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Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

unclack.app

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Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#81

Post by vestrigi »

cmiller1 wrote: post #47

Here's a tip from people I know that do streaming from their computer: get the microphone off your desk. Find something else to put it on or buy an arm it can attach to. The fact that your device or mic are sitting on your desk where the keyboard clack vibrations are traveling right through amplifies them.

Also really improves the microphone placing problem. On the desk my microphone would always be in my hands way or in front of the monitor and the cable was annoying too. I built a cheap microphone arm out of an Ikea swinging desk lamp (Tertial). It required some time but was a fun project and now I have a matching arm to my desk lamp.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#82

Post by C4K3 »

I wish push-to-talk was more common. On linux I've been using this little python script that implements global push-to-talk by (un)muting the microphone in pulseaudio when you push a button. https://gitlab.com/somini/inpulse-to-talk

Time to see if there's something equivalent for mac.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#83

Post by lawl »

distantsounds wrote: post #72
Dumbdo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me noisetorch [0] (based on RNNoise [1][2]) works pretty good. I'm using RTX Voice while I'm working on Windows and noisetorch while working on manjaro. RTX Voice seems to work a bit better, but noisetorch compares really well to it. I have a microphone which has static noise and is not really mechanical decoupled from my table. Both applications are good at cancelling that kind of noise. Noisetorch is a bit more…

I love these solutions but none are as easy as "install an app and click a button to turn on." RTX Voice has that locked down. I'd use RNNoise instead if there was a standalone app that just "worked" on my mic input. But here I have to jump through hoops for it to work.

Can you elaborate on what hoops exactly you have to jump through? (genuinely curious, i wrote noisetorch and always looking to improve it)

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#84

Post by hesk »

C4K3 wrote: post #82

I wish push-to-talk was more common. On linux I've been using this little python script that implements global push-to-talk by (un)muting the microphone in pulseaudio when you push a button. https://gitlab.com/somini/inpulse-to-talk Time to see if there's something equivalent for mac.

On Zoom, you can push to talk by pressing the space bar.

Yes, this advice is Zoom-centric but the app calls out Zoom in the first sentence on the page, so I think it's fair.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#85

Post by michelb »

rjmunro wrote: post #69

When I downloaded it the DMG file was 12.2Mb. I was suspicious of why an app this small in function would require such a large download, and looked inside, but the actual contents was only 1.4Mb, half of which was icons etc., which seems much more reasonable. If I right click on Unclack.app and choose "compress", I get a file under 1Mb in size. Does this always happen with DMG files, or is there something weird going…

The minimum size for an empty DMG I could create on my mac was 8Mb. If I make the DMG directly from the folder with the app in it, it becomes 1.2Mb. Maybe the developer uses a script that makes it this size.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#86

Post by QuadDamaged »

linux2647 wrote: post #80
cmiller1 wrote: post #47

Here's a tip from people I know that do streaming from their computer: get the microphone off your desk. Find something else to put it on or buy an arm it can attach to. The fact that your device or mic are sitting on your desk where the keyboard clack vibrations are traveling right through amplifies them.

That may still not prevent Cherry MX blues from being picked up by the microphone

Topre, my dude!

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#87

Post by JamesMcMinn »

After seeing this and being a bit disappointed it was for Mac only, I wrote a very quick and dirty script for Linux that does something similar [1].

Probably has lots of bugs and missed edge cases (although it should handle not unmuting you if you mute yourself), but was fun to write none the less and might be useful.

If you want to play it, please have a read before using it (it has to capture key presses using xinput but does nothing with actual key values) and I won't accept any responsibility if it mutes / unmutes you at an inopportune time, etc.

[1] https://pastebin.com/CRuLWjzr

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#88

Post by avh02 »

karmakaze wrote: post #78
boogies wrote: post #18

For the opposite effect, install `bucklespring` to enjoy an authentic classic clacking on any keyboard (most convenient on GNU/Linux, packaged for the biggest distros). “This project emulates the sound of my old faithful IBM Model-M space saver bucklespring keyboard while typing on my notebook, mainly for the purpose of annoying the [heck] out of my coworkers. Bucklespring runs as a background process and plays back…

Oh I loved my Model-M Space Saver, collected quite a few of them. Co-workers did sometimes comment/complain but not that often. I also had this habit of moving my cursor keys up/down/left/right in rapid/slow movements while I was thinking deeply on a problem. Combined with how loud and that it clicks on each downpress and clacks on release was quite the cacophony.

> I also had this habit of moving my cursor keys up/down/left/right in rapid/slow movements while I was thinking deeply on a problem.

the human HDD activity light

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#89

Post by wongarsu »

oceliker wrote: post #60

I thought this was going to be an app that emits some kind of inverse sound through the laptop speakers to neutralize the keypress sound in real life. I wonder if that's possible.

Active sound cancellation is an incredibly hard problem if you don't know the position of the listener.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#90

Post by shawabawa3 »

The sentence explaining what it does has a typo which makes it confusing:

> Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your keyboard while you type.

This should say "mutes your _microphone_ while you type". You can't mute a keyboard

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