keyboardsounds 5.8.3

Adds the ability to play sounds while typing on any system.

Keyboard Sounds

Add sound effects to your typing experience.

Keyboard Sounds is a tool that runs in your system tray and plays sound effects when you type on your keyboard. It comes with a variety of sound profiles to choose from, and you can even create your own custom profiles.

Installation

Keyboard Sounds can be installed as a desktop application or as a Python package. The desktop application is recommended for most users as it is easier to install and use.

Desktop Application

Download the latest version of the application from the Releases Page.

• Currently the desktop application is only available for Windows. The Python package can be used on any platform that supports Python.

The desktop application still requires the Python package to be installed on your system. On first launch, the application will check that both Python and the required Python packages are installed.

• Make sure when you install Python that you check the box that says "Add Python to PATH". This will allow you to run Python from the command line, which is a requirement for the desktop application to function correctly.

You may need to restart the application after doing this for the changes to take effect.

Python Package

To install this application as a CLI utility via the Python package, you will need to have Python installed on your system. You can download Python from the official website.

• Make sure when you install Python that you check the box that says "Add Python to PATH". This will allow you to run Python from the command line.

• After you have installed Python, you can install the Keyboard Sounds CLI by running the following command in your terminal.

  $ pip install keyboardsounds
  

Uninstalling

You can uninstall the Keyboard Sounds Desktop Application from the "Apps" section of your system Settings application.

• Uninstalling the desktop app will not remove the Python package from your system, you will need to do this manually if you no longer wish to use the Python package using the following command:

  $ pip uninstall keyboardsounds
  

Custom Profiles

This application supports custom profiles in which you can provide your own WAV or MP3 files to be used for the different keys pressed.

Creating a Profile

1. Create a new directory containing the sounds you wish to use.
2. Add a new file to the directory called profile.yaml.
3. Follow the example format below to fill the file in.
4. Combine the files into a ZIP file. The files must be at the root of the zip file.

You can then load this profile into the application using the add-profile action.

Note: Alternately you can use the build-profile action for an environment with built in validation when creating a new profile.

Adding a profile to the official repository

If you have created a profile that you think others would enjoy, you can submit it to the official repository. To do this, you will need to create a pull request.

1. Fork the repository.
2. Add your profile to the profiles directory.
3. Create a pull request.

Example Profile

# General information about your profile, this includes
# name, author and description.
#
# You are only required to provide the "name" field.
profile:
  name: my-profile
  author: Nathan Fiscaletti
  description: Describe the sounds packaged in this profile

# A list of all audio sources used by this profile each
# containing an identifier and a source.
#
# The source can either be the name of an audio file
# packaged with this profile OR a dictionary with two
# keys, one 'press' and one 'release', who's
# corresponding values are names of audio files
# packaged with this profile.
sources:
  - id: key1
    source: sound1.wav
  - id: key2
    source:
      press: sound2.wav
      release: sound3.wav

# An optional mappings of audio sources to
# particular keys on the keyboard.
#
# If you chose to omit the keys section, each time
# a key is pressed on the keyboard a random sound
# from the list of audio sources will be used.
keys:
  # The default value to use for any key not
  # mapped elsewhere in the keys object.
  #
  # If you provide the keys object, you MUST
  # provide a value for the default property.
  #
  # The value for this property can either be
  # the ID of one of the sources you defined
  # above, or an array of IDs.
  default: [ key1, key2 ]

  # A list of mappings of sources to keyboard keys.
  other:
      # The sound to play when one of the keys listed
      # in the keys array is pressed.
      #
      # The value for this property can either be
      # the ID of one of the sources you defined
      # above, or an array of IDs.
    - sound: key1
      # An array of keys that you can press that this
      # sound will be mapped to.
      keys: [ backspace, delete ]

Backend Usage

Keyboard Sounds has a comprehensive backend that can be used to manage the daemon, application rules, and profiles. This backend can be accessed via the command line interface (CLI) in your terminal application.

• Managing the Daemon
• Managing Application Rules
• Manage Profiles

Manage the Daemon

Start or reconfigure the daemon

# Start with default volume of 100%
$ kbs start

# Start or reconfigure with a volume of 50%
$ kbs start -v 50

# Start or reconfigure with a specific profile
$ kbs start -p typewriter

Check the current status of the daemon

$ kbs status

Stop the daemon if it is running

$ kbs stop

Managing Application Rules

Keyboard Sounds supports the ability to enable or disable the typing sound effects for specific applications. You can also set a global rule that will be used for all applications that do not have a specific rule set.

⚠️ Application Rules are only available on Windows

Rule Types

• enable - Enable sound effects for the application.
• disable - Disable sound effects for the application.
• exclusive - Only play sound effects for the application.

The global rule can only be set to enable or disable. By default, the global rule is set to enable.

Examples

# Add a rule to disable sound effects for an application
$ kbs add-rule -r disable -a "C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.exe" 

# Remove a rule for an application
$ kbs remove-rule -a "C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.exe"

# List the currently loaded rules
$ kbs list-rules

Set the global rule

The global rule is used as the fallback for any application that does not have a specific rule set. By default, it is set to enable.

# Set the global rule to disable
$ kbs set-global-rule -r disable

# Retrieve the current global rule
$ kbs get-global-rule

Manage Profiles

# List downloadable profiles
$ kbs list-profiles --remote

# List installed profiles
$ kbs list-profiles

# Download a profile
$ kbs download-profile -n myprofile

# Import a profile
$ kbs add-profile -z ./my-profile.zip

# Remove a profile
$ kbs remove-profile -n myprofile

Development

This section is intended for developers who wish to contribute to this project. Follow the steps below to set up your development environment and start contributing.

Prerequisites

• Git
• Python (version 3.7 or higher)
• pip (Python package installer)
• yarn (Node.js package installer)

Setting Up the Development Environment

1. Clone the Repository

   Begin by cloning the repository to your local machine using Git:

   git clone https://github.com/nathan-fiscaletti/keyboardsounds.git
   

2. Navigate to the Project Directory

   Change to the project directory:

   cd keyboardsounds
   

3. Install Dependencies: Python

   Install the project dependencies using pip:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

4. Install Dependencies: Node.js

   Install the project dependencies using yarn:

   cd application
   yarn
   

Running the Project Locally

It is recommended that you install the package in editable mode to allow you to make changes to the code and see the changes reflected in the application.

• To install the package in editable mode, use the following command:

  pip install -e .
  

  This command will install the package in editable mode, allowing you to make changes to the code and see the changes reflected in the application.

Running the Desktop Application

To run the desktop application, navigate to the application directory and run the following command:

yarn start

Contributing

Contributions are what make the open-source community an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

Submitting Pull Requests

1. Fork the repository and create your branch from master.
2. If you've added code, ensure your code adheres to the project's coding conventions.
3. Update documentation as necessary.
4. Submit your pull request with a detailed description of your changes.

Getting Help

Should you have any questions or encounter issues, feel free to open an issue on the repository, and I'll do my best to address it.