Author Topic: [IC] hush.place - a premium sound improving mat for mechanical keyboards  (Read 2177 times)

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Offline erretter

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 21
  • Location: Germany
    • My Merch Shop

With the deepest respect for the forever silenced and those in dire need of the muted tones of a requiem;
I present to you:

hush.place

This mat will cut of the highest and lowest tones of your keyboard.
Getting rid of ear piercing pings and overly deep sounds.
Smoothering the sound profile to make it more even and streamlined.

How does it work?
The mat consists of 3 layers.
The top layer is a cotton fabric called "Waffle Pique" It's shape has a sound absorbing attribute, similar to acoustic panels. The sound is not directly reflected, but reflected in many different directions spreading it, and therefore silencing it.
The bottom layer follows a principal of sound absorbing, by beeing super smooth and having tiny holes across it's surface. It's called "Doubleface Hole Jersey", also made of 100% cotton.
However.
These are the best sound improving fabrics I could find, but they still wouldn't cut it in a sufficient manner. I had to add something that would really, like REALLY improve sound. And after a long search, I found it.
The middle layer sandwiched in between the fabrics, is an only 2mm thin sheet of latex foam, mixed with mineral sand.
The layers are sewn together by hand. No machine could smoothen the edges the way they are. Making each hush.place a piece of true craftsmanship.
All this remarkably only adds 4mm height to the KB!
SCIENCE! I tell you!

Demo Videos

Glamour Shots

How did you get the idea?
I am interested in Keyboards for the longest time, must be something like 12 years now. Building keyboards for 6 years.
My wife's latest birthday gift, a keyboard I build for her (totally not for me, I swear), for home office use, had a terrible ping. I was dissatisfied with my work, to say at least. The only thing that could mute the ping was a huge thick towel, raising the board by almost 2cm.
I then used my expertise and knowledge of fabrics and other materials to start experimenting. (For full context see also the next section below.). It took me almost half a year to find the perfect mix of materials. And now I am here to share my findings with the community!


Who are you and why should I trust you?
My name is Toni Breitsprecher. I am the creative leader of an network of craftsmen and -women, all located in germany, going by the name Speight Merch (formerly Cosplay Creator). We are offering our services since 9 years mostly to the gaming and cosplay community. We create and craft unique accessories and merchandise items, often customizing them to fulfill all the wishes of our customers.
How it all started:
Altough I never activly joined the cosplay community myself, my girl friend back in the day did. When I saw that her cosplay of Link from the Legend Of Zelda could be improved, I created my very first item for her, as a token of love. An battery powered LED light, replicating Link's companion fairy named Navi. That item gave her quite some attention, so I decided to start selling these on eBay.
(And before you're asking: Yes. I obviously work the hardest, when it is to satisfy the needs of my spouse.)
9 years, a multitude of different creations and about 6,000 customers later, I became a jack of all trades, but ultimately shifted from building items myself, to beeing the creative head and contact person between our customers and craftsmen/-women. The crafting is now done by experts, resulting in the definite best quality of each item.

FAQ
What's going on with the burial theme?
Why not?! It's marketing. Every product needs some kind of theme and burials are usually pretty quiet, so I thought that's fitting.

What's the price?
TBD - I don't want to become a millionaire selling these, but I need to cover all expenses, like craftsmen/-women's loans, materials, logistics and also get some kind of compensation for the time I invest. Ultimatly this IC/GB's purpose is to give the community something useful and enjoyable.

Why does your typing look so shoddy?
I am used to a steep typing angles and using a wirst rest, this is how I role. For this video I had neither, completely threwing me off. For the purpose of demonstrating hush.place it was still good enough, though.

Is there a discord channel I can join?
There sure is! HERE

Can you guarantee a smooth GB experience?
Luckily tailors are the most common profession in our network. I have at least 4 at hand, so no matter how big the GB will get, I am very positive that I will handle everything smoothly. Plus I've handled 6,000 sales before.

Why not offer them as in stock items?
Excellent question! The IC is to determine if it makes even sense to offer hush.place as an GB.
I mean, if 90% of all those interesed want the mat in black with 60/65 size, I might as well produce these in batches and offer them as in stock items. However, if demand is spread across all kind of sizes and colors, a GB will be the best way to handle that demand.

What about shipping costs?
Size 60/65 will travel worldwide for 9,99€. Dimensions and weight is pretty much exactly in the restrictions of that shipping rate. I am already using this for all my other items.
Everything bigger is TBD.

Are these videos/sounds manipulated?
Nope. Completly untouched. Recorded with Google Pixel 8 Pro and a Rode directional microphone.

Do you like Sauerkraut?
Pretty much. Yes.
« Last Edit: Thu, 09 May 2024, 13:26:39 by erretter »

Offline irithyll

  • Posts: 90
  • Location: United States
I don’t know why I want this, but I do.

Offline anson42

  • Posts: 11
  • Location: CA, US
I like the idea and the look of the mats. However, a lot of us already use desk mats so I'm not sure I would place another mat on top of that but there are situations when I would not want to set up a large desk mat if I'm using my keyboard away from my desk so a small mat works great for that and to take on the road perhaps. Inevitably someone will want to compare how your mats sound and feel compared to, say, the two different Keebmat models that are more akin to larger desk mats just shrunk down. Your hush.place mats are different in that regard. GLWIC!

Offline erretter

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 21
  • Location: Germany
    • My Merch Shop
TYVM. And thank you for your feedback!

Yeah, a comparison with Keebmat would definitely be interesting. And yes, I know about the huge deskmat market, but I see the size difference as a great reason to bring something more small out there. I think a deskmat and hush.place are two totally different things.
« Last Edit: Thu, 02 May 2024, 09:56:08 by erretter »

Offline EdgeOfInfinity

  • Posts: 348
a matching sized "cover" cloth like the one in the last picture would make this a nice combo. don't know how much i would need something like this, but i'd consider it for the aesthetic of the materials used.

Offline erretter

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 21
  • Location: Germany
    • My Merch Shop
Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned these. Since they are easy to mass produce I'll have them online as in stock in a few weeks, maybe a month. Have to figure out some details about them. The fabric is called "Mousellin" and it's usually sewn in double layer (so is the cover).
It is often used for baby clothes.
It can be anti bacteriell, which would be perfect for something like a keyboard cover, since keyboards usually are a cesspool (unless you wash your handy every single time before using it).