NATCHEZ — When Burne Sharp listens to a lot of the music coming out of the Nashville or Memphis scene, he doesn’t like what he isn’t hearing.

It’s missing the “Natchez sound.”

“The Natchez sound isn’t really bluesy, but it’s not just rock-and-roll or country either,” he said. “It’s sort of all of those together.”

Sharp, 23, wants to give the Natchez sound the nudge he says it historically missed with the launch of Sharp Sound Design, a recording studio he’s opening in the former Natchez Mattress location on Homochitto Street. His plans call for a music publishing house to follow the the studio’s opening.

“If you look at the cities that were historically the big music towns, they were all river cities where these musicians would come, develop their styles and then move up the river,” Sharp said. “Natchez missed its chance to become Nashville because it didn’t have a venue for them. Go to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and it’s a town smaller than Natchez, but you’ll find all sorts of musicians there playing the Natchez sound.”

Sharp has been working in studios for 10 years, and got his start in his late father Richard Sharp’s studio, Sharp Recording. He’s also recorded as a musician — a drummer —in New York and Los Angeles, and did a national tour with the band “Hey Caesar” in 2008. He studied aviation at Louisiana Tech University.

Sharp said his hope with opening the studio in Natchez is to keep the second and third generation of musicians developing the Natchez sound from having to leave. As the publishing portion of the business launches, musicians and songwriters will be able to record a demo with house musicians in Natchez and then send it to studios in larger markets.

“I’m really looking to capture that second and third generation of Natchez musicians as they continue to develop the Natchez sound,” Sharp said. “I don’t care if it’s blues, rock or rap, if it’s from Natchez I’m interested in it.”

The other thing Sharp is interested in is musical authenticity. So much of the music put out today is — in his words — “fake.”

“When you’re talking about auto tune or synth drums, it’s not real,” he said. “It’s like the genetically modified version of music. I don’t own an auto tune app and I never will.”

Instead, Sharp said he only uses analog equipment — which can capture a greater depth of sound than the 0s and 1s of digital files — and has his studio set up for live-on-location recording.

“Our acoustic design is to capture real instruments played by real humans,” he said.

Since he doesn’t like to use digital shortcuts, Sharp said he works with musicians to get the best performance out of them he can.

“If I don’t get what I want, I push them to get it right, because as they say, ‘Good is the enemy of great,’” he said.

“The technical difficulty of trying to work with the studio equipment and human creativity, that is what gets me up in the morning. It is very motivating.”

Sharp said he also wants to see Natchez become more fully integrated into the Americana Music Triangle movement, an initiative launched by Nashville preservationist Aubrey Preston that helps travelers plan trips based on musical points of interest in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

And capturing the Natchez sound will help do that.

“This is another way we can develop tourism, to make Natchez a music destination,” he said. “We are always going to be set for the 65-plus crowd with history, but for the 25 to 45 demographic, something is lacking. We need blues, jazz, zydeco — everything — playing up and down Main Street every night.”

The studio is available by appointment only, though Sharp said, “If you need us at 2 a.m., that’s when we’ll be here — just let me know a day in advance so I can change my sleeping plans.”

Sharp Sound Design can be reached at 601-493-4282 or online at sharpsounddesign.com.