Boom 2 Alternative for Mac: Per-App Volume Control

People often search for a Boom 2 alternative when the real problem is narrower: one app is too loud or too quiet compared with the rest. If that's you, the question isn't which app makes your Mac louder overall. It's which app lets you set each app's volume on its own.

For what Boom 2 and Boom 3D do today, check the developer's website for current features and price. This article is about the per-app volume job.

Two different jobs

There are two kinds of "volume app" for Mac, and they solve different problems:

• System-wide sound enhancers change the sound of everything that comes out of your Mac at once.
• Per-app volume mixers give each app its own slider, so you decide which app is louder.

If a Slack ping is louder than your music, or a browser video drowns out a call, a system-wide change doesn't help: it makes everything louder or quieter together. What you want is a per-app control.

What macOS gives you

macOS has no built-in per-app volume mixer. Windows has a Volume Mixer where you can set Chrome to one level and Spotify to another. On a Mac, the volume keys and the menu-bar slider move one output volume for every app.

What you can do natively:

• Use each app's own volume control. Music, Spotify, most video players and call apps have one. Lower the loud app inside itself instead of using the system volume.
• Use the alert volume. System Settings > Sound has a separate slider for alert sounds. It only affects system alerts, not app audio.
• Quit or pause the app that's in the way.

That covers a lot, but it falls short when an app has no volume control, or when one quiet app needs to be louder without raising everything else.

More on the native options: the complete guide to Mac volume control.

Where SoundDial fits

SoundDial is a menu-bar app built for the per-app job. Click its icon and each running app has its own slider.

• Per-app volume from 0% to 200%: turn the browser down, leave music where it is
• Per-app boost: push one quiet app above 100% (up to 200%) without raising the others
• Per-app mute: silence one noisy app with a click while everything else keeps playing
• Works per app, not per browser tab (all tabs of a browser share one slider)
• macOS 14.2 or later, €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription

SoundDial is not a system-wide sound enhancer. It doesn't change how your Mac sounds overall; it only sets how loud each app is.

An honest note on boost

Boosting a quiet app makes everything in that app louder, including any background noise in the recording. Treat boost as headroom for quiet videos and calls, not a fix for badly recorded audio.

Setting it up

1. Install SoundDial from the Mac App Store.
2. Open the apps you use; every running app shows up in the list.
3. Click the menu-bar icon and drag each app's slider to the level you want.
4. Mute or boost individual apps as needed.

Which should you choose?

• If you want your whole Mac to sound different, a per-app mixer is the wrong kind of tool. Look at system-wide enhancers and check their websites for current features.
• If you want one app quieter, another louder, or one muted, a per-app mixer is the right fit.

More on how that works: per-app volume control on Mac and boosting one quiet app. If you want that kind of control, try SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac.