Phonozoic, Patrick Feaster's website "dedicated to the history of the phonograph and related media," is an amazing collection of information about historic recordings. Not just early recordings, however, but also experimental "eduction projects": the "automatic 'playing' of primeval inscriptions of sound." [more inside]
posted by litlnemo on Dec 30, 2011 - 1 comment

Soundmaps are field recordings of the unique audio ecology of a particular place and time. Often they are cities: New York, Berlin, Montreal, New Orleans, Barcelona, London (previously), Madrid, and many others. Sometimes they move through space: Ramallah. Sometimes they are mixable (probably my favorite, from Portugal). They might be of entire countries (Spain, the United States (previously), the United Kingdom, or continents (Africa, while on a bike!). Sometimes they cover the entire world: aporee (you may prefer the map interface). Some attempt to preserve sounds that are in danger of being lost. And sometimes soundmaps are of the deep ocean. Most of the sounds are, appropriately, licensed under Creative Commons.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul on Sep 6, 2010 - 8 comments

London Sound Survey collects the everyday sounds of the capital, including the bells of St Clement's, the call to prayer at the Whitechapel mosque, football fans outside Millwall stadium, a demo in Piccadilly, dubstep at the Notting Hill Carnival and a street preacher at Speaker's Corner.. not forgetting, of course, those ubiquitous sounds of London life, 'Big Issue! Big Issue!' and announcements of planned engineering works on the Tube. (Via.)
posted by verstegan on Jun 25, 2009 - 19 comments

Sounds that must die. Yes, the amen break is listed.
posted by bigmusic on Apr 19, 2006 - 40 comments

Arcade Sounds. We recorded video games from 1982 until 1988. Fortunately I managed to save all fourteen audio tapes of video game sounds and arcade ambience which were recorded from a variety of locations in the US. Most of the recordings are from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY and Ocean City, MD.
posted by rxrfrx on Nov 1, 2005 - 46 comments