Mechanical Keyboard Sound Isn't That Simple
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...
Mar 27, 2024
I wanted to provide context about what has taken place on this drop and what the next steps are for us.
What has taken place?
All keycap orders were shipped to our warehouse ready for fulfillment along with a sample sent to MiTo for a quality check. As many of you know, MiTo and the community were not satisfied with the quality of the dye sublimation work on the Canvas Keycap set, and we ended up holding back the fulfillment of the orders that were in the warehouse.
During this time Yanbo was visiting the factory in China, and he was able to secure a new production run of this drop for the community, provided that the new samples passed the quality check at MiTo’s end.
What is happening now?
As it stands right now, new samples for the Canvas set were shipped to MiTo on Monday, June 19th. I’ve attached images of some samples for the community below.
Once we get an ok on these samples from MiTo, we will do another production run of the Canvas XDA Keycap set.
What are the next steps and timelines?
We know that everyone is curious about timelines and how it will affect the drop. Provided we get the green light from MiTo on the samples, it will take the vendor 50 business days to run the entire production again for all the orders.
We are expecting to get an answer from MiTo by this coming Monday, June 26th. Once we have his feedback, I’ll be sending another update about precise dates and actions required from the community on Tuesday, June 27th.
I hope this provides more clarity to the community as to the process and the happenings in the background. Please wait for our email on June 27th where we’ll list out the precise deliverable timeline.
EDIT: Also, in the future, is there a way for Massdrop or MiTo to catch any errors during production and address it? That way we don't have to wait 3 months to hear that there is a problem.
P.S. the profile looks better in pictures Vs renders.
As a graphic designer, I can't but notice that those look nothing like the renders, the colors are off, so are the fonts even some of the symbols on the keycaps (check the > ___ )
They look like some cheap plastic due to the colors being off and different from the render even the reds, greens and others.
The fonts are bolded and look like someone made a scratch in them and then used ink to fill the gaps..
This is the single keycap set I liked and wanted to have. Ever.
It saddens me to see the latest pictures
Soooo, is there a chance you guys would sell the, "B stock", keycaps for cheap? It could us a chance at getting a set we forgot or didn't have the money for at the time........ I am still salty about not getting the Dieter Rams ( T ʖ̯ T)
I didn't render these keycaps on 3D (it was work done by a third party) so when you introduce another party these things can sadly happen. That's why nowadays I'm making 3D renders myself, to avoid these issues.
While the thickness and colors may be off, the >_ is correct. I appreciate the criticism, and patience as well. Thanks for understanding and for joining the drop in the first place. We are working hard to get it delivered, rest assured!
I would love to see more people who are passionate about their work, such as yourself!
I believe that quality comes first so the waiting time is not an issue for me, and I think that most of the people who joined this drop will agree.
Thank you again!
*Sigh*
I hope I get these keys, my Das Keyboard 5Q, and my TMA-2 H05 headband before October.
TLDR: you know what you're in for once you join, if you don't then you shouldn't have committed in the first place.
TLDR; If I get it before I'm dead, I'll be happy. If I don't, well, I'll be dead, so there will be no 'I' to do the caring.
Thanks for your ongoing work on this.
Check out my latest (isn't a MiTo keycaps design but it's a beauty nonetheless, my first one with Reds, totally in love with how "tight" it is, despite the little adjustments to get the Infinity plate to fit on a GH60, it feels much better than I had imagined): https://goo.gl/photos/2oaNJZtKbPyzFiYt7
Have the people in China seen the renders we are looking at? Just tell them to make the caps look like that :)
To put it into perspective, I've been waiting 716 days for my Deskthority 7bit SA Round 6, and I'll be lucky if I see them before 2018.
People that are complaining about this have no clue what some of the non-Massdrop group buys have been like. This delay is hardly a blip on those time scales.
What's happening to the keycaps from the bad run? :/
Wow, a sudden break of common sense.
But then again, I've literally been on the ground in China, dealing with factories, and believe me, I wish it was that easy. You can't just just show them a render and ask them to make it in that image. They'll say 'sure, no problem' and then give you something shitty. Or, more common these days, they'll try to "improve" upon your perfect design, which usually just makes it shitty. Just making what you hand them doesn't really work at most Chinese factories. I really, really wish it did. Of course you can find other factories that are capable of reading what you're laying down and they make great product. But you pay a premium for that. And it's not really an option at this volume.
The reason I'm not more angry at this situation is that I've been there. This isn't really unusual at this volume. What separates the men from the boys is how well the client is working with the factory. I'm slightly angry that these problems weren't caught earlier. But that's the extent of what I'm angry about.
" Factoring in ship time and buffering in other variables, we should have the units out to everyone early October. "