Marimba, a soft mallet on wood
Updated
A soft mallet on a wooden bar.
Press any key, or tap the keys below, to hear Marimba. These are the same samples the app plays.
- Category
- Night
- Brightness (centroid)
- 713 Hz
- Key press length
- 120 ms
What it imitates
Marimba plays a soft mallet striking a wooden bar. It is the longest pack in Teclo, at 120 ms a press, and one of the lowest: almost all of its energy sits below 1 kHz.
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 Marimba next to Rain and Bubble, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marimba | Night | 713 | 120 | 17.3 | +15.0 | 3% |
| Rain | Night | 1,088 | 70 | 7.9 | -3.0 | 66% |
| Bubble | Arcade | 576 | 60 | 8.7 | +14.5 | 3% |
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
Calm writing and late evenings, where a keyboard click would feel too sharp (a suggestion).
Use it in Teclo
- Click the keycap icon in the menu bar to open Teclo’s window.
- Pick Marimba in the list of packs, under Night.
- 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 Marimba musical?
It plays one wooden tone per key. It is a sound for typing, not an instrument you can play tunes on.