Guides/Volume mixer for Mac

Mac volume mixer: how to change the volume of one app

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Founder, Vitals

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Quick answer

macOS has no volume mixer: the volume keys and the Sound control in the menu bar change every app at once. Without another app, you can turn one app down only with its own slider, as Music, Spotify and most video players have, or mute a browser tab. To give every app its own volume, you need a volume mixer app. Vitals, a system monitor for the Mac, has one in the menu bar: its Sound section lists every app with sound open, each with a volume slider and a mute button, and it remembers the levels you set.

How to turn down one app without another app

  1. 01 Look for a volume slider in the app itself. Music, Spotify, VLC and QuickTime Player each have one, and it changes only that app.
  2. 02 In Safari, click the speaker in the tab or in the address field to mute that tab. In Chrome, Control-click the tab and choose Mute site.
  3. 03 For a web player such as YouTube, use the slider in the player. It changes that page only.
  4. 04 For finer steps of the whole Mac’s volume, hold Option-Shift while you press the volume keys: each press moves a quarter of a step.
  5. 05 To quiet alert sounds without touching music or calls, lower Alert volume in System Settings → Sound.

Call apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams let you choose the speaker they play through in their own settings. Most other apps follow the output set in System Settings → Sound.

On Windows, the Volume Mixer gives every app its own level. macOS has one volume for each output device, and Core Audio mixes every app’s sound together before it reaches that volume, so there is nothing in System Settings or Control Center to set one app lower than another. The table below lists what each common case needs.

How to change one app’s volume on a Mac

What you wantWithout another appWith Vitals
Music quieter than a call The music app’s own slider Drag the music app’s slider down in the menu bar
Silence a noisy browser tab Mute the tab in Safari or Chrome Mute or turn down the whole browser
Quieter notification sounds from one app Only on or off: its sound switch in System Settings → Notifications Turn that app down, or mute it
A game louder than the chat next to it The game’s own audio settings A slider for each
See which app is playing sound Nothing in macOS shows it Apps playing now are listed first, marked Playing
See which app is using the microphone Control Center names it Named under the microphone’s level

Why macOS has no volume mixer

Apps hand their sound to Core Audio, which mixes it and sends one stream to the output device. The volume keys set the level of that device, after the mix, so they can only change everything at once. coreaudiod is the process that does the mixing.

A volume mixer app takes each app’s sound before it is mixed and plays it back at the level you choose. Vitals does this with Core Audio taps, which need macOS’s permission to record system audio, so Vitals asks for it the first time you turn an app down.

Built-in settings that help

None of these sets one app’s level, but each covers a common reason for wanting to.

  • Alert volume, in System Settings → Sound, changes alert sounds and nothing else.
  • In System Settings → Notifications, each app has a switch for its notification sounds, so you can keep its banners and lose the sounds.
  • A Focus, in Control Center, silences notifications from every app you have not allowed while it is on.
  • Audio MIDI Setup can combine outputs into a Multi-Output Device, which plays everything through two devices at once. It does not set apps apart.

What to look for in a volume mixer app

A mixer sits between every app and your speakers, so the details matter more than the feature list.

  • An app at full volume should sound exactly as it does without the mixer.
  • Levels should survive a restart, so an app you turned down stays down.
  • If the mixer quits or crashes, every app should sound as it did before.
  • The controls should be in the menu bar, next to the Mac’s own volume.
  • Output routing and effects, if you need them. SoundSource, from Rogue Amoeba, and the open-source FineTune are built for that; Background Music and SoundDial are mixers without them. They are compared in the best volume mixers for Mac.
  • Something you already run. Vitals is a system monitor with a mixer in it, so the volume sliders sit next to the CPU, memory and battery figures, in one menu bar item instead of two.

What Vitals adds

Vitals gives every app its own volume, from the menu bar.

  • The Sound section of the dropdown lists every app with sound open, playing ones first, each with a slider and a mute button
  • The output and input devices with their levels above them, and the apps using the microphone right now
  • The Sound tab in the window: every app in a table, marked Playing or Silent, with Reset to put one back to 100%
  • Levels are kept between launches, so an app you turned down stays down

Good to know

  • An app at 100% is left alone. Vitals takes an app’s sound only while it is turned down or muted, and if Vitals quits, every app sounds as it did before.
  • Levels go from mute to 100%. Vitals does not boost an app above its own volume, send one app to other speakers, or add effects.
  • Turning an app down needs macOS’s permission to record system audio, asked once. Vitals plays the sound back at your level and never saves it.
  • The dropdown shows up to eight apps; Show all opens the rest in the window.
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Questions people ask

Does a Mac have a volume mixer?

No. macOS has one volume for everything, set with the volume keys or the Sound control in the menu bar. A volume for each app needs a separate app such as Vitals, or a slider inside the app itself.

How do I lower the volume of one app on a Mac?

Use the app’s own volume slider if it has one. For apps without one, a volume mixer app such as Vitals gives each app a slider in the menu bar.

How do I mute one app on a Mac?

Safari and Chrome can mute a tab, but macOS cannot mute a whole app. Vitals has a mute button next to every app with sound open.

Why does a volume mixer app need permission to record audio?

To change one app’s level, it has to take that app’s sound and play it back quieter. macOS puts that behind the Screen & System Audio Recording permission in Privacy & Security.

Can I make one app louder than 100% on a Mac?

Not with macOS. Some mixer apps can boost above 100%; Vitals goes from mute to the app’s own full volume.

Is there a Windows-style volume mixer for Mac?

Vitals works the same way as the Windows Volume Mixer: a slider for each app with sound open, in the menu bar, next to the output device’s own level.

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