TV Screen Goes Bada Boom
A few days ago I hit my old Sony 27 inch tube television set with a sledgehammer. (yeah, it was fun!) It had been sitting around for years after being retired for a new widescreen LCD TV. I bought this TV back in 1995 after many nights watching a battered up 14 inch TV. OK, history over…. Now the fun stuff. I moved the really heavy TV down to my foley recording area outside and on the way it got banged up and fell apart. Good thing because the tube part of the TV was not damaged and made for an easy target with the sledgehammer.
I set up a Sanken CSS-5 and a Sony PCM-D1 directly in front of the tube within 3 feet or so. I grabbed the sledgehammer, wound up and Boom! I was wearing hearing protection and it was the right choice because the tube breaking was really loud! It sounded like an glass explosion and I felt it all through my body. When I listened back to the recording I noticed the CSS-5 and SD 702 had clipped quite a bit even though I had the internal pad on and the volume set where I thought I would be safe. I was worried because in the headphones it sounded like crap and I was thankful I had the PCM-D1 as a back up. There were no re-takes for this session. After a little mastering all was not lost.
The audio clip below has the (1) PCM-D1 (2) CSS-5 (3) Mix (4) Mix at half speed through Decapitator and Ren-Bass. Enjoy! -Frank
Before:
Before
After:
Before
Oh nice! I tried that once too, had dismantled an old TV and took the tube out to smash it. For the sake of science I took a shot with a 4.5mm air pistol and the bullet just left a smear of lead on the glass. I’m pretty sure it would have been perfectly “safe” to shoot at it while it still worked with no harm done what so ever, the glass was amazingly thick.
Playing it safe I opted for rocks instead, and it took a few solid hits for it to break and when it did I was shocked at the bang. You put it very well in your description, it really could be felt in your whole body and echoed like a gunshot through the woods.
I was not wearing hearing protection ;P
Wish I had recorded it though.