They actually broke real glass.

Yes. For the sound of glass shattering in “In the Flesh?” (and elsewhere on The Wall), Pink Floyd’s engineers just broke real panes of glass in the studio. No samples, no effects tricks. They recorded it live.

The story goes that they put a mic close to a sheet of glass, hit it with a hammer, and captured the crash. Took a few tries to get the timing right for the mix. That’s it. No elaborate rigging, just raw destruction.

It sounds massive because it was massive — real shards, real resonance. Sometimes the practical effect beats any digital recreation.