deskthority

We just finished our new sound comparison widget. Now you can hear clean recordings of Cherry Brown and Blue vs. our new tactile Matias Quiet and Clicky ALPS switches...

http://matias.ca/quietpro/mac

We used a Das Keyboard for the Cherry Brown recording and a Razer BlackWidow for Cherry Blue.

Let me know if you have any questions...

Good job on that sound widget!

Funny thing: While listening between the samples the Tactile Pro started to remind me of castanets, and the Blackwidow of a tambourine.

The Quiet Pro sounded more like an RD keyboard than a music instrument, though.

If you ever see a Flamenco dancer flailing a TP3 around, tell em Burz said 'Hi'.

The bottoming out sound is so high that there is really no difference between blue, brown and Matias Tactile. Could you make samples where you don't bottom out?

The Matias Quiet sounds a lot like a cherry with o rings. I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out on a rubber surface and typing on a wet newspaper. Does it have a soft landing like dampened cherries or a hard stop?

damorgue wrote:The bottoming out sound is so high that there is really no difference between blue, brown and Matias Tactile. Could you make samples where you don't bottom out?

The Matias Quiet sounds a lot like a cherry with o rings. I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out on a rubber surface and typing on a wet newspaper. Does it have a soft landing like dampened cherries or a hard stop?

The bottom out feeling seems important to you. I think most of us do bottom out more than half of the time, but I also believe the actuation feedback of a switch can affect how often and hard we bottom out. The non-clicky Cherry switches (most types) may be pushing people to get most of their feedback at the bottom.

A reviewer on GH said the QP has a bottom that is softer than O rings and more like RD, but also said it was the pronounced tactile actuation that mattered to him.

That's why I'm so looking forward to trying these Matias switches. They seem to be the only way to get good tactile feedback, and only that without the noise, without spending a small fortune on Topre (which only seems to find its way into century-old keyboard layouts).

It was more of a comment on the recordings. Since the recordings are obviously of someone bottoming out on every stroke, the differences are less pronounced. I could hardly tell the difference except for the more pronounced spring ping of the Matias Tactile to the Cherry Blue.

I would appreciate a recording of someone who doesn't bottom out to actually hear the real difference.

damorgue wrote:It was more of a comment on the recordings. Since the recordings are obviously of someone bottoming out on every stroke, the differences are less pronounced. I could hardly tell the difference except for the more pronounced spring ping of the Matias Tactile to the Cherry Blue.

I would appreciate a recording of someone who doesn't bottom out to actually hear the real difference.

I call bullshit on every person that claims they don't bottom out. You do bottom out, everyone does, the real difference is how hard you bottom out.

Yes, I still do bottom out, as I mentioned in the first post. I want them to sound less when bottoming out.

damorgue wrote: I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out on a rubber surface and typing on a wet newspaper.

What I am saying is that these recordings doesn't highlight the differences, and actually hides them pretty well.

damorgue wrote:Yes, I still do bottom out, as I mentioned in the first post. I want them to sound less when bottoming out.

damorgue wrote: I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out on a rubber surface and typing on a wet newspaper.

What I am saying is that these recordings doesn't highlight the differences, and actually hides them pretty well.

In terms of sound, the problem with MX blues is the click, obviously. The problem with MX browns however (and all other tactile and linear MX switches) is the piercing sharp clack on plate-mounted boards – just switching to PCB mounting alone dampens the sound significantly, although you still get a soothing level of ping. Alps switches are also inherently loud. With Alps especially, tactile switches easily sound clicky from the sheer level of noise they generate; it's just that the deliberately clicky ones are even noisier still.

The recordings clearly indicate that the new Matias switch is heavily damped, as the disturbing clack sound is removed; the resulting soft thud sound is basically the same as a regular rubberdome. All keyboards will make some sort of sound when you bottom out: you cannot change the laws of physics. My favourite budget rubberdome, the Dell KB1421, is surprisingly loud, much louder than a Topre and much louder than that Matias Quiet Switch recording (I won't get my Quiet Pro until the new year :(

The notion of a "silent" keyboard of any kind is a truly laughably absurd notion, and it's a wonder that anyone is legally permitted to describe MX browns as "silent" as they're anything but. That's why Matias are branding their keyboard as "quiet", which in comparison to any other metal contact switch (their definition of "mechanical") sold today, they most definitely are. (It would be interesting to hear a comparison with the AEKII though. I can't find a good recording of the AEKII, only the original undamped AEK.)

damorgue wrote:It was more of a comment on the recordings. Since the recordings are obviously of someone bottoming out on every stroke, the differences are less pronounced. I could hardly tell the difference except for the more pronounced spring ping of the Matias Tactile to the Cherry Blue.

I would appreciate a recording of someone who doesn't bottom out to actually hear the real difference.

We didn't feel that it was reasonable to expect people not to bottom out.

Most people are not that careful when they type. They just sort of pound away at the keys. If anything, the bottoming out could've sounded louder.

It's kind of like squeaky shoes...

If you buy a pair of rubber-soled shoes, with the expectation that they'll be quiet, only to find that they squeak, you won't be happy. If someone then tells you they are really quiet, but you have to tip-toe across the room slowly and carefully, you'd probably throw the shoes at them.

damorgue wrote: I would appreciate a recording of someone who doesn't bottom out to actually hear the real difference.

It'd be unrealistic. I find it hard to believe that someone really touch typing more than 30 WPM would not bottom out Blues, Browns or Reds.

And in the recording the quiet pro sounds a bit like a non-Blue Cherry switch with o-rings. Now that would be an interesting comparison.

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: I can't find a good recording of the AEKII, only the original undamped AEK.)

http://www.mrinterface.com/keyboardsims ... index.html

Or not good enough?

damorgue wrote:The Matias Quiet sounds a lot like a cherry with o rings. I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out on a rubber surface and typing on a wet newspaper. Does it have a soft landing like dampened cherries or a hard stop?

For what it's worth, my MX Brown board has O-Rings, and in real life they feel & sound nothing like at all. And by that, I mean the Quiet Switch is quieter, has a softer landing, and much better tactile feedback. I've never been entirely crazy MX Browns, but this kind of makes me hate them. And I also kind of regret putting the O-Rings on them at all...I think it actually made them feel worse. Maybe those soft-landing pads would be better?

Matias wrote:We just finished our new sound comparison widget. Now you can hear clean recordings of Cherry Brown and Blue vs. our new tactile Matias Quiet and Clicky ALPS switches...

http://matias.ca/quietpro/mac

We used a Das Keyboard for the Cherry Brown recording and a Razer BlackWidow for Cherry Blue.

Let me know if you have any questions...

That sounds great. Awesome! You could record all the different switches, too.

If you are going to make the widget more interesting, you could do something like this.

http://webwit.nl/input/kbsim/

made by webwit.

I think he uses sound recording of only one switch, but to make the app slightly more realistic, you could do a separate recording for space bar and shift keys(other stabilized keys). The app will be less clear representation of the actual sound, but is much more interactive and fun to try.

Hopefully it will end up here:

http://www.mrinterface.com/simulators

Mr Interface has already done what you suggested, although the Quiet Pro is not listed yet.

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:Hopefully it will end up here:

http://www.mrinterface.com/simulators

Mr Interface has already done what you suggested, although the Quiet Pro is not listed yet.

That is awesome.