Free Online Player
Typewriter
Typewriter is a run of hard, bright strikes with quiet in between. It is not a background sound and it will not become one: every key is a snap that stands clear of everything around it. Play it because you want to hear it, which for most people means writing.
Ready to play
Stack this under rain or a fire, keep the blend, and play it with your screen off. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
It cannot recede
Masking works by lifting the floor until changes stop standing out. A recording whose whole character is sudden change does the opposite. The strikes here sit further above their own background than anything else in this group, and they arrive separately, roughly one every two and a half seconds.
Each one is a broad snap with most of its energy up in the bright end and almost nothing underneath to soften it. On a 20-second loop, that pattern comes round often.
What it is for
Writing, mostly. A mechanical key strike at a low level gives a sense of work happening without adding any words, and the wide stereo image scatters the strikes across the field rather than stacking them in one spot. Keyboard Typing is the modern equivalent, softer and less percussive by nature; Old Clock gives regular events instead of irregular ones if you want a pulse rather than a performance.
Set it lower than feels right at first. Peaky material at a comfortable average still throws individual hits far above that average, and those are what the next room hears. Put it over something steady with the Typewriter and brown noise blend in the free sound mixer and the gaps between strikes stop being silent.
Frequently asked questions
Can it be used as background noise?
Not really. The strikes stand far above the rest of the file, so they announce themselves rather than blending into the room.
How busy is it?
Clearly separated strikes come at roughly one every two and a half seconds across the 20-second loop.
Why does it sound so sharp?
Its energy sits in the bright end, with almost nothing low to soften the attack of each key.
Is it in stereo?
Yes, and noticeably so. The strikes spread across the field rather than stacking in the centre.