As someone who doesn't pay much attention to the world of mechanical keyboards, very happy that I can use "thock" as a filter.
EDIT: A quick Google shows it's a pretty popular term, so I guess that's how I even know about it, the only other mechanical keyboard term in my vocabulary being "Cherry MX Blue clicky switches" for the ones on my AliExpress mechanical keyboard that prevent me from using the keyboard around other people. Unfortunately it also makes it difficult to hear the keyboard sounds without clicking on the letters instead :(
The UX of the website is kind of horrible. After a few clicks it prompted to subscribe. I understand it takes time to build the thing up, but the disruption is huge.
Looks like a cool website, but after I test a few different keyboards it prompts me to subscribe. After pressing 'maybe later', it comes back again and again, only letting me test three different keyboards before bugging me again. Completely unusable.
I couldn't even get the X box to work to close a particular keyboard and then select another. One time it worked but I couldn't tap on any other keyboards and I had to reload the page to be able to select another one.
EDIT: now it's working, don't know why it repeatedly wasn't.
On every keyboard I get, I swap the switches out for silent tactiles[0][1] that I've selected through trial and error. Quiet is really nice (my mouse clicks are louder), but the way they feel is fantastic.
I wish there was a brick and mortar that let you try out a good range of these switches. Places like microcenter have the popular standard choices, but there's so many other switches out there that are just worlds different.
i've always hated the sound of clicky switches where the "click" isn't a direct side effect of actuating the switch - things like cherry MX blues or clicky alps, where the "click" is added to simulate the sound of something like an IBM buckling spring. it seems like some kind of vintage keyboard cosplay.
buckling spring boards are still a little annoying but i can forgive them more than most MX-like boards that click just to click - i'm partial to vintage stuff and the timbre isn't quite as grating to me. mx blue-type switches sound cheap and crinkly, like someone is crumpling up one of those crazy-loud Sun Chips bags.
co-workers: please keep those at home! get a nice silenced board for the office :)
I read the note at the bottom about the recordings coming from the community, but I think that variation limits the value significantly.
The Cherry Blue vs Cherry Blue (Full Travel) for example. I would expect the full travel to be louder, the normal sound plus the bottom out, but it seems quieter and more generic. The Cherry Browns were the same way.
Having recordings where there is a lot of control around the recording (same room, mic, distance, levels, etc) and the only variable is the keyboard, would be much more interesting. As it stands, I don’t feel like it’s giving me a true representation that I can use. I’m sure some are, but if I haven’t used a particular keyboard before, I can’t be a good judge of if the sound is accurate or not.
I would recommend checking out Chyrosran22's keyboard reviews for a more fair comparison across different boards. He's reviewed just about every switch type under the sun at this point - https://www.youtube.com/@Chyrosran22/videos
At the end of every review he does a typing test, and for the last few years at least I think the mic has been in more or less the same kind of position and they've been recorded in the same room. You still have to apply a pinch of salt because I don't know if there's been significant differences in audio level normalisation/compression/EQ, but it would give you a more representative idea of what to expect.
On the old[0] MyNoise app, there's "Calm Office" which has generators for "Keyboards & Mouse"[1] and "Keyboards"[2].
There's also "Vintage Office" which has "Mechanical Keyboard"[3].
Both have a variety of other ambiences that could fill out "typing room" (especially if you made a multi-generator.)
But yeah, it could do with a bit more variety of "office" and "keyboard" generators.
[0] I dislike the new app's UI/UX, it doesn't support multi-generators, and there's no easy way to download all the generators you have access to. (You also have to pay again for lifetime access but that I'm fine with.)
Someone should add a grid of mics and speakers inside a keyboard to record impulse responses for different kinds of keys. In this way, one can first do noise cancellation for the currently used keys, and then apply an IR to make the keyboard sound like another one.
Love this. Small suggestion for mobile UX: either hide the system keyboard, or allow the user to hear the currently selected typewriter sounds for their system keyboard taps. Not sure this is intended behaviour, but typing on mobile gives a generic click unless I use the poky on-page keyboard and thus lose the muscle memory needed to type quickly or accurately.
Also navigating back in mobile browser should close the active keyboard as on a small screen it looks like you are on a new page so it's surprising when back throws you out of the site.
i've wasted 2 weeks of my adult life on diy mechanical keyboards.. i did build one in the end. unless you're in desperate need of a recreational hobby, i'd not advise anyone to get into it. i'm convinced the whole thing is manchild territory
As a software developer, I absolutely despise loud keyboard sounds that I didn’t produce myself. In an office setting, fast typists with loud mechanical keyboards are the absolute worst (thank God for AirPods)!
26 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 56.7 ms ] threadEDIT: A quick Google shows it's a pretty popular term, so I guess that's how I even know about it, the only other mechanical keyboard term in my vocabulary being "Cherry MX Blue clicky switches" for the ones on my AliExpress mechanical keyboard that prevent me from using the keyboard around other people. Unfortunately it also makes it difficult to hear the keyboard sounds without clicking on the letters instead :(
EDIT: now it's working, don't know why it repeatedly wasn't.
Model M sounds reasonably close, Unicomp Classic sounds very wrong.
I wish there was a brick and mortar that let you try out a good range of these switches. Places like microcenter have the popular standard choices, but there's so many other switches out there that are just worlds different.
[0] standard preference: https://a.co/d/03j6Boy0
[1] low profile preference: https://a.co/d/06yVB6jg
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=25572.0
buckling spring boards are still a little annoying but i can forgive them more than most MX-like boards that click just to click - i'm partial to vintage stuff and the timbre isn't quite as grating to me. mx blue-type switches sound cheap and crinkly, like someone is crumpling up one of those crazy-loud Sun Chips bags.
co-workers: please keep those at home! get a nice silenced board for the office :)
The Cherry Blue vs Cherry Blue (Full Travel) for example. I would expect the full travel to be louder, the normal sound plus the bottom out, but it seems quieter and more generic. The Cherry Browns were the same way.
Having recordings where there is a lot of control around the recording (same room, mic, distance, levels, etc) and the only variable is the keyboard, would be much more interesting. As it stands, I don’t feel like it’s giving me a true representation that I can use. I’m sure some are, but if I haven’t used a particular keyboard before, I can’t be a good judge of if the sound is accurate or not.
At the end of every review he does a typing test, and for the last few years at least I think the mic has been in more or less the same kind of position and they've been recorded in the same room. You still have to apply a pinch of salt because I don't know if there's been significant differences in audio level normalisation/compression/EQ, but it would give you a more representative idea of what to expect.
The Selectric sounds pretty nice. I should really modify one of mine to be used as a terminal one day.
There's also "Vintage Office" which has "Mechanical Keyboard"[3].
Both have a variety of other ambiences that could fill out "typing room" (especially if you made a multi-generator.)
But yeah, it could do with a bit more variety of "office" and "keyboard" generators.
[0] I dislike the new app's UI/UX, it doesn't support multi-generators, and there's no easy way to download all the generators you have access to. (You also have to pay again for lifetime access but that I'm fine with.)
[1] "thock"
[2] "clatter"
[3] kind of a watery thock?
I'm definitely do not have the right personality to obsess over the precise sounds like Stéphane. It's good he's doing the Lord's work for us.
But yeah, having an app for a multi-generator, possibly programmable via Google home or so would be nice.
I’m going to show her this and see if she likes any of them.
Also navigating back in mobile browser should close the active keyboard as on a small screen it looks like you are on a new page so it's surprising when back throws you out of the site.