Sound packs ​

A sound pack is a recording of a real mechanical keyboard. KeyCream ships seven of them. Choose one from Sound Pack in the menu, or listen to them on the home page.

Linear switches move straight down. Tactile ones have a small bump you can feel. Clicky ones add an audible click to that bump.

How a key finds its sound ​

Each pack lists sounds by key. When you press a key, KeyCream looks up that key's sound in the selected pack and plays it. A pack can give every key its own recording, or reuse a few recordings across the keyboard.

When a pack loads, KeyCream decodes all of its sounds into memory and levels them, so playback starts the instant a key goes down.

Credits and licenses ​

All bundled packs come from the open-source Mechvibes project and are released under the MIT License. NovelKeys Cream was originally recorded by Ryan.

Each pack folder includes its license, and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md lists where every pack came from. Switch names belong to their manufacturers and only describe the recorded switch.

Adding your own pack ​

KeyCream reads the Mechvibes pack format. To add a pack, build KeyCream from source with the pack folder placed in Resources/SoundPacks/. It appears in the menu under the name from its config.json.

A pack folder holds a config.json and its audio files. There are two kinds.

One file per key (multi). Each key points to a file:

{
  "name": "My Keyboard",
  "key_define_type": "multi",
  "sound": "a.wav",
  "defines": {
    "30": "a.wav",
    "57": "space.wav",
    "28": "enter.wav"
  }
}

One recording (single). Each key points to a start time and a length in milliseconds inside one file:

{
  "name": "My Keyboard",
  "key_define_type": "single",
  "sound": "sound.wav",
  "defines": {
    "30": [28961, 164],
    "57": [49628, 230]
  }
}

The numbers are PC keyboard scan codes, the same ones Mechvibes uses: 30 is A, 57 is space and 28 is return. Use WAV, AIFF or another format macOS can play. OGG files need converting first.