Popular Keyboard Sounds: 51 Boards Matched to a Sound You Can Play

There are two ways to find out what a keyboard sounds like before you buy it. You can watch a typing-sound video, where you are really hearing someone's microphone, room, and desk as much as the keyboard. Or you can play the switch recording directly and compare it against another one on the spot.

This page does the second thing. Below are 51 of the most widely owned keyboards in the world — Mac boards, office boards, mainstream mechanicals, customs, and gaming keyboards — each matched to one of TypeLouder's eight switch recordings. Every switch variant has a play button. Press it, and you will hear a short phrase typed on that kind of switch — and every keyboard links through to its own page, with what that specific board does to the sound and why.

It is worth using this the way you would use a switch tester: play two, then play them again back to back. A single keypress in isolation tells you almost nothing. The rhythm of a full phrase tells you nearly everything.

The eight sounds #

Every match on this page points at one of these. Play them in order once before you start — it takes about a minute, and afterwards the rest of the page will make sense immediately.

If you would rather press your own keys than listen to a phrase, the labo sonore complet du clavier puts all eight on a keyboard you can type on.

How the matching works #

The recordings capture a switch family, not a specific keyboard. That is the honest way to do it, because the family is what dominates the sound:

• Clicky switches have a dedicated mechanism that snaps on the way down and again on the way up. Cherry MX Blue, Kailh Box White, Razer Green, Logitech GX Blue. Loud, high, and impossible to ignore.
• Tactile switches have a bump moulded into the stem, with no clicking part. Cherry MX Brown, HyperX Aqua, Razer Orange, Gateron Banana, Halo True. A rounded knock rather than a snap.
• Linéaire switches have nothing in the travel at all. Cherry MX Red and Black, Gateron Yellow, Corsair MLX. One sound per press instead of two, and the lowest of the three.
• Optical and magnetic switches are linears with the contact method changed. They sound crisp and even, with very little attack — which is why so many recent gaming boards sound smooth rather than clicky.
• Silent and dampened switches add rubber pads that absorb the top and bottom of the travel. Razer Yellow, Gateron Blush, Topre Type-S.

So a match here means "this keyboard is in this sound family, and this recording is the closest one of the eight." It does not mean the recording is of that exact board. Where a keyboard is sold with three different switches, you will see three buttons, because those three versions genuinely do not sound alike.

One practical warning: switch options move around between model years, regions, and retailers. A model sold with a Brown one year may ship with an in-house tactile the next. Check the actual listing before you buy on the strength of a match here.

Mac and office keyboards

Most of these are not mechanical at all — a scissor or membrane keyboard has no switch to record. The pack listed is the one that sits closest to what you already hear, which makes it the least jarring place to start before you go looking for something louder.

Mainstream mechanical keyboards

The boards most people actually buy. Nearly all of them ship in a clicky, a tactile, and a linear version of the same keyboard, which is why one model can appear against three different packs.

Enthusiast and custom keyboards

Boards bought for how they sound. At this end the switch is only part of the answer — mounting style, plate material, foam, and keycap plastic move the sound further than swapping Red for Brown ever will.

Gaming keyboards

Gaming boards have moved almost entirely to linear, optical, and magnetic switches, because those actuate faster and take the tactile event out of the way. The side effect is that most of them now sound smooth rather than clicky.

What the switch does not tell you #

If you take one thing from this page, make it this: past a certain point, the switch is not what you are hearing.

Two keyboards with identical Cherry MX Red switches can sound like different instruments. The variables that move the sound most, roughly in order:

1. Mounting. A gasket-mounted board — the PCB suspended on soft strips instead of screwed to the case — is the single biggest reason modern keyboards sound deeper than boards from ten years ago. It is why a Keychron Q1 and a Filco with the same switch are not close.
2. Case material and fill. An empty plastic case rings and sounds hollow. Aluminium with foam inside absorbs the ring and leaves the low end. This is most of what people are paying for in a $200 board.
3. Keycaps. Thick PBT sounds lower and duller than thin ABS. Swapping keycaps is the cheapest real change you can make to how a keyboard sounds.
4. Plate material. Brass and steel are bright and stiff. FR4, POM, and polycarbonate are softer and lower.
5. Whether the switches are lubricated. Factory-lubed or hand-lubed switches lose most of the scratch and spring noise, which is why a $60 board with lubed linears can outrun a $200 board with dry ones.
6. The switch itself, which is where most buying guides start and stop.

This ordering is also why a sound app works better than it has any right to. You are not simulating the mechanism — you are playing back a board that already has all six of those things going for it.

Browse by brand #

Every brand with more than one keyboard here also has a hub page collecting its models on one screen, which is usually the faster way in if you already know whose keyboard you own.

Can't find your keyboard? #

Skip the model and match the family instead. Look up which switch is in your board, then pick from this:

If your switch is	It will sound like	Play
Blue, Box White, Green, Jade, buckling spring	Sharp, loud, two clicks per press	Frost Click
Brown, Aqua, Orange, Banana, Panda, Halo	Rounded knock, no click	Chestnut Bump
Red, Yellow, MLX, Outemu Red	Smooth, light, mid-depth thock	Ruby Thock
Black, heavy linears, Topre	Deep, muted, deliberate	Midnight Thock
Speed Silver, low-profile linears	Bright, shallow, quick	Alpine Pop
Silent Red, Blush, Type-S, magnetic	Soft and low, no attack	Onyx Glide
Optical linears, Lekker, ROG NX	Clean and glassy	Glacier Glide
Anything gasket-mounted, foamed, and lubed	Full, plush, with a clack	Cream Clack

The four Cherry pages linked above go into much more detail on each switch, with the same recordings and the specifications side by side. There are also head-to-head pages if you are stuck between two, such as Blue vs Brown et Red vs Black.

Getting any of these on the keyboard you already own #

The honest limit of everything above: playing a recording tells you what a board sounds like, but you still have to go and buy the board.

Unless the sound was the point. A large share of people shopping for a mechanical keyboard are chasing the sound rather than the feel, and for them the answer is much cheaper. TypeLouder plays these same eight recordings on every keystroke across macOS, on whatever keyboard is already in front of you — a MacBook, a Magic Keyboard, an old office membrane board — at any volume, through speakers or privately through headphones.

It will not change how your keys feel. Nothing in software can. But if you have been watching keyboard sound videos at 2am, it is worth being clear with yourself about which half you are actually shopping for.

Related reading: how to make a Mac keyboard sound mechanical, a keyboard sound app versus an actual mechanical keyboard, et the best keyboard sounds for writing, coding, and focus.

Questions fréquentes

What does a Keychron K2 sound like?

It depends entirely on which switch you ordered. The Blue version is sharply clicky, the Brown and Banana versions give a rounded knock with no click, and the Red version is the smoothest and lowest of the three. The K2's plastic case adds a slightly hollow quality that the aluminium Q-series does not have. You can play a recording of all three families on this page.

Which mechanical keyboard is the loudest?

Among current keyboards, anything with a Cherry MX Blue, Kailh Box White, or Razer Green switch is the loudest, because those switches add a dedicated clicking mechanism on top of the keystroke. Buckling-spring boards such as the IBM Model M and Unicomp are louder still. The quietest are silenced Topre boards like the HHKB Type-S, and magnetic switches such as Wooting's Lekker or SteelSeries OmniPoint.

Do all mechanical keyboards sound the same with the same switch?

No, and the difference is bigger than most people expect. Two boards with identical Cherry MX Red switches can sound completely different depending on the case material, the mounting style, the plate, the keycap plastic, and whether there is foam inside. A gasket-mounted aluminium board with foam sounds deep and full; the same switch in an empty plastic case sounds thin and hollow.

Can I make my laptop keyboard sound like a mechanical keyboard?

Yes. TypeLouder plays a real switch recording on every keystroke system-wide on a Mac, so a MacBook, Magic Keyboard, or any membrane keyboard can produce the sound of a mechanical board while the keys themselves stay quiet. The eight packs on this page are the same recordings the app uses.

How do I choose a switch by sound instead of by name?

Ignore the colour names and pick the family. Clicky switches add a separate snap and are loud; tactile switches give a bump with no click and sit in the middle; linear switches have nothing in the travel and produce the roundest, lowest sound. Play a sample from each family here, then look for a keyboard sold with that family of switch.

Is a keyboard sound app the same as buying a mechanical keyboard?

It replaces the sound, not the feel. An app cannot change key travel, spring weight, or the tactile bump under your finger. What it can do is give you the sound at any volume you want, privately through headphones, on the keyboard you already own — which for a lot of people turns out to be the part they actually wanted.