A brief reflection and look at how far our community has come since joining.
I’ve been in the mechanical keyboard hobby for a very long time. It started as a high school student’s search for a keyboard for writing novels back in the 2008-2009 school year. I thought I wanted to be an author and I felt I needed a keyboard that I could sit down to at my desk and just write. After researching, joining forums, and saving money, I made my first purchase in the hobby, a blank black Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. I still own this keyboard and while it is heavily modded now, it remains one of my all-time favorites.
My HHKB Pro2 with MitchCapped Accents
Many people would have stopped there, but keyboards became a hobby. I enjoyed learning about them, and early on, I enjoyed hunting for them in thrift shops. I would dig through bins at Goodwill and Salvation Army while popping keycaps off with paperclips looking for mechanical switches. I searched for a birthday Model M...
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works.
My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up.
On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special?
In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly.
I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others.
Sculpted-profile
The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row.
At first there were two
The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Figure 1: Sometime around here is a good time to ask that question...
If you’re new to the mechanical keyboard hobby, I have no doubt that planning your first keyboard build is a bit of a daunting task. To be entirely honest with you, it’s only a tiny bit less daunting for your second or even third keyboard builds should you stay around a little while longer. You’ve got the keyboard itself to worry about, stabilizers, keycaps, and even switches on top of all of the intangible marks you want your dream keyboard to hit. Switches are especially daunting right out of the gate as there’s just so many options out there to pick from – each with their own unique specifications, manufacturers, and more. Yet, in spite of all of these differences between switches, time and time again I find people always asking about lubing switches as one of their chief concerns when it comes to picking some up. With countless numbers of content creators talking about lubing switches, its no...
DCX vs DCD vs DCL - Drop’s Keycap Profiles Explained
We’ve covered the basics of keycap profiles before—spherical/cylindrical, sculpted/uniform, etc. One thing that has come up more and more over the years as we’ve expanded our portfolio of offerings here at Drop is the distinction between some of our similar profiles. Specifically, what is the actual difference between DCX, DCD, and DCL?
Cylindrical Profiles
To recap the previous article on the topic, one of the most basic ways to separate various keycap profiles is by shape (cylindrical, spherical, or flat). DCX, DCD, and DCL are all cylindrical profiles.
The most famous cylindrical profile is Cherry profile, as defined by the original manufacturer of the keycaps—Cherry. GMK now owns those tools, and as such, only they can technically claim to produce “Cherry” profile keycaps. Similar keycap profiles are often called Cherry profile colloquially, but are in actuality slightly different. For the sake of not splitting hairs, all of the cylindrical profiles discussed here are...
3 or 5? How many pins does your switch really need?
One of the oldest questions, albeit one you don’t see very often anymore, is about 3-pin and 5-pin MX switches. Early in the custom switch scene, budding enthusiasts would need to determine whether their keyboard needs 3-pin or 5-pin switches. Today, the question doesn’t appear as often as it used to, but it is still important to know the difference and when one is a better choice.
The difference between these two types of switches is in the name, the number of pins. As seen in the pictures below, 3-pin switches have two metal legs for the contact leaves and registering of switch presses as well as the stem pole. These switches were traditionally called plate mount switches, as they relied on the plate to align the switches on the PCB. 5-pin switches have the same contact pins and stem pole but are also accompanied by two additional alignment pins on the left and right of the stem pole. These were called PCB mount switches, as they could be used without plates as the PCBs would...
Figure 1: I couldn't think of a more literal way to represent this article if I tried...
Looking back just a few years ago, there’s no doubt that the huge influx of people that joined the hobby at the peak of the COVID pandemic were drawn to keyboards by way of YouTube, TikTok, and other audio-visual content platforms. Even as the output from these content creators has waned in recent months, their collective impact and legacy on the keyboard hobby is rather firmly etched in the history books. As a result of all of their sound tests, build logs, and opinion videos, the message is clear to any new person joining the hobby: mechanical keyboards are all about the sound. Thock this, clack that. Whether it’s keyboards, keycaps, or even singular switches, seemingly everyone new to the hobby meticulously pores over each component of their keyboard not in an attempt to figure out how it will feel in hand, but how it will sound as they’re furiously grinding their way out from...
Keyboards at work: A rationale for returning mechanical keyboards to the office environment.
As I walk down the hall to my office each morning, I hear the discordant clattering of keys coming from my coworker’s office. In the hall… several doors down… I hear them. Like the loose teeth in my grandma’s poodle, barely hanging on, they rattle and heave. If anyone’s ever told you that mechanical keyboards are too loud, it’s simply because that person has become completely desensitized to the garbage-bomb that is the standard office computer keyboard.
In the 1980’s and 90’s, it was common to hear the sound of unmitigated excellence when you walked into an office building. The rapid gunfire-like precision of a room full of high-quality computer keyboards firing in unison. Even in the early 2000’s when I worked in a south-side Chicago newspaper newsroom, it was still filled with such keyboards. Ten to fifteen years into their professional daily use, they were still magnificent in sound and feel. Punctual, clean, decisive. In those days, professional keyboards didn’t come...
Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own.
In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Image credit @zhugunic https://drop.com/talk/67372/gl-2-k
Do I need an amp? What are these acronyms like DAC, DSP, or DSD? What even are all the components that make up an audio chain? Let’s take a beginner’s look at the core, essential building blocks of a digital audio chain, and lay it plain what each piece does. We can cover the major pieces separately, but I’ll still include a few tips to optimize playback here. Please hit the little bookmark button and feel free to check and share this guide whenever you need a reference!
For people who need a visual and audible explanation, or are worried it would take too long to get a working knowledge of the audio chain, here is my YouTube video on this subject that is just 7 minutes long! I like writing though, so let’s get started with an overview, then break it down into what each piece does and how an upgrade would benefit the final sound quality.
Signal Path
Image credit @SpeleoFool https://drop...
As we publish more articles in the "Mech Keys How-To" series currently ongoing, navigating the various topics and finding previous articles will only become more difficult. This thread will serve as a table of contents to help add some structure to the whole project.
Feel free to also suggest future topics in this thread, as it will surely be easier to identify gaps and opportunities for further exploration when viewing everything as a whole.
Mechanical Keyboards
Introductory Topics
Mechanical vs Membrane
Sizes and Layouts of Mechanical Keyboards
Short Intro Into Split Keyboards (dovenyi)
Staggered and Ortholinear Layouts
Support for Alternate Layouts (dvorcol)
Low-Profile vs High-Profile Keyboard Designs
Build Materials and Other Case Design Considerations
Selecting Your First Mechanical Keyboard (The_Manic_Geek)
Keycaps
Keycap Materials
Keycap Profiles
DCX vs DCD vs DCL
In Defense of MT3 (StoryBoardTech)
How To Design a GMK Keycap Set (GMK_Andy)
The GMK Color...
Our latest collaboration with Axel Grell, the Drop + Grell OAE1 signature headphones, will be launching on Thursday, May 9th!
As one final reveal in advance of the big launch, we wanted to highlight a recent interview between Axel Grell and Head-Fi where Axel dives into the science and design behind the OAE1 headphones.
If you haven't followed the Drop + Grell OAE1 story thus far, enjoy the journey from Story 1 - How the Drop + Grell Headphones Were Conceived.
What are you most excited for in the OAE1?
Before launching any product, there are many designs, concepts, and ideas that pass between teams before arriving at a final design which makes its way to your computer screen and, eventually, desk. This is no more true than when considering possibly the most "art"-forward aspect of the mechanical keyboard hobby—artisan keycaps. It should be obvious that a lot of planning and artistry goes into crafting these literal pieces of art. We don't often get a chance to see behind the curtain, though. So, let's take a closer look at the upcoming Drop + Dwarf Factory Lord of the Rings Rohan Artisan Keycaps.
Before any resin is spilled, Middle Earth (the entity that licenses the Lord of the Rings IP) needs to approve the concepts based on concept art provided by Dwarf Factory. We connect with DF to coordinate on the topic and subject matter—in this particular case, additional Rohan-themed designs—to be sure that the concepts match with overall direction, whether that be pairing up with a...
If you haven't seen the first part of our interview series with Mr. Bingo, be sure to check that out for an introduction to the designer himself. We're picking things up here with part two, where Mr. Bingo shares some of his design process and how he draws inspiration for his designs!
Before we dive in—we want to express another huge thank you to Mr. Bingo for taking the time to answer all of our questions here. It's always fascinating to get a peek behind the curtain and we're very appreciative for the opportunity.
Do you have a process for gathering your potential ideas, and culling down to workable concepts that you select designs to move forward with and take to the community? Would you be able to share a bit about what goes into those decisions?
I feel that I am a designer who likes to have physical things and not digital. So when it comes to making a set and already have the idea, I look for things physically, for example, in the matcha set, I did a lot of...
It is with great pleasure that we are able to formally introduce Mr. Bingo by way of an interview! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all of our questions and allow us to peer inside your process a bit.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Mr. Bingo's past work yet, he's the brains behind GMK Cream Matcha and GMK Cubed, as well as many renders in support of other projects across the hobby.
He is of course also the designer behind DCD WLK-MN, his latest project inspired by a love of retro gadgets. So, without further ado, let's get to know Mr. Bingo!
We’d love to hear a little bit about yourself and your history - relevant to mech keys or not. Where are you from, what is your “day job”, what are your other hobbies and interests aside from keyboards?
Hey, well my day job is to design and do renders for a company that makes keyboards and gaming products. So I live from this hobby everyday! I also have other small hobbies that I'm just starting right...
To minimize unwanted artifacts in the listening experience, it was important that the OAE1 signature headphones avoid reflecting any secondary sound waves back toward the ear. Much like sound waves bouncing off walls when speakers are played in an empty room, the echoes from the reflections off the headphone body can cause interference, leading to dips—and even worse, peaks—degrading the quality of sound and imaging.
Findings of the Institute für Kommunikationstechnik (IKT, Institute of Communications Technology) of the Leibniz University Hannover (Dr. Roman Schlieper, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Peissig et al.) shows that there is a greater impact of the closed area and the acoustical impedance of the headphone to our hearing than just the influence on the measurable frequency response.
(grell® and IKT have partnered to undertake ongoing research into acoustics.)
So, according to what is known today, the acoustic impedance of the headphones measured from the ear should be as...
Introducing the latest keycap set designed by MrBingo—inspired by a retro classic.
DCD WLK-MN takes cues from an iconic device from the past, combining the nostalgia of yesteryear with the modern functionality of mechanical keyboards. Featuring a sleek color scheme of blue, gray, and orange, these keycaps will bring a pop of personality to any custom keyboard setup. Made with high-quality PBT material, they are built to last and provide a comfortable typing experience.
This is MrBingo's first collaboration with Drop, but he's no stranger to keycap design. Stay tuned for a future Story featuring an interview with MrBingo discussing his history, inspirations, and designs.
"I am a very nostalgic person; I love to look back and see how things have evolved by leaps and bounds. That's why I view the things of the past with both joy and a hint of sadness. What seemed so advanced at the time now appears quite simple. I'm not saying I feel like I was born in the wrong...
Everyone perceives sound differently. Your ear is not like a measuring microphone. Because of this, it’s important to understand how sound is perceived and what factors influence that perception. In creating the OAE1 signature with Axel Grell, we studied how sound is perceived and what factors influence that perception.
This premise drove the unique geometry and driver placement for the OAE1 Signature headphones. Since our ears, with all their unique characteristics, act as a natural equalizer to all that we hear, it makes sense that headphones should do more to use the structure of the pinna to guide soundwaves into the ear canal. To achieve this effect, the transducers are placed much further forward and angled back towards the ear. By positioning the transducer further out and away it enables the soundwaves to fully encompass the pinna (the external part of the ear), allowing for an increase in spectral information and a more natural sound field for the listener. By...
Stabilizer Shake Down - A breakdown of modern MX-style stabilizers
One of the best parts of custom keyboards is the sound they make. It’s clean, crisp, and free from any chatter or rattles. On a well-built custom keyboard, each keystroke is solid and definitive. On the smaller keys on your keyboard, keys 1.75 units or less, you can attribute that feeling to the switches themselves. However, on larger keys, keys that are 2 units and larger, stabilizers can make or break that feeling. Today, there are a plethora of different stabilizer options available for purchase. It can be confusing trying to navigate the different brands and configurations of stabilizers. Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll have the confidence to purchase the stabilizer that fits both your budget and your needs.
Before laying out the stabilizer options, it is important to understand their function within a keyboard. Stabilizers serve two main purposes. The first is to ensure that when pressing a larger key (2 units or larger) there is consistency in the keycap press. This...
Figure 1: What could be so confusing about some pretty NOS Alps SKCL Greens?
Having thoroughly beaten my opinions to death on well over a hundred different modern, MX-style switches over the past few years, one of the most common questions I get revolves around why I hardly use and/or review vintage, non-MX style switches at all. After all, the wide world of vintage mechanical keyboard switches is full of unique, odd mechanisms and “all modern switches are just recolors of each other.” While I take personal issue with that incredibly misguided second claim, I can totally understand how people can look at the wide swathes of variation in vintage switches and naturally think that that would be something I’d gravitate towards. And for what it’s worth, vintage switches are both incredibly interesting and something that I have quite a lot of hiding away in boxes. Some of my favorite brands and styles include RAFI Hall Effect switches, Hi-Tek 725s of all forms, SMK Inverse...
DCL (Drop Cylindrical Lumen) is our latest keycap profile added to the portfolio here at Drop. You’ve seen these keycaps already—they are included with the CSTM80 and CSTM65, our most recent keyboard launches.
Overview
The goal with DCL keycaps is to offer a high-quality shine-through-compatible keycap profile that is fully compatible with south-facing switches. Not only for the sake of physical interference, but perhaps more importantly, the functionality of shine-through.
In addition to a premium look and feel, we also wanted to ensure that the sound of the keycaps is not negatively affected by any design choices. The end result is a thick ABS keycap coated in an opaque outer layer which is then laser-ablated to remove the top layer, creating front-facing legends for optimal shine-through.
Comparison
To help illustrate the importance of properly-oriented shine-through keycaps and show the full range of offerings, here is a quick family photo of all of Drop’s...
SA in 2024: Where does the high-profile king stand in the modern keyboard hobby?
In early 2021, I only had eyes for SA Godspeed.
Raised in Florida across the bay from Cape Canaveral, I grew up watching space shuttle launches, and my dad’s life-long obsession with NASA, space and sci-fi quickly spread to me. At 27, I was introduced to Neil Armstrong, a personal hero, and was able to tell him the impact he had on me and my family. So on that fateful spring day when I walked into my IT department and told my coworkers that I was thinking of getting into mechanical keyboards, the first set I wanted to own was Godspeed. It took awhile, and I mean awhile for me to accumulate all the different versions of that set. It has three alphas (Solar, Lunar and Supernova), a few full alternates (Mito & Genespeed) and several alternate modifier sets including the transcendent Ares colorway. But several hundred dollars, and many months later, I had constructed a few keyboards all equipped with different versions of SA Godspeed. I made an Earth keyboard, a Mars, an Asteroid, a...
Creating a flexible novelty tool for DCX keycap sets
Before we can talk about the nuances of different novelty tool designs, it’s important to discuss how DCX keycaps are produced to begin with. DCX tooling is all designed to use a doubleshot injection molding process, which first injects the inner legend shot, then flips the entire metal slab of tooling to another portion of the machine, where the outer shot of plastic is injected to complete the keycap. In contrast, an alternative method would be to use a process called “insert molding”, which creates many of the inner legend shots in a row before—you guessed it—inserting those back into a different machine for the outer shot to be molded around. Each process has its pros and cons. Most important to the topic at hand, the doubleshot process is very efficient and designed to produce an entire keycap set’s worth of keys at once. However, this comes at the cost of rigidity, requiring an entire new tool to be produced if you want to...
Figure 1: My Imada force gauge machine gifted to me by Drop mid-collection of a Drop Holy Panda X force curve.
Over the course of the last year or so of writing switch reviews of my own, I’ve been integrating more and more data into my descriptions and comparisons of switches. This is seen no more clearly than in the dozens of wiggly-lined graphs, known as ‘Force Curves’, that now sprout up in the dozens on each of my latest reviews. While I’ve managed to avoid dragging the discussion of force curves into any of my short articles on Drop thus far, the increasing use of them throughout my work means I should probably get around to discussing them sometime soon. After all, while I live and die by this kind of information for switches, I fully well understand that I am more obsessed about switches than the vast majority of (admittedly kind of already weird) mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. However, I think that knowing a thing or two about force curves could make a big...
The secret bedrock of any technology-heavy hobby is a whole bunch of slang and jargon that makes it feel borderline like a second language to outsiders listening in on discussions about the hobby. Mechanical keyboards are, much to your surprise I’m sure, no exception to that rule. Unfortunately, having been around for as long as I have been, I’ve become a bit of the problem and have found myself casually shooting acronyms and concepts way above my friends and coworkers heads as I talk to them about keyboards. Equally as disappointing of me is that this has also seeped into my content, as well. In fact, as I was looking through some of my old writing the other day, I realized that I have eternally used one phrase - “OEM” - without ever actually elaborating on what explicitly I mean by such in the broader context of mechanical keyboard switches. While I get that it feels really basic and easy for many people who have been deep in the hobby for some time to kind of understand...
Ho Ho Ho, everyone!
12 Days of Christmas is back this year, bringing more of the same holiday cheer. If you haven't started opening your gifts, now is the perfect time.
Here's the rundown on 12 Days of Christmas:
▪️ The event will run for 12 days (fitting), starting today, Dec 1st, and ending on Dec 12th
▪️ Each day and each present opened will result in a new gift for you—no repeat coupons/gifts
▪️ While the gift-opening event is going, we are also running our 12 Days of Christmas Sale; place your in-stock orders now and most should deliver before the holidays* (if you want to guarantee delivery before the holidays and are purchasing in the latter half of the event, please pick an expedited shipping method)
If you win something good, let the community know! Comment below and share the holiday magic.
As always, the usual reminders:
▪️ It’s a great time to join DKC and take advantage of the minimum $30 discount coupon during our holiday events! (note that coupon codes...
We met designer ArqKeebs in the previous Studio Story for DCD Bird Jungle. Now, let’s learn a little more about the keycap set itself—how Arq pulls inspiration from the real world and creates unique and compelling designs based on various source materials.
Clearly birds are a common theme between your most recent set and the Bird Jungle keycap set; have you always been interested in ornithology, or was that a more recent interest? Is there anything in particular that draws you to birds over other inspiration?
Honestly it's something recent. After seeing the Hyacinth macaw everything changed. I never paid attention to birds before. It's like when you see something once then see it everywhere. People need to take 5 minutes just to google up some birds. There are some wild and just stunning birds. Their colors are truly wonderful.
Side question as a board game fan—have you ever played Wingspan? If so, does that inspire you with its artwork and design choices?
I didn't...
ArqKeebs has been around in the mechanical keyboard hobby for some time now, and has taken an impressive number of keycap sets from idea to fruition over that time. It would seem that the only thing he hasn’t done until now is introduce himself to the Drop community!
So, we wanted to help get that out of the way with some questions for Arq, starting with who he is and what he’s all about (an interview more specific to the DCD Bird Jungle keycap set and his design process is coming in the next Story). Thank you to Arq for letting us peek behind the curtain!
Render created by Bingo. Model created by werk.technica.
We’ll start easy—tell us a bit about yourself and your history, mech keys related or not. Where are you from, what is your day job (if applicable), what are your other hobbies and interests outside of keyboards?
My name is David, but everyone calls me Arq. I was born in Peru, but I came to New York City when I was thirteen. I graduated a bit over 2 years ago...
My grandpa was a truck driver for 40 years, and in that time he used two thermoses. I own them both, and the smaller of the two, which was clearly used on hundreds of runs, has a scratched and faded line of text below the label that reads “Thermal Efficiency guaranteed 5 years.” It might as well have said “105 years” because it works as well today as the day he bought it. That thermos is incredibly well designed, well made, and I assume it will work for another 50 years unless something drastic happens to it.
You’ll often hear people say “they don’t make things like they used to” and in my experience, that’s largely true. Products in the past were often made with longevity in mind, and to be honest, it was easier to build them so sturdy back then. Tools weren’t computerized, the parts weren’t as tiny, and the types of metal and plastic they were made from were costly and often machined with a human involved in the process.
I adore technology and surround my desktop space...
Figure 1: While this is a good start from user destohfaeda, this isn't anywhere near complete...
After having collected switches for almost five consecutive years now, I can say with confidence that everything switch related comes and goes in ever-looping cycles. Strong tactile bumps towards the start of the downstroke were once novel and popular, faded out of the limelight over the past few years, and are only just now starting to make a comeback. Huge leaps in housing aesthetics happened back when the first custom colored MX-style switches began being offered in 2018, and now five years later these massive leaps in design capabilities are surging again. Even things contextually related to switches rotate around and around in cycles. One such switch-related phenomenon which repeats in a (much faster) loop is that of people wanting to make a complete list of “every switch ever”. Almost on a monthly basis for every single month since I started collecting, at least one new...
As cool as sweet colors and designer top cases might be, the long-lasting joy from your board is going to come from the way it feels and sounds. So, here’s a bit on the approach we took with CSTM.
Mounting / Acoustics / Feedback:
The CSTM is gasket mounted to optimize for typing feedback, acoustics and ease of customization. Gasket mounting has been all the rage for a while and we’ve all seen different implementations, though not all are equal. In many ways, the drive for customization and options led us to offer a product that can be built out in many ways in order to find an individual’s optimal preferences when they are using their keyboard.
Bouncy / Flex
Due to the decentralized nature of the keyboard community, as new tech developments come, their names and degree of preference can run the gamut. Naming sometimes doesn't stick or definitions remain somewhat nebulous. For example, bouncy and flexy are often used interchangeably in the community but they actually...
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