Application level volume control in OS X?

Question

I recently switched from PC to Mac and one thing I miss is Windows' application-level volume control (i.e. mute Firefox, turn up iTunes, turn down Skype etc). How can I achieve the same on a Mac? Or better yet, I want volume settings based on location (using HTTP location API or WiFi network name) and time of day or day of week etc.

FYI - I'm not aware of any way to control volume on a tab-level. — TJ Luoma, May 09 '13 at 22:53
This is seriously naff - how can there not be a free solution to this?? — geotheory, Apr 03 '15 at 12:30
honest question: really macos doesn't have this built in? Is there a way to do it without downloading anything? — Sebastian, Mar 18 '22 at 20:28

pathikrit · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-26T14:16:45.313

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A free and open-source solution is BackgroundMusic.

A nicer and paid solution is Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource

edited Feb 26 '21 at 14:16

answered Apr 18 '16 at 19:04

pathikrit

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Not working on 10.15. Anyone have a working solution? – SwimBikeRun Apr 07 '20 at 23:41
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@SwimBikeRun I can confirm is working on 10.15.4, just installed it today. – William Bello May 27 '20 at 00:57
BackgroundMusic harms you !! – Lano Feb 26 '21 at 14:45
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How does BackgroundMusic "harm you"? Anyway, I've installed and it doesn't work, the sliders do nothing to the audio. I'm on High Sierra 10.13.6 so it should work, since, according to their homepage, it only has issues with Big Sur. – OMA Mar 01 '21 at 10:15
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Looks like BackgroundMusic is EoL and another Company is shilling their product at that domain – JGurtz Jul 13 '21 at 17:58

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 10 '21 at 06:45

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Detour is no longer under development, and doesn't work in MacOSX 10.5+

Hear is a rather expensive utility ($49.95) and has a number of other audio "Pro" features.

Jack is a low-latency audio server written originally for GNU/Linux and I believe can change volume on a per-application basis. And it's free.

edited Feb 10 '21 at 06:45

Richard Barnett

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answered Mar 26 '11 at 20:56

ghoppe

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There's an alternative UI for Jack by the name of [QjackCtl](http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net/). A compiled binary can be fetched [here](http://www.matthiaskronlachner.com/?p=1700). – Apr 11 '14 at 18:42
Maybe it's changed, but I'm seeing Hear is $19.99. May give it a try since SoundBunny apparently won't work with an external audio interface. – JVC Feb 02 '16 at 18:23
Oh incidentally, I could not get Jack to do any volume controls at all, only audio routing. It doesn't seem to me that it can do any per-application volume control, but if anyone knows differently I'd love to be pointed to instructions, I was unable to find any. – JVC Dec 24 '16 at 06:40

pknz · Answer 3 · 2013-07-01T01:34:31.150

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SoundBunny ($9.99) also provides this function. Supports 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8

SoundBunny by Prosoft Engineering

Update: As pointed out below by Steve Moser SoundBunny cannot change the volume of Sandboxed applications.

edited Jul 01 '13 at 01:34

answered May 02 '13 at 23:20

pknz

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Sadly it looks like it doesn't support sandboxed apps. http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/reviews/?reviewid=3443759&pn=1 – Steve Moser Jun 28 '13 at 18:40
Soundbunny is Malware! – Lano Feb 26 '21 at 14:54

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 08 '18 at 17:59

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If you have Xcode installed, you can use BackgroundMusic. Xcode is required to build the binaries.

edited Dec 08 '18 at 17:59

Iulian Onofrei

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answered Nov 20 '16 at 23:42

Chelsea Bridson

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Will not install with Mavericks Xcode. =( – JVC Dec 22 '16 at 01:17
Did you copy and paste the install code from their Readme? – Chelsea Bridson Dec 22 '16 at 18:52
Yes, first I am greeted by `WARNING: Your version of Xcode (6.2) may not be recent enough to build Background Music.` and when I accept this and run anyway, it fails with `ERROR: Install failed at line 196 with the message: A build command failed. Probably a compilation error. Failed command: sudo /usr/bin/xcodebuild -project BGMDriver/BGMDriver.xcodeproj -target Background Music Device -configuration Release RUN_CLANG_STATIC_ANALYZER=0 DSTROOT=/ clean install` – JVC Dec 23 '16 at 03:57
It's a long way behind `master`, but we have a branch [10.9Support](https://github.com/kyleneideck/BackgroundMusic/tree/10.9Support) that I think should build with Xcode 6.2. IIRC, app volumes should work on that branch. You could also try passing `OTHER_CFLAGS="-Wno-error"` to `xcodebuild`, which turns off warnings-as-errors. – freshtop Dec 31 '16 at 11:23

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 24 '15 at 06:04

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Just found http://volumemixer-app.com/ it's very similar to the one found on windows.

answered Jul 24 '15 at 06:04

fancyhat

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BAH... requires at least Yosemite?? Suck. – JVC Feb 02 '16 at 18:09
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And it's expensive! – Iulian Onofrei Feb 26 '16 at 12:16

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered May 20 '15 at 20:49

Here's a possible workaround, for a subset of use cases, that doesn't require any new software.

We use Slack at work, and I like to play iTunes kinda loud (in my headphones). Sometimes I was missing Slack audible "bings".

Just fyi that you can set iTunes volume lower in the iTunes UI, and then set the overall system volume in upper right system menu reasonably high, so that relatively the non-iTunes notifications will be noticeable.

Basically:

iTunes volume can bet set independently of other sounds, WITHIN the iTunes UI
And then the overall volume in the upper right controls the combination of everything.

I suspect this works in other apps that have an independent volume control.

Note: I see some possibly similar answers with negative votes, but I've taken the time to explain how it works, and clearly disclosed that it's a subset/workaround to what was asked, so please don't ding me for this answer.

This is one of those things that's "obvious" to gurus, but not obvious to the rest of the folks using Mac.

Related question here http://superuser.com/questions/150304/per-application-volume-settings-possible-on-mac-os-x-snow-leopard?noredirect=1#comment1236162_150304 — Mark Bennett, May 21 '15 at 17:14

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 10 '21 at 08:50

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Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource utility does exactly this, and more.

https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/

answered Feb 10 '21 at 08:50

benwiggy

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Thank you! This is great! Will add to accepted answer – pathikrit Feb 26 '21 at 14:15
It will be nice to mention that it costs a fortune for answers like this. Don't get me wrong the app is great actually. – Willa May 09 '22 at 14:37
@Willa I know times are hard, but it's $49. I guess it depends how much you value having this functionality, instead of manually changing the volume. – benwiggy May 09 '22 at 16:52

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 27 '17 at 01:01

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I just figured out how to do this on macOS Sierra. I was playing Roblox, and I wanted to watch a YouTube video in the background, but mute Roblox. So I tried using Siri and just saying "Mute Roblox" did the trick. I honestly didn't believe that it would work, but there you are.

answered Jul 27 '17 at 01:01

Drew Kirner

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I just tried this in Catalina, and all it did was mute all sound, not just from one app. – Ian Newson Jul 01 '20 at 18:35

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 28 '21 at 21:23

I use Butler & USB Overdrive to setup key commands and map media keys (play/pause/skip back+fwd/volume/mute) to control iTunes & Spotify, as well as other system wide controls. Regular in-app key commands can be setup in the Mac OS System Prefs -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts.

While these will give you more control via key commands when you're working in the app, they won't work if the specified app is in the background. So if you want to change the volume of iTunes or Spotify, skip tracks, or pause while you are working in another app, these 2 apps will allow you to do that. Both apps provide built-in basic iTunes controls, but I had to use AppleScript to control Spotify.

Here are some Applescript examples that can be used for these types of functions in both of these apps: Alvin Alexander: iTunes AppleScript examples (command examples).

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient [reputation](http://apple.stackexchange.com/help/whats-reputation) you will be able to [comment on any post](http://apple.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/comment). — nohillside, Nov 02 '14 at 13:34

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 17 '22 at 13:00

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I also found Sound Control by Static Z Software. I've personally not used it so YMMV.

answered Sep 17 '22 at 13:00

Karthic Raghupathi

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score -3 · Answer 11 · edited Mar 16 '14 at 07:06

-3

While focused on the app.. OS X Mavericks:

Command+option+up/down arrows

edited Mar 16 '14 at 07:06

bneely

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answered Mar 16 '14 at 06:23

Josh Bobby

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In which applications does this work? – nohillside Mar 16 '14 at 09:46
Cmd + ctrl up/down changes volume in online music streaming, but that's not the same as the browser – geotheory Apr 03 '15 at 12:29

score -4 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 13 '15 at 18:08

-4

Control+Command+Up/Down Arrows works for me Mac OS 10.9.5

answered Sep 13 '15 at 18:08

Kara

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Doesn't address the actual question, this is just how to adjust the overall Mac volume. – JVC Feb 02 '16 at 18:10

score -7 · Answer 13 · edited Mar 02 '14 at 00:45

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On mac, with i tunes the command is cmd and the UP arrow, this also works for divx, vlc ext, with the internet, just use the volume controls F11 / F12.

No need to spend monies on silly apps!

edited Mar 02 '14 at 00:45

user137369

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answered May 09 '13 at 08:03

walziee

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That's not what was asked. – Matthieu Riegler May 09 '13 at 08:54

Application level volume control in OS X?

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