A ready-to-run ComfyUI workflow for MiniMax Music 3, the new open-weights AI music model — one of the best local Suno alternatives out right now. Feed it lyrics and a music description and it generates a complete song with vocals, instruments, and full structure, up to 5 minutes, in 32 kHz stereo. Runs locally, no subscription, and light enough for ~8GB VRAM territory.
The example workflow is attached to this post — drag the .json into ComfyUI and load your three models.
Required Models
Update ComfyUI to 0.33.0+ first. Three files from the Comfy-Org/MiniMax-Music-3 repo:
minimax_music3_dit_fp16.safetensors →
models/unet/(I recommend FP16 over the INT8 for quality; INT8 exists if you're tight on space)minimax_music3_text_encoder_pruned_int8_convrot.safetensors →
models/clip/minimax_music3_dav.safetensors →
models/vae/
If the model doesn't show in the node dropdowns, a file is in the wrong folder — that's the usual cause.
Writing the Caption
Output quality lives in the caption. Write it in three parts — Global metadata (genre, BPM, key, mood, production), Vocal details (gender, tone, delivery), and Arrangement (how sections evolve) — and tag your lyrics with [Verse] / [Chorus] on their own lines. Easiest approach right now is to have an LLM format your idea into that structure while keeping your lyrics intact.
Notes
FP16 for final renders — noticeably better than INT8 if you have the VRAM.
Keep first generations short to dial in the caption before committing to a full track.
Generation time scales with length and GPU.
Licensing: MiniMax Music 3 uses MiniMax's community license (not fully open). Free for personal use; if you monetize, you're asked to credit "MiniMax-Music3" and disclose AI-generated audio. Full terms on the HF page.
More From Me
If you're into local AI video too, check out my MiniMax H3 work — the sister model that does text/image to video with native audio:
MiniMax H3 ComfyUI Workflow + Turbo LoRAs (4-8 step speedup, native audio) — on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLocalLab
MiniMax H3 RunPod Template (run it in the cloud, no local GPU): https://get.runpod.io/Minimax-H3-ComfyUI
More free workflows, one-click installers, and tutorials: ▶️ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheLocalLab 🎨 Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TheLocalLab 🛒 https://www.locallabdigest.com
If this workflow helped, a ❤️ or review is appreciated!