KeyslamTactile · sound test
Cherry MX Brown sound test
One minute of typing on Cherry MX Brown switches, recorded by majod and released as CC0. Hear it in four strength bands, then compare it with the same switch on a Leopold board.
Updated
Short answer: Cherry MX Brown sounds like a rounded, mid-pitched clack with no click. The bump you feel makes almost no noise of its own; what you hear is the keycap bottoming out and springing back. This pack is cut from a CC0 recording by majod on Freesound, 42 takes in four strength bands.
Cherry MX Brown sound test
Each button plays real strikes from one strength band of this recording. Natural mix lets every key vary, like normal typing. Headphones help.
Press a band to hear “brown bump” typed on MX Brown strikes from that band, then type below.
About this recording
- Keyboard
- Not named on the source page
- Switches
- Cherry MX Brown, tactile
- Keycaps
- Not stated
- Recorded by
- majod on Freesound
- Uploaded
- August 21, 2017
- Original file
- FLAC, 16-bit, 48 kHz, stereo, 1:04
- Microphone
- Not stated (the page is tagged “zoom” and “h1”)
- License
- CC0 1.0 (public domain)
- In Keyslam
- 42 takes, 4 of them key-up
“Typing on mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches” — majod, on the Freesound page (checked November 2, 2026)
How a Brown makes its sound
The Brown is Cherry's tactile switch. The legs of its stem have a small bump that pushes past the metal contact leaf about 2 mm down, so you feel the moment the key registers. There is no click jacket, so that bump is nearly silent.
That leaves two sounds: the stem hitting the bottom of the housing and the stem returning to the top. The tactile peak is around 55 g. Many people treat Browns as the middle ground between a clicky Blue and a smooth Red, and they're a common pick for office and programming boards.
Measured from the app's pack files
What the Cherry MX Brown pack contains, band by band. Peak is the median take's loudest sample; audible length is how long it stays within 30 dB of that peak. Soft to slam spans 11.1 dB. How the bands are made.
| Band | Percentile of strikes | Regular-key takes | Space, Return, Delete | Median peak | Audible length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soft | 8th–30th | 6 | 4 | −15.3 dBFS | 73 ms |
| Medium | 38th–62nd | 6 | 4 | −11.4 dBFS | 75 ms |
| Hard | 70th–88th | 6 | 4 | −6.8 dBFS | 80 ms |
| Slam | 92nd–100th | 6 | 2 | −4.3 dBFS | 63 ms |
What this recording adds
The file is a 16-bit, 48 kHz stereo FLAC from August 2017, just over a minute long. The uploader describes it in one line and doesn't name the keyboard or keycaps. Even so, a minute of steady typing gave the slicer enough clean strikes to fill every band with six regular-key takes, plus 2–4 takes per band for Space, Return and Delete.
The same switch appears in our Leopold pack, recorded on a different board with different keycaps and a microphone between the hands. Together they are a useful A/B of how much the keyboard, not the switch, shapes the sound.
Same switch, two boards: MX Brown vs Leopold
Play these one after the other. The switch is the same in the first two; everything else differs.
- Leopold: a Leopold FC660M with MX Browns, close-miked from a wrist rest, with a mix of enjoyPBT and GMK keycaps. Brighter and more forward.
- MX Red: Cherry's linear switch. No bump at all, so the press is smoother and the sound is almost all bottom-out.
Who it suits
Pick MX Brown for writing, coding and office typing, or if Blues feel too sharp and Reds too plain.
Pick something else if you want more detail in each keystroke (Leopold) or a softer, deeper sound (Topre).
Cherry MX Brown: questions
How quiet is the MX Brown pack next to MX Blue?
In Keyslam they play at the same loudness: every pack is leveled so a standard medium-strength typing passage measures −28 LUFS. The difference is tone. Brown has no high click, so it sounds less sharp at the same volume. Turn the volume down if you need it quieter.
Why does MX Brown sound different on the Leopold page?
Same switch, different keyboard, keycaps and microphone. The Leopold recording has enjoyPBT and GMK keycaps and a recorder on a wrist rest right in front of the space bar, and its uploader calls it the “more trebley” of their two takes.
Which keyboard and microphone were used for this MX Brown recording?
The uploader doesn't name either. The Freesound page is tagged “zoom” and “h1”, which suggests a Zoom H1 recorder, but that's a reading of the tags, not a stated fact. The switch is the one thing the description confirms.
Keep exploring
Hear Cherry MX Brown on every keystroke.
$3.99 once after a 7-day free trial. On MacBooks with the motion sensor it follows how hard you type; on other Macs you pick the strength.