Paid $60 for a "silent" mechanical keyboard and my mic picks up every single clack
Bought it at a shop in Denver 3 weeks ago because the box said the switches were quiet and my calls would stay clean. Turns out quiet for a keyboard just means quiet for a keyboard, and now my team hears me typing like I am on a typewriter. Does anyone know a switch that is actually silent on a mic, or do I just go back to the mushy one from the office?
I used to roll my eyes at people who said no mechanical switch is truly mic silent, figured they just had bad mics or bad technique. Then I got a "quiet" board myself and ate my words real fast, because the mic does not care about your marketing box, it cares about the sound your fingers make when they bottom out. The trick nobody tells you is that the clack is only half the switch, the other half is you slamming keys all the way down, so even a silent switch gets loud if you type heavy. What actually helped me was o rings plus a desk mat plus not hammering the keys, and even then my team could still hear it a little. If you need truly clean audio on calls, the office mush keyboard is honestly the safe play, or you mute when you type. Maybe try lubed silent linears with a foam mod if you want to stay mechanical, but do not expect the mic to hear nothing.
The "mic does not care about your marketing box" line is spot on, and it makes me wonder how much of the problem is the mic itself picking up sound through the desk versus just hearing it in the air. Like did you try isolating the board from the desk with a towel or something under it, or was it the actual bottom out noise hitting the mic directly? I ask because I messed with o rings and a mat and it barely moved the needle for me, so I'm curious if foam inside the case did more than the stuff under it.