Local Sound Recording Initiative

The Crisis of Perfect Music

Putting Place Back into Recorded Music

Today’s production defaults can edit the place out of a record.
This session shows the people who make your city’s music how to keep it in.

Your city’s sound was made in rooms

You can often hear where a record was made: the drummer’s pocket, the singer’s phrasing, the sound of the room, players who learned together. Grid correction, pitch correction and AI-generated parts can strip out each one, until the record sounds like it was made anywhere.

Before 2001, 7% of Billboard’s year-end top-five hits held one unchanging tempo. Since 2001, 63% have.

That is an economic question too. A city’s sound is part of what it exports, and local players in local rooms keep that work at home.

Hits that hold one tempo

Year-end top-five hits with no tempo movement

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 1960s: 0% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 0% 1960s 1970s: 0% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 0% 1970s 1980s: 2% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 1980s 1990s: 28% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 1990s 2000s: 48% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 2000s 2010s: 70% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 2010s 2020s: 67% of top-five hits had no tempo movement 67% 2020s

Source: Musical Form Institute, The Gridification of Popular Music. 330 Billboard chart positions, 1960 to 2025.

First half

The talk

Where place lives, and what removes it.

  • Timing, voice, rooms and players
  • What correction and AI-generated parts change
  • One performance, before and after editing
Second half

The workshop

Hands-on, for your city’s music makers.

  • Blind listening: edited, or as played?
  • Each participant plans their next session
  • Mapping local rooms and players

What your office gets

  • A ready-to-run professional development session
  • A one-page production guide for every participant
  • A short summary of what local music makers need
  • A next step: the Recording Ecosystem Lab

For artists, after the session

Artists who record this way can apply for the Certificate of Embodied Production, our independent certification for recordings made without grid correction, pitch correction or generative AI. Certification is currently free. The session does not guarantee certification.

Who it’s for

Local artists and bands, producers, engineers and studio owners, plus music office staff.

Led by

Jeffrey Anthony, founder and director of the Musical Form Institute. 25 years as a touring and session musician, record producer and studio owner. MPA. Former Economic Competitiveness Officer, City of Tucson.