Why mechanical keyboards sound different
Updated
A key press is one impact passed through a chain of parts: the switch bottoms out, the keycap and plate carry the impact, and the case and foam decide how long it rings. Change any link and the sound changes, which is why two boards with the same switches can sound nothing alike.
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Pick a pack, then press any key or tap the keys below. These are the same samples the app plays.
The parts, from your finger down
| Part | What it does to the sound | More on it |
|---|---|---|
| Switch | Its stem hits the bottom of the housing, and that impact starts every sound. Linear, tactile and clicky switches add nothing, a bump or a click to it. | Linear, tactile and clicky, silent switches |
| Lube | Takes away scratch, spring ping and stabiliser rattle. | Lubed vs unlubed |
| Keycaps | The first surface the sound leaves from. Thicker, denser caps sound lower. | PBT vs ABS |
| Plate | Holds the switches and carries the impact on. Stiff metal rings brightly; plastic plates soften it. | Plate materials |
| Mount | How the plate meets the case: screwed to it or floating on gaskets. | Gasket mount |
| Foam | Fills the space inside the case, so less of it rings. | Foam mods |
| Case | The box that rings last. Epomaker says aluminium cases ring “with metallic harmonics” while ABS “absorbs highs”. |
Epomaker’s Sound Lab sums up the trade: more foam is “deeper, drier, quieter”, less is “louder, more resonant”. RTINGS adds that silent switches with enough dampening come “nearly as quiet as” a membrane keyboard, which is the other end of the scale; see rubber dome vs mechanical.
The same parts in Teclo’s packs
Teclo builds each keyboard pack from a model of those parts: the switch and cap as a few resonant bands, the plate and case as one struck body with many resonances, and the travel before the landing, the click leaf, the spring and the stabiliser wire where a build has them. The packs in the demo above change one or two of those parts at a time:
| Pack | What it imitates | Brightness (Hz) | 90% of energy in (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter | Linear, lubed, on gaskets and foam | 2,479 | 13.1 |
| Knuckle | Tactile, unlubed, steel plate | 3,653 | 11.3 |
| Boulder | Linear in a heavy aluminium case | 2,428 | 18.1 |
| Muffle | Silent switches on foam | 2,384 | 8.3 |
Brightness is the energy-weighted mean frequency of a press, measured on the files the app plays. The 90% figure is how long a press takes to deliver nine tenths of its energy, which is how long it rings. Boulder’s heavy case rings more than twice as long as Muffle’s foam-filled board, and Knuckle’s steel plate puts its brightness about 1,200 Hz above Butter’s. The packs imitate these effects; they are not measurements of real keyboards.
Where to start
If you know the sound you want but not the words for it, read keyboard sound terms. If you want a deeper sound from the board you have, read how to make a keyboard thocky. On a MacBook, where none of these parts can change, a sound app plays a mechanical board for every key; here is how.
Questions
Why do some mechanical keyboards sound better than others?
Mostly because of what surrounds the switch. RTINGS, which has tested over 250 keyboards, says the sound depends on case material, plate material and switch type, as well as dampening and lubrication, and that older or cheaper boards "can sound rattly or hollow".
Which part changes the sound the most?
Sources disagree. RTINGS says keycaps are "only a very small portion" of the sound and the switches and internals matter much more; Epomaker calls the switch's pole length "the single highest-leverage choice in any build" and gasket mounting "the single biggest structural change toward thocky".
Are Teclo's packs recordings of real keyboards?
No. Teclo's sounds are synthesized from a model of the parts: the switch and cap, the plate and case as one ringing body, and the click leaf, spring and stabiliser where a pack has them. Each pack imitates a kind of build; none is a measurement of a named keyboard.
Sources
Other facts on this page come from these pages, read on or before the date above.