Sound

The Archive is home to a vast collection of published music recordings on shellac, vinyl and CD’s as well as many unique tape recordings reflecting different aspects of Welsh life.

An oral history project from 1970’s Ceredigion sits on the shelves alongside the latest rock and pop releases while Bryn Terfyl is joined by Duffy, and the earliest recording of our national anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau by Madge Breese in 1898. One of the collection’s treasures is the only known recording of Welsh Revivalist preacher, Evan Roberts, made in 1905 on a wax cylinder. All these recordings are available for listening at the Archive.

The commercial material extends from the early days of recording on wax cylinders through to today’s digital creations, with a myriad of material and media from the intervening period. Naturally, it includes all strands of Welsh music.

It is thought the collection contains some 250,000 hours worth of recordings, with tens of thousands of shellac and vinyl records, cassettes and CDs. The formats held by the Archive includes:

• wax cylinders
• 78 rpm records
• 45 and 33 rpm vinyls
• audio cassettes
• reel to reel ¼ inch tapes
• 8 track cartridges 
• CDs  
• DATs
• mini discs
• MP3

“I visited the Archive to listen to a variety of 78s records for a potential music project. It’s amazing there is somewhere that keeps these old recordings safe, and that anyone can go there and listen to them.” Gerwyn Lewis, Musician