SoundBeat Widget

What is Sound Beat?

Got 90 seconds?

Then you’ve got time for a trip through the history of recorded sound! Sound Beat is a daily, 90 second show highlighting the holdings of the Belfer Audio Archive. The Belfer is part of the Syracuse University Library, and with over half a million recordings, is one of the largest sound archives in the United States. Each SB episode focuses on one particular recording from the Archive, and provides a back story detailing its place in recording history.

What kinds of recordings? Popular and classical music performances, film scores those from distinctly American musical forms like jazz, bebop, country, and bluegrass. Old favorites, rare gems, and some we guarantee you’ve never heard before… from Cab Calloway to the castrated stars of Italian opera, you’ll hear it all on the Sound Beat!

And it’s not just music. Sound Beat episodes also feature speeches and spoken word performances from some of the great thinkers, political figures and luminaries from the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries. People like Thomas Edison, George Bernard Shaw, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Who is Sound Beat?

Brett Barry is a voice-over performer whose long list of credits includes national television and radio commercials, promos, and audiobook narration. He is the owner of Silver Hollow Audio, an independent production company and audiobook publisher. Brett and his wife, Rebecca, live with their two daughters and an adopted greyhound in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

Jim O’Connor is the producer of Sound Beat, and has written professionally in many different capacities. He is an avid appreciator and player of music. His consuming love for both is tolerated daily by his wife Kelly. They live with their dog Otis in Syracuse, NY.

• More Information: http://soundbeat.org
• Donate Link: https://soundbeat.org/giving/