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What are the best switches for Taiko?

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Topic Starter
Hrustian
What are the best switches for Taiko for you guys.Please help. :D
Eurocat
pretty sure it's always up to personal preference, my romer-g switches have been doing an okay job so far but i wouldn't really recommend them
Backfire
I would say Reds or Blues. I have experience with both, Reds helped me with speed but, I lost some of the "intricacies" if that makes sense, compared to the blues. With blues, complex streams and stuff are easier. Of course, this also depends perhaps on the size of keys and keyboard, since the two differ quite a bit.

As for keyboard itself, I recommend the Cougar Ultimus. Very sturdy and cheap-ish keyboard with your choice of Switches from Red or Blue. Good luck!
Topic Starter
Hrustian
Ohh thanks guys.
black_arachnia
I play on blues. Would not recommend it messes with my rhythm a lot because of the noise, I think I did better on horrible membrane than I ever did on blues which I'm stuck with right now. I would think reds would be the best for speed or if you need feedback browns would be decent.
Player-
Although I primarily play with red switches, I've dabbled into playing with brown switches for a while, so I'll give my take.

It's already been stated that reds help with speed, and yeah, that's true. Since they're really light switches, red switches allow your fingers to hit the actuation point a bit faster than other switches, which are a bit heavier. If you're good at figuring out where to press keys without bottoming the keys, your speed increases significantly while simultaneously reducing some strain on your fingers.

With brown switches, I find they help with precision better. Specifically, you'll be able to cleanly hit patterns better as opposed to reds, where you might accidentally make a slip. I find browns really useful if you're trying to play 1/6 patterns. You'll lose some speed compared to reds, but I found browns to be pretty good. I also found brown switches a little more unstable (hits are a bit off for me) compared to reds, but that might just be because I'm used to playing with red switches.

If you want to get out of the Cherry MX switches, scissor switches are popular in taiko. Plenty of top taiko players use the BFKB113PBK keyboards.
Topic Starter
Hrustian
But BFKB113PBK is membrane,right?
Player-

Hrustian wrote:

But BFKB113PBK is membrane,right?
BFKB113PBK uses scirssor switches. Google it and you'll find it.
Vulkin
scissor switch?
might as well use a laptop keyboard like me XD
But yeah, using scissor keyboard is top recommendation for taiko
BrokenArrow
While it all comes down to personal preference in the end, scissor switches have been a substantial upgrade for me after having used Razer's green switches (which are pretty much equivalent to MX blues) for a couple of years. It's pretty hard not to recommend them.
black_arachnia

Player- wrote:

Hrustian wrote:

But BFKB113PBK is membrane,right?


BFKB113PBK uses scirssor switches. Google it and you'll find it.


Just came back to this thread to say I picked this keyboard up and wow. It really makes a difference with accuracy for me. Especially on doubletime, I thought I was being stupid with doubletime because I would constantly miss notes or have bad accuracy on my mx blues... apparently it was just my keyboard. Now I know how all those Japanese players can do doubletime so effortlessly. Moral of the story: DO NOT PLAY TAIKO WITH BLUES. ESPECIALLY NOT "RAZER" BRAND BLUES. EW. Also big notes are impossible with blues for me (pressing both keys would sometimes have one pressed slightly early or late, causing misses).
DarkStoorM
Well, the problem with mechanical keyboards is, that the actuation point is at half of the distance (not sure about the other switches).
It's all about how hard you press your keys. When you are playing slow enough maps and you are used to membranes, you might end up hitting the notes too early unless you hit your keys hard enough.

If you press your keys with enough force to make them travel to the bottom in less time to actually make any difference between the actuation point and the bottom, you are going to be fine, BUT that only applies if you are stable enough to keep the rhythm properly. One of the solutions is to use O-Rings. They reduce the travel distance depending on the thickness (and they make your keyboard way more quiet, but only if you are not using the clicky switch). They kinda shift your actuation point, so you can almost feel like playing on a membrane keyboard with no resistance (depending on the switch). I'm using 1.5mm on every key and 2mm on 4 separate keys for slower maps, and it's really good. It gives you just a bit more stability once you get used to them. They might feel a bit uncomfortable in the beginning.
They are very cheap and you can get them in packs of like 120 / 150 / 200 pieces.

Higher actuation might make it a bit harder to keep your stability once the Overall Difficulty increases, especially when you get to the OD~8. The timing in Taiko is really harsh, and it's almost impossible to be stable enough to play on very high OD maps unless you are experienced and you know your hardware. For example, I'm playing on QPAD MK-50 (Cherry MX Red) for 5 years and my stability is still lower than playing on a membrane Logitech K-120, but at this point you just trade stamina for speed and playing time.

Still waiting for my scissor keyboard, so I can't compare them for now, but I played on a laptop keyboard for a while and it was really good, so I have to try that again :D
black_arachnia
^yeah I used to play on a gaming laptop keyboard back in the day and it was pretty good. I think the scissor switches are about as good as the gaming keyboard I used to have, maybe a little better for accuracy though. The only thing I'm still getting used to is the amount of strength needed to push the keys down, which is higher than both my MX blues and old laptop keyboard. This is also because I don't play using my arms as much, my arms are usually resting unless there's a song with a lot of notes in a row at fast speed then I do raise my arms for that. I will probably need to change my play style a bit to arm from finger only with this keyboard.
DarkStoorM
Alright, my scissor keyboard just aririved. People said to me that as DDKK it's not a good choice, but I have to disagree. This keyboard is amazing, feels great and it's way more comfortable than mechs, my Unstable Rate dropped significantly. BFKB113PBK is almost as high as my QPAD-MK50, which is perfect for me.

Cherry MX Reds are also great if you are a casual player, I'm very satisfied with them, great for high speed plays, extremely durable - literally SMASHING this keyboard for 5 years and still no signs of any damage - except on some keycaps, they tend to fall out in some cases, not affecting the use.
I also had Kailh Red switches for a while (Zalman ZM-K500), 50grams I think, but it didn't feel comfortable for playing, great for typing - same as blue switches, but that's a matter of personal preference I guess. I think Kailh Red switches are as same as Cherry MX Brown, not sure how they differ from eachother construction-wise.

From my personal experience, I would suggest to stick to Cherry MX Red switches if you will be playing for a very long time and if you want a durable product (but I guess it depends on keyboards and their quality). Not sure how durable scissor switch keyboards are, so not gonna leave an opinion on that yet. Got mine for one hour so far and I'm afraid to smash the keys :D

P.S. playing on cheap and heavy rubber-dome keyboards is a great workout. Cherry MX Green/White (80grams) should do too.
forelych
KemZii
Cherry MX Brown
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