Mute Your Microphone While Typing with Hushboard

https://popey.com/blog/2021/01/hush-keyboards-with-hushboard/

by emptybits • 6 years ago

162 97 6 years ago

kevincox• 6 years ago

It isn't quite the same, but RNNoise is a neural-network based noise reduction aimed at dampening anything that isn't human voice. It works fantastic to me and almost always completely mutes my keyboard. (Sometimes it comes though a bit if I am talking at the same time.)

This is easy integrated into Pulseaudio using PulseEffects (https://github.com/wwmm/pulseeffects).

(The PulseEffects support is new, I used to use NoiseTorch (https://github.com/lawl/NoiseTorch) which is more dedicated but has a weird UI and some other downsides)

rcthompson• 6 years ago

I can testify that these RNNoise-based methods work quite well at removing background noise, including keyboard clacking, even while talking and typing at the same time.

lawl• 6 years ago

and some other downsides

Can you elaborate? (maintainer here, always interested in feedback)

CraftThatBlock2• 6 years ago

For me, I think having an option to start when I login would be great (similar to NVIDIA Broadcast on Windows).

This would solve my biggest issue that when turning on and switching my input to it, other programs sometimes need to be restarted to pick up the microphone change.

Otherwise, keep up the great work!

syntaxing• 6 years ago

Any recommendation for mac?

jfk13• 6 years ago

Try Unclack? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25644828

therealx• 6 years ago

Here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/59808919/1660678

Then you still get a FAILED: meson-install Permission denied: '/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2' error, so change INSTALL_DIR_MAC in install.sh to~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2 and install via the github page

telesilla2• 6 years ago

krisp.ai is good but $3 a month

bentcorner• 6 years ago

I've used this in Windows and it works pretty good. The filter isn't quite as good as RTXVoice and the installation can be... tricky[1], but it's less fiddly once you get it working.

[1] https://medium.com/@bssankaran/free-and-open-source-software...

pitterpatter3• 6 years ago

I've just used a little script that sets up https://github.com/werman/noise-suppression-for-voice and it's worked wonderfully, but PulseEffects and NoiseTorch seem cool!

minimaxir2• 6 years ago

RNNoise is also available as a native voice filter in OBS and it works very well there.

nucleardog4• 6 years ago

For anyone going down this path, it's relatively easy to kinda use OBS as your audio pipeline for other programs. (Easy in the "for people on HN" sense, not easy in the "my mom would do this" sense.) Only caveat is that you need to leave OBS running in the background doing its thing whenever you need your microphone.

(Instructions for Windows. The OBS stuff would be the same, you'll just need to figure out your own solution for virtual audio devices.)

1. You'll need a virtual audio device. So grab Virtual Audio Cable[1] or VB-Audio Cable[2]. Both have a free version that let you set up a single device.

2. In OBS, add your microphone as an "Audio Input Capture". Right click on it, select Filters, and add a "Noise Suppression". (For future playing, you may want to come back here and add a "Noise Gate" as well. Basically "if the audio is too quiet, mute the input completely.)

3. Now go to File -> Settings, Audio, and under "Advanced" select the virtual audio cable as your monitoring device. Hit OK.

4. In the Audio Mixer panel at the bottom middle of your window, select any of the gear icons and hit "Advanced Audio Properties". In the row for your microphone input, change "Audio Monitoring" to "Monitor and Output".

5. You should now be getting your de-noised/gated/etc microphone coming in to the virtual audio device. Now in your voice chat program, just change the microphone input to the virtual audio device.

I've got a relatively quiet workspace, but I still live with three people and two dogs so the ambient noise is there. This cuts most of my dog's sounds (even if she's playing and creating a ruckus), ambient noise from people upstairs, my keyboard, etc. I'm stuck in meetings a good chunk of my day so I try to avoid having to wear headphones (just gets tiresome), and the noise gating and some strategic microphone positioning works perfect for keeping the meeting audio from my speakers from feeding back in. (Along with having all the meeting audio running through a very aggressive compressor to normalize everyone's volume into a very tight range.)

OBS also includes a virtual camera option, so I use that to crop out a tighter shot from my fairly wide angle camera so people can't see as much of the mess around the room and do some colour adjustment because it's a cheap camera and looks kinda garbage otherwise.

[1] https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/ [2] https://vb-audio.com/Cable/

celdon25• 6 years ago

Seems like this would be great for multiplayer gaming. Anyone know how well PulseAudio works on windows these days?

tarr11• 6 years ago

What happens if I’m talking while I’m typing?

deegles• 6 years ago

Yo__ a__io _ou_d b_ st__t_ry.

popey2• 6 years ago

We tried various settings for the timeout from 150ms (too short) to 2s (too long) and settled on 250ms. Suggestions welcome on improving it! :D

ilovefood• 6 years ago

That's a great utility and also very nice they implemented it so fast! Code looks clean and concise. I'm using Nvidia Broadcast mainly for this reason so that I can stream to my two subscribers without my mechanical keyboard ruining the experience :)

colmvp• 6 years ago

It's a really cool idea. I also see a potential benefit to preventing acoustic keyboard eavesdropping. I've seen some newish streamers not show their screen when doing something sensitive like logging in somewhere, but you can still hear their keyboard.

On a slightly related note, I quite like listening to mechanical keyboard sounds when my favorite programmers are doing a stream. I ended up buying one for myself because I just had to hear the sound up close. Mmm...

richrichardsson• 6 years ago

In case buying a new keyboard is a step too far, there is bucklespring available for Linux that emulates the sound of an IBM Model M keyboard.

Demo here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7dKyGoqn9w

rzzzt• 6 years ago

You only have to worry about the keyboard muting software, as it has to capture key press events.

spicybright• 6 years ago

Wasn't this posted 2 days ago?

popey2• 6 years ago

Unclack was probably posted a couple of days ago. It was the inspiration for Hushboard.

cj• 6 years ago

Unclack (linked in the article) did a Show HN a few days ago. Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25644828

dbrower• 6 years ago

Cool!

Windows please.

Someone. Anyone.

Ninjinka2• 6 years ago

Nvidia Broadcast if you have a recent GPU

loloquwowndueo• 6 years ago

No. Get a decent OS.

nucleardog4• 6 years ago

There are a few options that let you use RNNoise. (I posted another comment a bit further up on how to pipe your audio through OBS to implement this. There are undoubtedly simpler options.)

In my experience, it does a great job cancelling out keyboard clicks and clacks. Even if I sit here and slam on my spacebar harder than I'd ever hit it even writing an angry email, it's cancelling it all. And I've never had an issue with it _not_ picking up my voice.

If you're just looking for _a_ solution to the problem, I'd give something with RNNoise a try.

Sohcahtoa822• 6 years ago

If you have an RTX card, get nVidia Broadcast.

If you have a non-RTX card (like a GTX 1070), get RTX voice. Despite the name, it does not require an RTX card.

Seriously, nVidia's noise removal is absolute magic, as far as I'm concerned. https://youtu.be/uWUHkCgslNE

alkonaut• 6 years ago

I actually tried writing a version of this for windows just an hour before this was written. Usually when I do this I find there is one already just as I finish it, but if not then I’ll put it on GitHub within a week. Will post another msg here if I do.

Hamuko• 6 years ago

I think this is now the third one of these I've seen on HN in the past week or so.

Ninjinka2• 6 years ago

I use Nvidia Broadcast (formerly RTX Voice) for this. Only available for recent GPUs though.

pitterpatter3• 6 years ago

It actually works on non-RTX cards too btw if you install the standalone RTX Voice app.

MaxikCZ• 6 years ago

I didnt even know they re-released it under new name.

I have rtx voice running all the time (starts totaly silently with pc) and totaly forget its there. As I have headphones without mic my mic is positioned right between bottom rim of monitor and keyboard (mechanical) and this piece of magic filters keyboard sounds off like its not even there and leaves voice intact.

Absolutely adore that.

Somehow I fear that nvidia broadcast will ruin it. It is already getting bloater (hooks camera, background filters) and I fear it would ask for updates here and then. The quality I love about RTX Voice is that I dont notice it at all, apart from its tray icon.

Zelphyr• 6 years ago

I'd like to see something like this built into the Operating Systems. Maybe it's just me (misophonia) but having someone typing while a conversation is happening is so distracting as to make it next to impossible to follow the conversation. The same applies to people who use wired Apple earbuds when the mic rubs against their clothing.

singlow• 6 years ago

Or people who leave their slack notifications audible while they are on video calls. The whole team is on the call and someone posts to the channel and you hear 10 slack notifications.

machello13• 6 years ago

At least it's more clearly stated than the one a couple days ago that said it "muted your keyboard"!

spullara• 6 years ago

Just use NVIDIA Broadcast. Filters out everything but talking.

smnscu• 6 years ago

Yeah, Nvidia Broadcast (formerly RTX Voice) or Krisp. As someone in 3 to 8hrs of video calls every day (interviewer), I wish more people would use solutions like that.

CraftThatBlock2• 6 years ago

NVIDIA Broadcast is only available on Windows (but free and works very well if you have a RTX card). Use it if available!

If using Discord, Krisp is built-in. On Windows/Mac, you can also install Krisp standalone.

On Linux, I would recommend NoiseTorch or other similar software.

Sohcahtoa822• 6 years ago

and works very well if you have a RTX card

If you have a non-RTX nVidia GPU, you can use RTX Voice, which is the same functionality as the nVidia Broadcast noise removal, and doesn't require an RTX card despite the name.

I was using RTX Voice on my GTX 1070 just fine.

oaguy1• 6 years ago

This is a really cool, small utility!

TBH, I have been wondering if there is a "wishlist" of small utilities/apps people would want to see on the Linux desktop. I have been looking for project inspiration and would love to do something that actually gets used.

awillen• 6 years ago

Former PM at a videoconferencing company here - this is a great great great idea. You should consider integrating with Blue Jeans (guess where I was a PM at), Zoom, etc. If it works well and you can get in touch with some folks at the company, you could probably get some promotion in their app directories.

mindfulplay• 6 years ago

Isn't the better idea to simply remove the keyboard noise? I think a few services do this already...

Jolter• 6 years ago

That sounds infinitely more complex and cpu intensive than simply muting the mic on key events.

gorgoiler• 6 years ago

This (ahem) sounds fantastic.

I’m currently doing VC off an iPad while sat in front of my Linux workstation.

The workstation has no microphone. What kind of mic could I get for it, to migrate all my VC to the workstation?

jeffbee2• 6 years ago

USB microphones (that integrate the mic preamp and the A/D converter into one unit) are now very common. You just plug them in. In my experience they take zero effort to use with ubuntu or chromeos.

Cu3PO42• 6 years ago

Many audio interfaces also work just fine with Linux OOTB despite there being no official support.

While for microphones (and other audio equipment) there's almost no limit to how expensive you can go, any halfway decent USB microphone should probably be good enough that you're bottlenecked by the application's codec/bitrate.

If you were willing to splurge a bit, you might look at the likes of the Blue Yeti, Rode NT-USB, AKG Lyra, Audio Technica AT2020 USB, or even Shure MV7 which range between $150 and $300.

anotheryou• 6 years ago

Why not a headset? Certainly no Bluetooth headset though, sound quality is bad on linux as of now.

If you don't have meetings all day I can recommend the Logitech H800. Build quality and comfort are meh, but: It's small, you can use a wireless dongle with linux, switch easily between computer and phone by turning it to bluetooth on the headset and sound is decent.

robotsquidward• 6 years ago

Love it! I'm glad that you could bring mic-muting to the wider world outside the macOS Big Sur bubble. Appreciate the shoutout for Unclack!

stuartlangridge• 6 years ago

Thank you! That's very gracious of you to say so, and Unclack is cool :-)

tester7564• 6 years ago

<rant>

Maybe if those "modern" video-conference apps had one, decades old option that was (and still is) avaliable in

almost all gaming-oriented voice software (ventrilo, mumble, teamspeak, discord) called

PUSH 2 TALK

then this problem would be solved, same with the problem of kids/other people in the background (especially this)

but yea, we need AI/Blockchain based solutions that require thousands of hours of engineering effort that probably will be provided by some Startup and cost 15$.

It's insane how enterprise software is behind gaming in that particular matter, do those people even use their software?

</rant>

edit.

What's PUSH 2 TALK?

PUSH 2 TALK is not TURN ON / TURN OFF switch where you actually mute yourself. It's that you talk while having some button being pushed down e.g MOUSE SCROLL (MOUSE3) (for me it's probably one of the most practical choices)

so in this case you're always muted unless you want to talk

Why it's so great? because you can e.g play game, write code, do stuff on your PC and when you want to mute yourself, then you don't have to try to find some shortcuts or even worse - put video-co app on focus and click mute button, but instead you just stop pressing your PUSH2TALK hotkey! :P

banana_giraffe4• 6 years ago

Zoom at least has such a feature, I use it all the time.

There's some strange psychological thing getting some people to mute their side. I guess it's because some people are used to a ton of noise around them they assume others are ok with it too, but I'm probably reading way too much into things.

tester7564• 6 years ago

There's some strange psychological thing getting some people to mute their side.

I'm not sure whether we're at the same page here

PUSH 2 TALK is not TURN ON / TURN OFF switch where you actually mute yourself, it is that you talk while having some button being pushed down e.g MOUSE SCROLL (MOUSE3) (for me it's probably one of the most practical choices)

so in this case you're always muted unless you want to talk

lwhsiao• 6 years ago

Note that Zoom only has this for Windows. It doesn't for their Linux client, which is unfortunate.

asutekku2• 6 years ago

And it’s super inconvenient. I prefer to not press my keyboard every single time i need to speak, because otherwise i would be pressing my keyboard all the time.

Edit: everyone suggesting me to use my mouse: i use a laptop without a mouse and sit on my sofa while in meetings. I prefer to unmute myself while there’s a discussion where I’m part of and mute myself when I’m not talking anymore. Push to talk every 10 seconds for 10 minutes is much more inconvenient than just having the mic on all the time.

Note that I do not work as a programmer.

tester7564• 6 years ago

I prefer to not press my keyboard

Use your mouse then - e.g scroll button (on push, on scroll, whatever you want) or side buttons on modern / gaming mouses

bulletsvshumans2• 6 years ago

I set up a footpad for push-to-talk while gaming. Surprised more people don't do it, especially in a high performance context.

kahrl2• 6 years ago

Right. So what are you doing on a computer if not pressing keys on a keyboard all the time?

vehementi4• 6 years ago

What's even more inconvenient is you broadcasting all your background noise to everyone on the call, or worse, echoing the call itself due to not using a headset

maxerickson• 6 years ago

My (businessish) headset has a hardware mute button.

Given that a lot of business voice chat is essentially phone calls (rather than group meetings), it makes some sense that toggle predominates UI designs.

51Cards• 6 years ago

Cool idea for those who don't talk and type at the same time in a meeting. Would be an issue for me unforunately but boy I hope some of the people I have meetings with employ something similar. (fortunately my keyboard is quite quiet)

asdff• 6 years ago

I don't know what's worse, having to mute people who aren't paying attention in the meeting and click clacking on their other work, or seeing those low mounted webcams that give you front row seats to fingers typing on the keyboard, or a nice angle on your coworkers unkempt neck hair.

tnorthcutt• 6 years ago

At least semi relevant is Shush, a mac app that makes toggling OS-wide mute easy, along with push-to-talk (or the inverse, push to mute). I've been a happy user for years.

I only wish the menu bar icon were more prominent somehow, or had the option to overlay a floating semi-transparent window that displayed mute status. I'm always paranoid about whether I'm actually muted and wish I could make it glaringly obvious to myself.

giomasce• 6 years ago

That's not bad even for security reasons. It can be possible to recover your password if the sound of you typing it is available.

Mute Your Microphone While Typing with Hushboard

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