An independent certification mark for sound recordings produced without grid correction, pitch correction, or generative AI used to create, supply, replace, or reconstruct musical or lyrical content. Each submission is reviewed individually by an analyst against the published standard.
The research and theory behind the Certificate of Embodied Production was presented at the 2026 Susanne K. Langer conference in Vienna, Austria. The recording of the conference talk is forthcoming; this version has been created to share here in the meantime.
The distinctions applicants ask about most. The full FAQ also covers submission, review, and pricing.
Grid correction is any process that changes the timing of human-performed material after the performance to make it conform to a fixed temporal grid. This includes quantizing, snapping, nudging, warping, time-stretching, slicing-to-grid, Beat Detective, and substantially equivalent manual or automated processes.
The key distinction is that the timing must first have been performed. Composing directly on a grid is not grid correction.
No. The CEP does not prohibit grids, sequencers, drum machines, or machine-regular timing. Drawing MIDI notes, step-sequencing events, placing samples directly on a grid, and copying or repeating programmed patterns are compositional practices, not grid correction.
Grid correction occurs when a human performs a part first and the timing of that performance is subsequently altered to conform to the grid.
That is grid correction. A performance played on a MIDI keyboard, drum pads, electronic drums, or another controller is still human-performed material. If its timing is quantized, snapped, nudged, or otherwise aligned to the grid after it was performed, it does not meet the CEP standard.
Yes. CEP certification does not mean that every element of a recording was performed live. A recording composed directly through sequencing, samples, loops, drum machines, or drawn MIDI can qualify.
If human-performed material is also present, such as a vocal, guitar part, live drum part, or real-time MIDI performance, that performed material must retain its performed timing and pitch. Generative AI may not be used to create, supply, replace, or reconstruct musical or lyrical content.
Sampling uses recorded sound as material for a new compositional act. Grid correction changes the timing of an existing human performance after that performance occurred.
A producer may chop, arrange, repeat, and sequence samples to construct a new musical structure. What the CEP prohibits is taking a human-performed part that remains the performed part in the finished recording and correcting its timing afterward to conform to a grid.
No. A fixed tempo or machine-regular timing does not establish that grid correction occurred. A recording may have been composed directly with sequencers, loops, drum machines, or other grid-based tools.
Timing analysis is one part of the CEP review process. Where a recording shows machine-regular timing, the Musical Form Institute may request clarification about how the timing was created. Certification ultimately concerns the production process, not tempo variation by itself.