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Download the setup script
Grab setup_yue2_comfyui.py below and save it locally.
Download the setup script (.py) - 10
Upload the setup script
In Jupyter, upload the file you just downloaded into /workspace.
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Open a terminal and run the script
python setup_yue2_comfyui.py. It clones ComfyUI, installs the ComfyUI-FL-YuE2 custom node, and downloads the YuE2-3B generation model and YuE2-Vae decoder.
Open ComfyUI and load the workflow
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Go back to the pod's Connect tab in RunPod
Same screen you used to open Jupyter.
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Open port 8188
That's ComfyUI's default port, already exposed from the pod-template step above. Click it once the setup script finishes.
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Close the pop-ups
ComfyUI opens with a couple of dialogs on top. Close them to get to the empty canvas.
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Download the workflow file
Grab the .json workflow below. It's ComfyUI-FL-YuE2's own official score-editor example: a pre-filled ABC score and style/lyrics prompt feeding Compose, then Render Music, then Decode Audio.
Download the workflow file (.json) - 16
Drag and drop the file onto the canvas
The full node graph appears: Load Models feeding a Piano Roll / Score Editor and Compose node, into Render Music, then Decode Audio, then Preview and Save Audio.
Install missing nodes and generate your first track
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Click the Manager button, then Install Missing Custom Nodes
The workflow references the ComfyUI-FL-YuE2 node pack your fresh install doesn't have registered in Manager yet; this lists it.
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Select all, install, then restart ComfyUI
Click the install button, wait for it to finish, then click the red Restart button and confirm. Reload the browser when prompted.
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Set download_missing to true on the Load Models node
This lets the node pack fetch any remaining model file it needs directly into ComfyUI/models/yue2/ the first time you queue.
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Edit the style prompt and lyrics, then Execute
In the Compose node, replace the sample style description and lyrics with your own. Leave the Score Editor's ABC field as-is for an instrumental first test, or write your own melody/chords in ABC notation. Click Execute, top right.
Hardware and software checklist
This mirrors YuE2's own upstream requirements; the ComfyUI node pack adds no further hardware constraint of its own.
| GPU | 24GB VRAM minimum, with BF16 support, per the upstream README (below that is untested) |
|---|---|
| Container disk | 40GB or more |
| License | Source/nodes: Apache 2.0. Model weights (YuE2-3B, YuE2-Vae): CC BY-NC 4.0, non-commercial only |
Troubleshooting
| Out-of-memory error | Lower max_score_tokens or max_duration on the Compose/Render nodes, or move to a GPU above the 24GB minimum |
|---|---|
| Generated song ignores the lyrics | Check the lyrics field is wired into Compose, and that the style prompt doesn't contradict having vocals (e.g. "no singing" phrasing left over from an instrumental test) |
| Score Editor shows an empty or malformed ABC block | Re-run Compose; a from-scratch composition occasionally needs a reroll, same as any generative step |
| Missing custom node after loading the workflow | Run Manager's Install Missing Custom Nodes again and confirm ComfyUI-FL-YuE2 finished cloning before retrying |
Frequently asked questions
- What is YuE2, and who made it?
- YuE2 is a 3B open-source music model from M·A·P (Multimodal Art Projection), with academic and industry collaborators including HKUST, NYU, Stanford, and MBZUAI. It composes an editable musical score before rendering a full song with vocals and accompaniment from it.
- Do I need a GPU to run YuE2 locally?
- Yes. YuE2's own README states a 24GB VRAM minimum on a GPU with BF16 support; running through ComfyUI on RunPod doesn't lower that requirement.
- Can I use YuE2's output commercially?
- No, not under the setup in this guide. YuE2's source and ComfyUI nodes are Apache 2.0, but the model weights (YuE2-3B, YuE2-Vae) are CC BY-NC 4.0, non-commercial use only. Check the license yourself before using generated output commercially.
- What does "editable score" actually mean in practice?
- Before YuE2 renders any audio, it produces a musical score in ABC notation, melody, rhythm, chords, and lyrics, that the ComfyUI-FL-YuE2 node pack lets you open, read, and hand-edit. You can fix a chord or rewrite a lyric line before the audio render step, instead of only being able to reroll the whole generation.
- Is running YuE2 on RunPod free?
- No, RunPod bills per second for GPU time, and YuE2's 24GB VRAM requirement means a somewhat higher hourly rate than a smaller model. YuE2's checkpoints are small (under 8GB total), so download time isn't the cost driver, the GPU rental during generation is.
- How is this different from using Suno?
- Suno is a hosted service with its own pricing and content policy; see the Suno cost guide for what that runs. YuE2 runs entirely on hardware you control, with an editable score you can hand-tune before rendering, at the cost of the RunPod setup here, the GPU rental while it runs, and a non-commercial license on the weights.
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