ErgoMechKeyboards
Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards
Rules
Keep it ergo
Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)
i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²
¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid
No Spam
No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.
No Buy/Sell/Trade
This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.
Some useful links
- EMK wiki
- Split keyboard compare tool
- Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
- Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/
view the rest of the comments
Both my in-laws are pianists and we've talked about this before - the consensus was that the mechanisms for typing keyboards and musical keyboards are very different. With a (good) musical keyboard, you don't just care if a switch was pressed, you also care about how quickly and forcefully it was pressed - this can significantly impact the volume, pitch and tone of a note.
High end electric keyboards go as far as simulating resonances between different strings - vibration in one string can induce vibration in its neighbours depending on the exact frequencies, the geometry of the instrument, the materials it's made from etc etc.
Instruments like a piano have existed for more than a century, and very well financed people have spent a lot of time and energy optimising every single part - if you think mech key people get pedantic about things like what material the plate is made out of and how it's mounted, go talk to a high end musician - they make us look super relaxed