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
The Selectric sounds pretty nice. I should really modify one of mine to be used as a terminal one day.
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 :(
Model M sounds reasonably close, Unicomp Classic sounds very wrong.
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.
can't agree more with this.
I have the novelkey creams for example, and they sound nothing like in the sound representation.
People forget how much the plate, material of the keyboard etc vary the sound.
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.
EDIT: now it's working, don't know why it repeatedly wasn't.
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?
brick and mortar thing is real. microcenter's basically it for physical. novelkeys and kbdfans sell $8 switch tester packs with ~10 switches each, not a store but at least you feel them before committing.
Unicomp was outright broken, a single file mapped to every key, which is why it sounded very wrong. It now uses the bucklespring recording from the Model M entry, which is actually authentic because Unicomp builds these on the original IBM tooling. Both fixes are live now.
Clicky switches are always tactile, but tactile switches arent always clicky.
Some have even quieter actuation but at that point I'd argue the biggest difference relates to bottoming out the switch and if theres any dampening efforts there.
The Data Drop · #049
36 mechanical keyboards and switches, curated and sound-mapped. From IBM Model M (1985) to Topre to thocky modern customs. Click any card, type on your real keyboard, hear it as if it were on your desk.
1
Click a keyboard card,it expands with full details.
2
Type on your real keyboard,every key plays that sound.
3
Read the anatomy. Housing, stem, spring, and why it sounds like it does.
Methodology
Every audio sample on this page comes from the open-source mechanical keyboard community. None of these were recorded by us. We are the curator, not the field recordist.
As ThereminGoat has argued, sound tests are inherently limited: microphone, room, host board, keycap set, codec, and your speakers all color the result. You are never hearing "the keyboard",you are hearing one recording of one build, played through one chain. Treat this as a listening museum, not a buying guide.
Some entries share recordings or are paired on purpose. "Alt build" entries are a separate field recording of the same switch in a different host board and mic chain,listen to these side-by-side with the standard entry to hear how much of a "switch sound" is actually plate, case, mic, and room. Don\'t read loudness differences between paired entries as meaningful: that\'s recording variance, not typing pressure. The Unicomp Classic uses the same bucklespring recording as the IBM Model M because Unicomp still builds these on the original IBM tooling.
All audio is sourced from Mechvibes (community library, MIT app), Bucklespring (GPL-2.0, IBM Model M), grcekh on Freesound (CC0, HHKB Pro Hybrid), keyboardsounds (GPL-3.0), Monkeytype (GPL-3.0), keyBeats (MIT), daktilo (MIT), wayclick, and keebsound. If you are an audio author and want attribution corrected or your sample removed, email akash@sheets.works.
The Data Drop
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