Cricket, a crisp clicky switch

Updated

Clicky, with a click jacket: a crisp, high chirp.

Press any key, or tap the keys below, to hear Cricket. These are the same samples the app plays.

Category
Mechanical
Brightness (centroid)
3,148 Hz
Key press length
70 ms

What it imitates

Cricket models a clicky switch whose click comes from a jacket that snaps down the stem. The click is short and high, so Cricket is the crispest keyboard pack: its energy is spent in 7.1 ms.

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 Cricket next to Knuckle and Ivory, 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
Cricket Mechanical 3,148 70 7.1 -12.8 46%
Knuckle Mechanical 3,653 90 11.3 -14.7 55%
Ivory Mechanical 2,909 84 9.4 -15.8 65%

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 want the classic clicky board without a ringing case (a suggestion).

Use it in Teclo

  1. Click the keycap icon in the menu bar to open Teclo’s window.
  2. Pick Cricket in the list of packs, under Mechanical.
  3. 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

Does Teclo have a clicky keyboard sound?

Yes. Cricket is the clicky switch, and Buckle is the vintage buckling spring, which also clicks but rings longer.