Mechanical Keyboard Simulator

Fans of mechanical keyboards prefer these devices in no small part because of the characteristic sounds they generate with every keystroke. While annoying for some, others simply cannot go back to a membrane keyboard after using a mechanical one.

Mechanical Keyboard Simulator is a lightweight daemon that enables you to listen to these distinctive keystroke sounds even if you are using headphones or have to type using a non-mechanical keyboard. It is a bit difficult to configure, but it does the job while running quietly in the background.

If you have never used a mechanical keyboard before, you must have at least heard one of your neighbors using one. They are certainly loud, but they are much more comfortable for typing, and many actually like the noise they generate.

If nothing else, Mechanical Keyboard Simulator will help you figure out whether or not these devices are for you. The keystroke sounds are captured using an actual mechanical keyboard, and I was impressed by the quality of the recordings.

Once you have launched the program, you will hear the characteristic clicks and taps whenever you press a key. If these sounds are not to your liking, you have to shut down the process from the Task Manager.

There are quite a few settings that can be customized, but you need to open the “config.cfg” file in order to perform any modifications. The configurations are relatively straightforward, and some explanations are even available online, but this utility isn’t exactly novice-friendly.

From the configuration file, you can, for instance, alter the volume of the keystrokes, enable or disable HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function), change the spatial position of the listener and select the output device.

The simulator can even be muted for certain processes, and an optional set of mouse click sounds can be enabled by commenting out a few lines in the configuration file.

The keystroke sounds are stored in the program folder as WAV files, so it should be easy to replace them with others that you find to be more suitable.

Overall, Mechanical Keyboard Simulator does pretty much exactly what its name suggests, and it can be configured to suit your needs without too much effort. However, novices would certainly have preferred to change the program’s settings using an intuitive GUI, not to mention shut down the process without the help of the Task Manager.