Buckle, a vintage buckling spring
Updated
Vintage buckling spring: a snap over ringing steel.
Press any key, or tap the keys below, to hear Buckle. These are the same samples the app plays.
- Category
- Mechanical
- Brightness (centroid)
- 2,966 Hz
- Key press length
- 90 ms
What it imitates
Buckle models a buckling-spring keyboard, the vintage design in which a spring bends sideways under the key and snaps against a hammer. Teclo builds the snap and the ring of the long steel spring into each press, so the sound has a short metallic tail behind the click.
Teclo’s sounds are synthesized, not recorded. Its sound engine builds each pack from a model of the parts that make the sound, then plays the same files in the app that you hear on this page.
How it measures
Every pack is measured when it is rendered. The table puts Buckle next to Knuckle and Cricket, the packs closest to it in feel.
| Pack | Category | Brightness (Hz) | Press (ms) | 90% of energy in (ms) | Low/high (dB) | 1–3 kHz share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckle | Mechanical | 2,966 | 90 | 14.1 | -12.9 | 53% |
| Knuckle | Mechanical | 3,653 | 90 | 11.3 | -14.7 | 55% |
| Cricket | Mechanical | 3,148 | 70 | 7.1 | -12.8 | 46% |
Brightness is the energy-weighted mean frequency of a key press, so a higher number sounds brighter. Low/high is the energy below 1 kHz against the energy above it: the higher, the deeper. Nobody has tuned these packs by ear yet; the figures are what the files measure.
Who it suits
People who learned to type on an old office terminal or simply like a loud, old-fashioned board (a suggestion).
Use it in Teclo
- Click the keycap icon in the menu bar to open Teclo’s window.
- Pick Buckle in the list of packs, under Mechanical.
- Type anywhere. Teclo plays a different sound for a key going down and coming up, and separate sounds for Space, Return and Delete.
Every pack also has its own pair of mouse click sounds, made from the same model. Try the other packs on the sound packs page.
Questions
Is Buckle recorded from an old keyboard?
No. Buckle is synthesized: Teclo models the spring snap and the ringing steel instead of playing back a recording.