Ed,

That is a very good question and here is the answer. It depends on your application for songs. If you are an artist, doing your own thing, your own vision, you can record any place you want to. There are indeed very good studios all over America and Abroad and indeed many home studios where local musicians turn out very good product.
But if you are planning on pitching yourself and your songs in a market that is full of songs and writers, the bar is much higher. And most people find that they local studios don't sound the same, are far removed from the current sounds, trends and styles. And about three times as expensive.

On a per song basis, the cost for radio ready demos are around $500-$600 in Nashville. The same song in LA can range around $1500-$2500. New York, around $2000, Toronto around $1800. And most people who do songs in those areas sound very out of step with what is done in the Nashville studios.
It is in the players. When you are using a really good guitar player who plays in the local bars on the weekend doing cover gigs and actually is a little more like Joe Satriani, he is not going to match up the same guy in Nashville who actually plays on the latest George Straight record. We use the same players that play on the major sessions.

That is one reason. Also a point of this is what not to play. When we get a lot of demos for review we often can tell what musician is in charge. If you have a guitar player, it is usually very guitar heavy, not as consistant, and the guitar drives the demo, usually with extended solos, voiceings and content that is far from song supportive. If it is a keyboard player, generally they are often trying out new keyboard sounds, and too often come out sounded dated instead of advanced.

If you have ever heard the comment from an evaluator that a song sounds "Dated" it is usually because the players are playing songs in their regular lives that are from several years back. There are guys playing crunchy electric guitars when that style went out quite a way back.
And while there are a lot of rock influences in country now, there are some subtle differences which are difficult to discern unless you are around certain songs and styles every day.

Most local studios bread and butter are commercials for businesses, corporate work, local bands and artists, individual products, and more of the slick, polished things you hear often. That is the main kind of work they get.
In Nashville, New york or LA, you will have the bread and butter of the studios being the music that is represented in those towns. The players in the studios work the major sessions as well, engineers, are usually working with the major labels, the producers are involved in major products.

One of the people mentioned here frequently is Galen Breen, of Gator Hole studios. I know Galen and have worked with him on many occassions. We have done some very interesting sessions.He is very professional and very reasonable. But he also knows the current styles, the current licks and how to turn out something on a very definite style that pitches well. He is in the middle of things here and plays with many of the current players. It is the same with most studios.

Converesly, people that are trying to pitch to LA or New York from Nashville, are rarely in that pocket. They do different things there. And people in those towns do things different also. A few years back I was called upon to produce a girl from LA who was trying to do a country project. Her backer, the man who invented "Hooked on Phonics" and was worth $100 million dollars had been trying for two years to find the perfect sound to promote her in Nashville.
They had spent $37,000 on two songs. They had hired musician after musician, guitar players, drummers, bass players, keyboard players, and couldn't find what they wanted. They would hire people, they would cut and paste in the parts, and it all sounded flat, pre-programmed and far from what we do here.
They came to us and for $5000, (recording and their stay in Nashville,) we did five songs that were exactly what they were looking for. They pitched it around but both the singer and the backer had moved on to other things. I don't think they were ever really that serious. A very good looking actress/model and a very rich guy trying to play around. But we did do a job that was much closer to their own vision.

It is never a perfect solution. I never want to diss any studio anywhere. there are great players, great rooms all over the country and I hope all of them do well. For us here, it is about songs and demos that are industry competitive because we are all in such proximity to each other.

That would be the answer I would use. If you are pitching in Nashville, cut in Nashville. If you are pitching in LA, New York, Chicago, London, Toronto, Atlanta, Seattle, etc. cut there.

MAB