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
You can check it out on Kickstarter.
What is Kumo? Kumo is Japanese for 'Cloud'. Steven, art director for TheVan Keyboards, lives in Japan and I live in the USA. We wanted to embrace both of our homes with this launch. We have incorporated both English and Japanese Legends into the keycap set. When we were children we use to look up to the clouds and imagine all sorts of things. We carry that on with Kumo. We see the endless possibilities of what a keyboard can be and do.
Why Plastic? Producing a plastic case has several advantages.
- Lowers production cost
- Gets us into plastic production
- Reduces production time
- Tons of color choices
Ultimately we would like to produce our HuB keycap profile. To get there we need to get into plastics. Our case is a relatively easy mold to do and is fairly inexpensive. This seemed like a great logical step for us to get closer to making HuB a reality.Lowering Production cost and as a result lowering retail price is another huge benefit. Lowering the barrier to entry will allow us to share the joy of 40% keyboards with many more people.
RGB Indicators This is the first MiniVan with RGB leds. A whopping 3 of them. In conjunction with our configurator you can easily redefine what the LEDs indicate and in which colors they do so. This is immensely useful for knowing which layers are active, seeing how long the tapping term is for tap keys, or indicating traditional keyboard states (num lock, caps lock, scroll lock, etc.)
We are excited to share Kumo with the Massdrop community and hope you will join us on our journey.
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