Light Bulb Pop

How it's made

Source

an evacuated light bulb collapses; a 0.5 ms pressure onset drives a 12-28 ms air rush. Band-limited noise falls from 2.6 kHz toward 450 Hz as the pressure equalizes, beneath a brittle crack.

Body

the air pulse has a heavily damped 170-340 Hz component, falling 35% in 22 ms, not a long boom. Broken thin shell pieces ring in inharmonic modes near 2-9 kHz with 60-180 ms T60 decays.

Events

5-13 shard contacts cluster from 7 to 230 ms, with decreasing strength and irregular spacing; each excites three modes with a 0.3 ms attack. Small pieces are higher and damp faster.

Envelope

the main pop ends within 55 ms; sparse tinkling follows, with a smooth safety fade at 430-500 ms and silence by the end of the 600 ms render. No room reverb is baked in.

Variation

seeded timing, mode tuning, excitation and narrow stereo placement vary each burst. Size lowers pitch and lengthens the air pulse; pressure sets pop weight; fragments and ring set debris.

The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.