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
https://www.massdrop.com/talk/9382/how-to-configure-your-ctrl-keyboard This is the link to Massdrop's instructions on configuring the CTRL which includes info on mdloader (the program you'll need to upload any firmware into your keyboard). You probably already have this, but having a link here doesn't hurt. Become familiar and comfortable using mdloader with firmware exported from Massdrop's configurator. Once you've done that, you'll need to become familiar with some C code. Good news: There are resources to help out and (if you're familiar with code) it's not horribly complicated. 2) FAQ Lights
https://github.com/LastContinue/ctrl-info/wiki/FAQ-Lights This guide from @LastContinue walks through some of the changes that are (fairly) easily possible. I'm a learn-by-examples kind of guy and this helped me understand what is going on in Massdrop's QMK code. 3) Massdrop's CTRL led_programs.c file
https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/massdrop/ctrl/led_programs.c This is just a direct link to the led_programs.c file from Massdrop's CTRL code fork at Github which is mentioned in the FAQ Lights link above. If you want to review more of the Github repository, check out the path toward the top of the page to navigate backwards to the rest of the available code. I'm finding the qmk_firmware and ctrl links especially useful. Now that you're more familiar with the actual C code underlying compiled QMK firmware, you'll need to start getting everything installed and ready for compiling your own code. 4) Alternative Compile QMK Quick Start Guide
https://github.com/LastContinue/ctrl-info/wiki/Alternative-Compile-QMK-Quick-Start-Guide This guide (also from @LastContinue) collects a lot of info on how to compile firmware for the CTRL. FWIW: I'm still learning and preparing my laptop to compile QMK firmware, but I'm optimistic I'll be able to introduce custom selectable color options soon. Note: If anyone with more experience is reading this and sees egregious errors in my notes or wants to provide helpful updates, I'm all ears! Of course, given everything involved, this may be much more than you're willing or interested in doing. I really hope this becomes much easier when Massdrop updates their configurator in the future. I may also be wrong and there is some way to do what we want to achieve with the configurator. I would be happy to be corrected, but I don't think that's the case.
NOTE: Since I'm not familiar with the underlying code changes required to make this kind of effect happen on the CTRL, I can't say for sure whether the code is safe. Remember that it's a personal choice whether to upload someone else's code into your keyboard. Proceed at your own risk. Or, better yet, learn how to do it yourself and teach us what you did. :) Hope this helps.