Question about typewriter sound

[Dick Keaton]

Okay, I admit at the outset that this is a silly question, but be kind
and indulge me. For some reason (maybe I harken back to a romantic,
literary image of a cigarette smoking, whiskey guzzling journalist
sweating over an old Smith-Corona typewriter - who knows?), I like the
typewriter sound option of yWriter. However, for whatever reason, I
have a problem with this simple, but cherished feature. Whenever I
type in the yWriter editor, the typewriter sound lags behind my
keystrokes - enough to be distracting. In fact, in some cases, it just
stops altogether, and then restarts arbitrarily. Believe me, this is
not because of my typing speed.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have a solution?

BTW, I'm running Windows 7 on a relatively well-endowed PC, so I don't
think the issue is processor or OS related.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Dick Keaton

[Dave Shaw]

Dick,

I don't normally use it (don't care for it - sorry), so I can't claim much
experience with it. Trying it, it does have a bit of a delay sometimes. It
also takes a fair percentage (8 to 12%) of CPU on my 2.5 GHz Core I5 under Win 7
Pro Premium. I vaguely remember it being delayed much more often on my old
Core2 Duo 2.0 GHz on XP Pro, which of course was a much wimpier machine. Have
you opened task manager while you're using it to check the impact on your
machine? How 'well endowed' is it?

Dave Shaw

[Tristan Bendixen]

I don't use the one in yWriter because of the delay. While it's acceptable on my desktop comp, my netbook is completely unable to deal with it. I eventually just decided to not do any formatting in yWriter itself, using plain text with something resembling markdown syntax (like using asterisks for bold text, etc.)

I then write in either OmmWriter Dana II or WriteMonkey. The latter is definitely the best one in terms of resource usage, but OmmWriter is far prettier.

This was a decision I had to make because to me, the keyboard sounds (as well as white noise sounds) were more important to me, than the ability to do formatting inside of yWriter.

- Tristan

[McPop]

Grab yourself a mechanical keyboard. It will make the sound as a
result of the mechanical switches under each key and it will increase
your typing accuracy a million-fold. I can't imagine typing without
one any more.

[David]

Dick

Ah, but you don't get the carriage return sound that yWriter gives you - most satisfying.  I think a small lag in time simulates the delay between hitting a key and the letter punching the ribbon to the paper.  Again, not what a mechanical keyboard does. 

But if you are looking for perfect nostalgia you would also want a little bell to signal the end of the line - this is not a feature of either yWriter or a mechanical keyboard.  You would have to invest in a small bell and perhaps train your cat.

I agree with your point about a mechanical keyboard being superior to type on.  For first draft I use Dragon as it is just so fast.  But later on . . .

I have recently upgraded to a Razer BlackWidow keyboard ( http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.211324200 ) - in theory it is a gaming keyboard but the programmable keys sold it to me over the more-traditional makes - not only can I turn off CapsLock but I can also launch other programs and if necessary use typing macros.  Still not used to the Razer font on the keys though , which is a bit distracting. 

Expensive - but if you are using the best writing software on the planet (thanks Simon) a good keyboard is the perfect pairing.

Regards

David

[Mike]

Way back when I was a windows user and yWriter was young I used a 3rd
party program (sorry don't recall the name) that played a typewriter
sound (or any sound for that matter) it worked very well with no lag,
maybe that would be an option. When I switched to linux and running
yWriter in a VM I stopped using that program as it lagged in the VM. I
actually didn't know that yWriter had this built in now, I use dragon
naturally speaking for most of my writing but I'll check out the feature.

[Dick Keaton]

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and suggestions. However, as I
continued to investigate this strange problem, it got even stranger;
the typewriter sound in yWriter works for some keys but not all. In
fact, to be specific, it works for BKSP, T, P, D, H, L, X, and Caps
Lock.
Odd, wouldn't you say? And, to make it even more bizarre, it is
consistent across 2 of my computers (I gave up checking after that).
Anyway, I decided investigation of this anomaly had already reached
the point of diminishing return. I resolved the issue by downloading a
3rd party product called 'qwertick'. It works like a charm (or should
I say, typewriter). If anyone else is as anal about this as I am, you
can get 'qwertick' for free here:

http://www.nattyware.com/qwertick.php

Happy writing (with sound)!

Dick Keaton