Nice video explaining how to change the sound of your keyboard (original) (raw)

I thought I leave this educational video from keybored here, in my opinion it explains quite well how different parts of a keyboard come together in creating the final sound and explains what to change for what result a bit.

For people new this hobby or that are looking to achieve a specific sound signature, this could be really helpful. Especially since the test subject is not some unobtainium group buy keyboard, but an of-the-shelf razer product.

To maybe summarize a little:

Switches create the sound, but the rest of the keyboard transfers and amplifies that to the air and thus your ears. Foam mostly works by absorbing certain frequencies over others, while case and keycap materials conduct and transform the sound. Denser and softer materials tend to produce lower pitch sound (thick and large PBT keycaps, heavy aluminum cases), while less dense and stiffer materials produce more higher pitched sounds.

Large pore open cell foams absorb predominantly higher pitched sound, finer pore closed cells absorb lower pitched sounds as well. things like plastic sheets tend to reflect higher frequency sound while lower passes through.

In this video he didn't go really into the material side for plate materials or polymers really, but at least for plates there is a video from about two or three years ago by him.

I found the explanations quite helpful, though I would argue that on the materials and switch discussion a bit more detail would have been nice. Then again, I can easily nerd over practical material science like this.