davelab6 / bucklespring

Nostalgia bucklespring keyboard sound

Nostalgia bucklespring keyboard sound

This project emulates the sound of my old faithful IBM Model-M space saver bucklespring keyboard while typing on my notebook, mainly for the purpose of annoying the hell out of my coworkers.

Bucklespring runs as a background process and plays back the sound of each key pressed and released on your keyboard, just as if you were using an IBM Model-M. The sound of each key has carefully been sampled, and is played back while simulating the proper distance and direction for a realistic 3D sound palette of pure nostalgic bliss.

Installation

Linux

To compile on debian-based linux distributions, first make sure the require libraries and header files are installed, then simply run make:

$ sudo apt-get install libopenal-dev libalure-dev libxtst-dev
$ make
$ ./buckle

Windows

(The windows build is currently broken, it seems that switching from freelut to alure broke windows, I might fix this one day...)

For windows the binary is provided in buckle.exe. To run on windows, make sure to first install OpenAL from the official package at https://www.openal.org/downloads/.

The source can be cross-compiled from linux using the MinGW compiler:

$ make mingw=1
$ buckle.exe

The program is launched in the background, and has no user interface whatsoever. To terminate, find 'buckle.exe' in the task manager and kill. Any volunteers for implementing a systray icon?

Usage

usage: ./buckle [options]

options:

  -d DEVICE use OpenAL audio device DEVICE
  -g GAIN   set playback gain [0..100]
  -h        show help
  -l        list available openAL audio devices
  -p PATH   load .wav files from directory PATH
  -s WIDTH  set stereo width [0..100]
  -v        increase verbosity / debugging

OpenAL notes

Bucklespring uses the OpenAL library for mixing samples and providing a realistic 3D audio playback. The default OpenAL settings can cause a slight delay in playback. Edit or create the OpenAL configuration file ~/.alsoftrc and add the following options:

period_size = 32
periods = 4

If you are using headphones, enabling the head-related-transfer functions in OpenAL for a better 3D sound:

hrtf = true