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Model M sound emulator for Windows and Linux
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 16:14
by zevv
(warning: shameless self promotion below)
I've created a small software project that simulates the sound of my Model M space saver when typing on my notebook. Audio is played using OpenAL, which has great support for creating a realistic 3D audio scenery.
Currently it's running on Linux only, and needs to be built from source, so I'm afraid a bit of software expertise is needed to get it running. On the other hand, I expect a high correlation between software expertise and buckle spring keyboard users, so this might not be a big problem for this community
Source can be found on github here:
https://github.com/zevv/bucklespring
Enjoy!
Edit: bucklespring now also runs on windows.
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 17:11
by livingspeedbump
rad! absolutely downloading this right now
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 17:42
by Parjánya
Hah, it works very well
). I had to install `freealut` for it to compile on Arch.
I see it's complaining when I press any exotic key like winkey or the volume ones, and also the numpad. You could have a generic fallback file for them. Weird... sometimes it spits an error, sometimes not.
Code: Select all
Error opening audio file "./wav/52-1.wav": I/O error
Error opening audio file "./wav/52-0.wav": I/O error
0144^[[1~^[[D^[[4~^[[2~aa01Error opening audio file "./wav/50-1.wav": I/O error
2Error opening audio file "./wav/50-0.wav": I/O error
21Error opening audio file "./wav/4c-1.wav": I/O error
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 18:32
by zevv
Good idea, I'll update it to just play a default key on unknown key codes. Since the code won't know where it is on the keyboard it'll just have to go to the center of the stereo sound. Thanks!
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 18:36
by Brot
Nice idea
Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 19:59
by klikkyklik
I seem to vaguely recall some fantastically brilliant programmer writing a program like this for the Amiga and having it published in Amazing Computing volume 3 number 11 on page 78 in November 1988 as a side effect of investigating custom input handlers that notified sleeping tasks on input stream keyboard events.
Good work! It's about time someone did this for Linux!
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 04:09
by dwasifar
I just installed it, and immediately had to promise my wife that I won't use it when she's trying to sleep.
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 16:42
by Ray
Wow this is fun. Thank you so much.
Maybe future enthusiast keyboards come with speakers instead of backlighting
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 17:08
by Muirium
Real Model Ms have the speaker grille to support this. Mind, they're also real Model Ms, so…
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 17:27
by Ray
only some Models had that speaker equipped, and none had stereo to make use of this. They were also real Model Ms, so they can't make much use of this
I actually don't like Model M that much (sound is okay, but feel is not made for my fingers). But you could just take a soundsample of the thocks of your favourite Topre and play that on custom builds!
NB: never felt my built-in scissors switch so bad. When I hear that sound, I expect different feel.
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 21:52
by emdude
I wonder what compelled the IBM engineers to include the speaker grill at all if only a few models ended up using it. Still, even if it has no functional purpose, I think it looks pretty cool.
Posted: 05 Feb 2016, 23:56
by Ray
Well, they save tooing costs. The speaker grill doesn't hurt the models that come without a speaker. Why should they invest in tooling if there is no need for it.
Posted: 06 Feb 2016, 01:35
by emdude
That makes sense. Makes me wonder then why Unicomp went through the trouble of removing the grill entirely since I believe they still use the same, rather old tooling. Their Model Ms are certainly cost-cutting, to say the least.
Posted: 06 Feb 2016, 08:48
by zevv
In case anyone cares: bucklespring now also runs on Windows (only tested on 64bit windows 10), MacOS X support might happen in the near future as well. Check the README at github for details.