The article reflects on the representational character of sound recording and on a particular use ethnomusicologists make of it.By means of the revision of bibliography generated in different disciplines and of the criticism of a series of click here preconceptions, a definition of sound recording is outlined, which relates it to the scientific, aesthetic, ideological and technological forces u11-200ps that govern the generation of other types of documents and the production of knowledge in general.Also, the conditioning role the Archive institution has in the creation, storage-classification, study and edition of sound recording is highlighted.