"Combat!" - Those Guns Sound Different

[Dauntless12]

Check out those trees at about 1:35. That's Meyers Lake from the old Andy Griffith Show.  It's a good thing Andy and Opie didn't come whistling up the road during that fire fight.

[Gostwriterindisguise]

In those days each studio had its own distinctive set of gunshot sounds. You could tell if a show was from Warner Bros, M-G-M, Columbia, Paramount, or whichever else just by the way their guns went "bang" or "bladadadam". Combat! used the standard M-G-M noises for the B&W seasons, the same ones you hear on The Man From UNCLE or the second and third seasons of Peter Gunn. Why they were changed for Combat!'s final season is anybody's guess.

[bradburymars]

This was about the time when they invented Hi-Fi recordings for phonographs, wasn't it? Could explain it.

[GeekBoy03]

Why are Germans fighting in the California countryside?

[gpomeroy]

Very interesting , loved that show!

[gbs1x]

I also noticed Hanley's carbine had a post war bayonet lug.

[protonman7]

The later episodes sound more realistic, probably because of the better sound, as stated here. The MP 40 had a faster cycle rate than the Thompson, so they WOULD sound different (also 9mm vs. .45cal).

[joshweiss01]

Network affiliates got a better sounding copy form central control. That's why the effects sound different, because they sound better! Also sound effects editors often decide to EQ the effects differently.

[joshweiss01]

In just a few short years, between '63 and '66 there was a major change in the way sound was recorded and mastered in the movie studios. Location sounds started to be recorded on quarter inch Nagra and Stellavox portables instead of full coat sprocketed magnetic "film" recorders. Mixing consoles got quieter and had a wider frequency response and network shows were played back over the air using two inch VTRs instead of optical sound track film tele-cine converters.

[Philliesrock97]

I think a few times i have seen that saunders' thompson made the mp40 sound and an mp40 made the thompson sound. i know that in the opening battle of "Survival" saunders' thompson did that. i dont know what episode the mp40 does the thompson sound.