Binder Clip

What it sounds like

Sprung steel letting go: a sharp snap followed by a brief metallic shimmer, like a binder clip closing on a stack of paper. The shimmer is bright and slightly bell-like but dies within a tenth of a second. Clicking feels springy, as though the button pushed back.

Good for

• Paperwork-heavy days: invoices, PDFs, forms
• Mechanical feedback without going full keyboard switch
• Recordings where a small metallic accent reads well on camera

How it is made

A burst of white noise at 3.6 kHz for the snap, a 2.7 kHz sine roughened with FM at a non-integer ratio for the shimmer, and a quieter sine at 4.1 kHz. A narrow two-mode body at 2.7 and 5.4 kHz keeps the ring steely.

Every qliqr sound is synthesised from a small text recipe, so the version you hear here is the same one the Mac app plays, with natural variation so no two presses are identical.