We retain catalogue notes even when they turn out to be wrong. A correction can be more informative than an immaculate description. The collection is an interactive exhibit; its objects and requisitions are not offered for real-world sale.
What belongs in a field note
Keep the place, sequence, and your interpretation separate. Write down what happened before the sound, what you heard, and what the room did afterwards. A useful description leaves room for another reader to reach a different conclusion.
Start with a recording
A well-made thing carries its history quietly: a repair, an old inventory number, a faded note tucked under the lining. This fictional collection is interested in those details, and in the stories that follow when two labels disagree.
Listen to the sample collection and compare the notes. The labels concern the sounds; the stories concern the people who heard them.