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ShotGun Keyboard app icon

ShotGun Keyboard

Give every keystroke a sound effect — anywhere in macOS.

macOS 13+Apple silicon & Intel1.4 MBFree & open source
Download for macOSView source

Version 1.0 · All releases & checksums

Setting it up takes about a minute

  1. 1

    Open the disk image

    Drag ShotGun Keyboard into your Applications folder.

  2. 2

    Right-click → Open

    The app is not notarised yet, so macOS asks once. Choose Open in the dialog.

  3. 3

    Allow Accessibility

    The app cannot hear key presses without it. Its setup page links straight there.

ShotGun Keyboard menu bar panel

It lives in the menu bar

No window to keep open, no dock icon. One click gives you the master switch, the current sound pack, random mode and volume. Turning it off releases the audio device entirely, so a disabled app costs nothing.

  • Every key press, in every application
  • Your typing is never altered or delayed
  • Launches at login and remembers everything

What you get

34 sounds, 10 packs

Shotgun, mechanical switches, typewriter, pistol, laser, sci-fi, drums, bubble pop, click and arcade.

Random mode

Draws a different sound from the active pack on every key press, so fast typing never sounds looped.

Your own sounds

Import WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, CAF or FLAC. Each import is level-matched to the built-ins automatically.

Genuinely instant

A 16-voice audio engine with preloaded buffers. Sounds overlap during fast typing instead of cutting out.

Independent volume

Keyboard sounds have their own level. Your system volume is never touched.

Works everywhere

Safari, VS Code, Terminal, Notes, Finder — any app. Your typing passes through completely untouched.

This is not a keylogger

An app that watches the keyboard has to earn trust, so this one is built so it cannot misbehave. It reads exactly two things from each event: the type, and whether the key is auto-repeating. It never asks which key was pressed.

Nothing is saved to disk, ever
No network connections at all
No history or buffer, not even in memory
Key codes and characters are never read
Read the eighty lines that touch the keyboard

A closer look

ShotGun Keyboard sound library showing ten sound packs
Browse ten packs and preview every sound before you pick one.
ShotGun Keyboard settings window
Every preference in one place, in a native macOS layout.
ShotGun Keyboard privacy page
The app states plainly what it does with your keystrokes — and what it cannot do.

Specifications

Version
1.0 (universal binary)
Requires
macOS 13 Ventura or later
Architecture
Apple silicon and Intel
Download size
1.4 MB
Idle CPU
0.0%
Memory
32 MB
Licence
MIT — free and open source

Try it on your next paragraph

Free, open source, and about a minute to set up.

Download for macOSStar on GitHub