So. You asked for it, and here it is. Today we’re going to be looking at the PE foam
mod, a mod that rised in popularity alongside the tempest tape mod as a “jelly epoch creator”.
And surely enough, the jelly epoch is the inspiration behind the mod. This unorthodox
foam that goes on top of the PCB seems to contribute a lot to the marbley sound profile
of the jelly epoch. So is it worth trying out? How does it compare to the Tape mod?
How does it sound alongside the tape mod? And how close can we get a board sounding
to the actual jelly epoch?
First, again, let’s very briefly go over how to perform the PE foam mod. This mod is
not nearly as easy or quick as the Tape mod, but the tradeoff may very well be worth it,
we’ll see in a bit. What we want to do is take our bare, unbuilt
PCB, and put a very thin sheet of PE foam on top. I’ve linked this in the description,
in case you don’t have any on hand. Otherwise, make sure the foam you’re using is non conductive.
You’ll want to cut out some holes for the stabilizers and wires. Next we’re going
to poke out holes for the large switch posts because we’re going to be putting switches
directly on top of this. Make sure the foam isn’t sliding around while you’re doing
this. Next, we’re going to put together the inner assembly as usual. So slot a few
switches into the corners of your plate, attach the plate to the PCB, and fill in the rest
of the switches. Be careful while doing this, because the foam is going to make it a lot
easier to bend your switch pins. So what does this do to keyboard sound? Well,
results seem to vary a lot more than tape mod. Boards can generally sound more poppy
and “creamy”, which I think you’ll understand once you hear it. And since it is foam, it
can make certain configurations slightly quieter. As for pitch, I've heard switches being affected
in both ways, either becoming higher pitched or lower pitched, which is quite strange,
but I think I have an explanation that can account for this.
So, I was slightly wrong in my explanation of the tape mod video as to how it works acoustically.
I thought it was simply reflecting the inner assembly back upward, while the comments,
along with ai03, a sound engineer, and tempest himself collectively agreed that the tape
acted as a low pass filter, where higher frequencies somewhat permeated and lower frequencies were
bounced back. So I thought I should reiterate in this video that my acoustic explanation
is by no means a definitive or perfectly accurate scientific measurement, it’s just what I
believe is happening based on what I’ve heard from other people and my knowledge of
keyboard mounting. Initially I thought that the foam in between
the PCB and switches, sort of mutes the higher frequencies, allowing for the mid level frequencies
to be emphasized and resulting in an overall poppier sound. But I’d like to give a thanks
to StylishRabbit for reporting that their portico with U4Ts actually increased in pitch,
because it threw this theory out of the window. In order to account for this, and after consulting
with shoobsland member ura who generously allowed me to use data from their semi scientific
test, I now believe that the foam has an impact on both the lower and higher frequencies,
creating more focus and emphasis on the mid frequencies. This is the most logical explanation
for how it can make a switch higher pitched, and another switch lower pitched. A lower
pitched switch will have more lower frequencies, which will generally be focused upward by
the PE foam. And a higher pitched switch will have more higher frequencies, which will generally
be focused downward by the PE foam. And of course, mounting style would play a big part
in this as well, affecting how the board handles the vibrations in the first place.
In addition to this, there’s another concept that might play a large part in the sound
profile of the mod. The softness or flex of the PCB contributes a large part to how a
board will sound, and this is the underlying notion behind the mounting style of a board
and the flex of the plate. By putting a softer material such as foam on top of the PCB and
under the switch, you are allowing a greater connection between the PCB and switch, and
essentially increasing softness substantially on a smaller level, even considering that
the foam is really thin. In the end, it impacts the entire audio frequency
of your switch, and frankly it’s really hard to predict exactly what it's going to
sound like before you actually perform the mod, even more so than the tape mod.
Finally lets have a listen to no mods, tape mod, tape + pe foam, and pe foam alone to
see how they can affect sound when paired together.
So I think it’s safe to say that the PE foam mod does a lot more to keyboard sound
than the tape mod does, because when I remove the tape mod, the sound didn’t really change
at all. PE foam made mode’s alphas sound quite a bit deeper, but the spacebar higher,
which helps prove my theory on the acoustics of the mod, pushing everything towards the
center. Alpine took on the creamy sound profile that
the mod is known for doing, and I presume if you’re going to be doing this mod on
budget boards, it might sound close to what alpine did.
And comparing the jelly epoch to the alpine, the sound really isn't too far off. On the
microphone, it's almost identical. Overall, I think these two mods combined are
a great way to improve the sound of beginner boards. I would use the PE foam mod a lot
more conservatively than the tape mod, because it starts to make boards sound very similar.
But of course, if you feel like your keyboard needs a little boost in sound quality, I would
strongly consider PE foam and tape modding.
And that's all I have for you today. Thanks for watching this episode of nearlucid. If
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