But not everything is for taste. It is also possible that we want the keyboard to sound, either when typing, or when pressing certain keys on it, for accessibility reasons. This can help us, for example, to know that a person with problems is fine or something has happened to them, and even ourselves to know if we have any lock keys (such as Caps Lock or Num Lock) pressed and we are writing wrong.
So, next, we are going to see two different ways to make our computer sound when typing, either by choice or by necessity.
It is worth mentioning that this is a function that we can carry out in Windows, especially if we work with a laptop, since the keyboard of these computers usually leaves a lot to be desired.
Add sound to the PC when pressing keys with these applications
It is not necessary to change the keyboard if we want to enjoy the sound produced by the keys of a mechanical keyboard, if we use any of these applications.
Before getting into the subject, we will tell you that we are going to show you two applications that are basically in charge of simulating the mechanical sound of a keyboard when we work on our computer. In addition, we will not have to pay a single euro for its use and they are open source. This means that we will only have to download the programs from their official website, we will show them below, install them on our Windows-based PC and take advantage of their functions.
MechVibes
Specifically, for this we are going to recommend the use of MechVibes. This is a simple free application that you can download from this . Thus, once we have downloaded and installed it on the Windows computer, the program play a sound brief valid for each click on a key on the keyboard. One of the problems we found is that the interface that it proposes cannot be minimized to the system tray.
In the same way, it is also important to know that we will not be able to change the default sound unless we do it at the code level. This is something that the most advanced users can carry out thanks to the fact that it is a solution of Open Source.
Therefore, as we can see, it is a fairly simple program to use, but it perfectly fulfills its mission. In fact, there are few customization options that it presents to us, since we only have one type of sound that we can use. Of course, what we can modify is the volume of the sounds of the keys, or pause the functionality without closing the program. This will allow us to stop hear sounds when we consider that it is not necessary.
As it could not be otherwise, at any time we can reactivate it so that, every time we press a key, we hear a sound. In this way, one of the main objectives of MechVibes is to imitate the sound that would be heard if we used a mechanical keyboard. Of course, the result is not the same as those heard in a smartphonefor example, but it does what is asked of it perfectly.
In short, if you want play sounds when typing with your keyboard in windows, MechVibes is an excellent alternative. In this way you can have audio when entering characters, as if we were working with a mechanical keyboard.
The best
First of all, let’s say that we are facing a program that hardly consumes computer resources and that perfectly fulfills its main task, simulating the sound of a mechanical keyboard. It is very easy to configure and use open source software that also allows us to customize the volume of the sound it produces when we are typing.
Worst
It only has a single audio to reproduce the typical sound of a mechanical keyboard. It means that we will not have the possibility to use alternative sound files for this simulation.
bucklespring
Bucklespring is a small application that allows us to emulate the sound of one of the keyboards most desired by users of this type of keyboard. We are talking about the IBM Model M. This application, which runs in the background, allows us to reproduce the sound of the keys of this model every time we press them. The sound has been sampled and simulates the sound perfectly in 3D, so if we press the number module, the sound will be displayed by the speakers on the right.
This application, created by a fan of this keyboard, makes this application available to us through its GitHub page, an application that is available for both Windows and Linux and we can download it through this . The sound files are in .wav format, so we can use it for any other purpose unrelated to the operation of the application. The application does not offer us, so we just have to run it in the background, turn up the sound volume and start enjoying the sound of this classic keyboard.
It must be taken into account that, on less powerful equipment, it is most likely that the sound that is played does not play at the same time that we press the keys, at least in the first seconds until all the .wav files that the application plays , are loaded in the cache of the equipment and do not have the need to load them every time we press a key.
Pros
I’m sure veterans will love this tool that simulates the sound of a mechanical keyboard. The main reason for this is that it reproduces the sound of one of the most popular hardware devices with these characteristics, the IBM Model M. In addition, it simulates surround sound to make the effect even more realistic.
cons
The biggest problem we found with this keyboard sound simulation application is that it doesn’t have configuration parameters to customize its operating mode.
Use the Toggle Keys feature
As an alternative to this and in a more local way, it must be said that Windows has a functionality in its Accessibility which they call Toggle Keys. As described from the operating system itself, this will allow us to hear a sound every time we click on one of the special keys on the equipment itself. Here elements such as Caps Lock, Num Lock, Shift, Ctrl or Scroll Lock come into play.
In Windows 10
Clearly this is not as useful as the program described above, but it will be of some help, and without installing anything on the computer. Therefore, that being said, to enable the Toggle Keys that we refer to, we do this from the System Settings application.
As we told you, in order to make use of this integrated functionality of Windows itself, the first thing we must do is open the Settings application. In fact, this is where a good part of the customization options of the Redmond operating system are located. Little by little Microsoft is moving functions from the Control Panel that has been with us for so long, to Settings. Well, in order to open what we are talking about, we just have to access it using the Win + I key combination.
Next, we find a new window in which we see several options, so in this specific case we opted for the call Accessibility. This will lead us to a section in which we find several parameters that help us use Windows more effectively in certain circumstances. Therefore, once in this section that we are discussing, we select the option to Keyboard on the left side of the window. Then it will be when we can see the function that interests us in these lines, Toggle Keys. Therefore, to finish, we only have to activate the corresponding selector that is presented here to achieve the desired effect.
In Windows 11
In the event that we are already working with the new operating system of the software giant, Windows 11, to activate this function and that these toggle keys sound when we press them in the system, the steps to follow are very similar to those we have seen in Windows 10. We will also have to make use of the Time Settings application that we access through the Win + I key combination. Here the user interface changes slightly as well as the options available to customize the operating system.
In the case that concerns us Windows 11, to carry out this change that we are commenting on, we place ourselves in the option called Accessibility. In the new window that appears on the screen we have to locate a section that says Special keys, toggle and filters. Precisely here we are going to find the selector that really interests us that we can already activate: Toggle keys. from that moment windows will play a sound when we click on the special keys mentioned above.