Listen to Two Things at Once on Mac at Different Volumes

You want to listen to two things at the same time. Music while on a call. A podcast while watching a tutorial. Rain sounds while studying. Two sources, two different ideal volumes, and macOS gives you one slider for both.

Every app on a Mac plays through the same system volume. You can't say "this one at 30%, that one at 80%" with the built-in controls.

When you need two sources at once

This isn't an edge case:

• Music + video call: background music during a meeting, quiet enough to hear colleagues
• Lecture + reference video: a recorded lecture plus a tutorial for context
• Podcast + ambient sounds: a podcast with white noise or rain playing softly
• Game + voice chat: game audio for immersion, voice chat for talking to your team

In each case one source is primary (louder, more important) and the other is secondary (quieter, in the background). The right mix differs for each pair, and it changes during the day.

What macOS gives you

One volume slider. Press a volume key and everything changes together. Set it for comfortable podcast listening, and the rain sounds play at whatever level that app happens to produce.

Native options

Use each app's own volume

Some apps have a volume slider of their own: Spotify, VLC, QuickTime Player, many games and the YouTube player in a browser. Set the background source low inside its app, then use the Mac's volume for the main one.

The catch: many apps have no volume control, and switching between apps to adjust two separate sliders is slow.

Turn off notification sounds

If the second source is really notifications, turn their sounds off in System Settings > Notifications or use a Focus mode.

The catch: that only works for notifications, not for music, videos or calls.

Use two devices

Play one source on your Mac and the other on your phone or a tablet. Each device has its own volume.

The catch: you're juggling two devices, and it doesn't help when both sources live on the Mac.

The fix: per-app volume in one panel

A per-app volume mixer shows your apps side by side, each with its own slider. Adjust one without touching the other. If you want a broader overview first, see how to control per-app volume on Mac.

SoundDial does this from the menu bar. Example setups:

• Music + Zoom call: Zoom 100%, Spotify 20%
• Podcast + rain sounds: podcast app 70%, rain app 15%
• Lecture + tutorial: Zoom (lecture) 90%, Chrome (YouTube) 40%
• Game + voice chat: game 50%, Discord 100%

If the main source is too quiet even at full volume, drag its slider above 100% (up to 200%) instead of raising the system volume, so the background source stays where it is. You can also mute either app with one click. There's no limiter, so raise a boost in small steps.

During calls, SoundDial's auto-ducking (on by default) lowers the other apps further, to 30% of the level you set, and restores them when the call ends. If you want background music to stay exactly where you put it during a call, raise the duck level (up to 80%) or turn auto-ducking off in SoundDial's settings.

Note that SoundDial works per app, not per browser tab. Two sources in two tabs of the same browser share one slider, so for that case put one of them in a different browser or app.

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription. More on the use case: per-app volume control on Mac.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.