This website contains audio files of the earliest known sound recordings. These "recordings" were created in France by Leon Scott about 1860, nearly twenty years before the Edison phonograph. While the device did successfully record a representation of the input sound, it was not capable of playback. Some of these recordings were finally played back in 2008 using digital imaging techniques to render a digital wound file. This website has these sound files available for listening, as well as associated information about the recordings.
Type of Material:
Collection. This is a website that provides information regarding the earliest recordings made by humans.Includes examples of recordings, able to be played back because of development of device that "reads" representations made more than 100 years ago.
General education students studying introduction to music can gain understanding of sound recording itself. Those studying sound engineering would use this site as a starting point. Created, developed and maintained by well known figures in the field of sound engineering, this site is organized well to allow curriculum development in many areas.
Open access, and available to all through any browser. Includes many hyperlinks to other sites, which provide further information on topic.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Purpose of site is to disseminate information on the first recordings made. Learners gain access to historical information, actual sound recordings, and videos made by founders of First Sounds. Through investigation of these materials, learners gain understanding of how first recordings were made, and how methods have been developed to actually hear the tracings of these sounds with our modern ears.
Target Student Population:
Educational level: upper high school music AP; general education college level (core curriculum, liberal studies) interdisciplinary studies, sound engineering/recording engineering, music majors/minors
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Easily accessible to all learners at entry level, requiring no prior disciplinary expertise
Well organized, well written, provides information that is promised. Hyperlinks work well.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
This site is one that provides information on and examples of earliest sound recordings. It does not seek to scaffold lessons based on the material, or give advice as to how others might do so. There is a section Use Our Work that gives information on the Creative Commons license. Otherwise, educators are free to envision uses for the material on their own.
If the user is seeking a how to from this site, he/she may be disappointed. However, this reviewer does not see the absence of learning goals, lessons, or other instructional structures as a deficit. Rather the configuration of the information (which is organized well) allows the educator to use the material in ways appropriate to multiple contexts.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
First Sounds has the potential to excite the imagination of the user/learner. The very notion that there was a time when recorded sound did not exist (similar to the invention of photography being the first time actual life itself was visually captured) opens vistas. The opportunity to hear these sounds - however primitive (or perhaps this primitive quality makes the point!) is fascinating. Transcripts of spoken word allow those with hearing deficits to know what voices are saying. This transcription is useful for all, in fact. The sounds recordings of musical tones (tunes, arias, folk songs) are described well in words. Links to blogs that contain more information, and other sites (Memory of the World, for example) lead the learner on an exciting path.
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