Set a Different Volume for Each App on Mac

If you've switched from Windows, you've probably looked for the volume mixer: the panel where each app has its own slider. On a Mac it isn't there. macOS has one system volume, and YouTube, Zoom, Spotify and your game all share it.

That's fine until Discord drowns out your music, or a browser video blasts while your podcast plays quietly underneath. Here's what you can do.

Option 1: Use each app's own volume

Many apps have their own volume control, independent of the system volume:

• Spotify and Music: a volume slider in the playback bar
• VLC, QuickTime and most video players: a volume slider in the player controls
• Zoom, Teams and Discord: their own speaker or output volume in the app's audio settings
• Games: usually separate sliders for music, effects and voice in their audio settings

A practical method: set your Mac's system volume to a comfortable level for the loudest thing you use, then lower the other apps inside their own settings.

The downsides: you adjust in many places, some apps (and most websites) have no volume control of their own, and nothing goes above the app's own maximum.

Option 2: Use a menu-bar volume mixer

To get a slider for every app in one place, you need a third-party app. The main options:

• SoundDial (our app), covered below
• SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba: a broad audio tool, $49, sold directly rather than on the Mac App Store. Check its website for current features.
• Background Music: a free, open-source app. Check its project page for current status and supported macOS versions.
• FineTune: a per-app audio project many people find through GitHub.

For a longer rundown, see per-app volume control on Mac: your options in 2026.

How to set different app volumes with SoundDial

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac lives in your menu bar and gives every running app its own slider.

1. Install it from the Mac App Store.
2. Click the menu-bar icon. You'll see a slider for each app you have open.
3. Drag to set levels. Turn Discord down, nudge Spotify up. Each app goes from 0% to 200%.
4. Boost quiet apps. If an app is too soft even at 100%, push it above 100%, up to 200%.
5. Mute what you don't want to hear. One click silences an app while everything else keeps playing.

A few things to know:

• It works per app, not per browser tab: all tabs of a browser share one slider.
• You can save the current levels and mutes as named profiles and apply one with a click.
• It remembers each app's level (Settings > General > Default volume for new apps: Remember last). Mute is not remembered, and an app you open later may need a touch of its slider before the saved level applies.
• Auto-duck is on by default: it lowers other apps while a call app uses the microphone. You can turn it off or change the level in Settings > Auto-Duck.
• It does not record anything.
• It needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

More on how it works: per-app volume control on Mac. If you mainly want to silence one app, see how to mute one app on Mac.

Which should you choose?

• One or two apps, now and then: each app's own slider is enough.
• Many apps, every day, from one place: a menu-bar mixer.
• Want free: try Background Music and check its project page first.
• Want a simple slider, mute and boost per app, bought once from the Mac App Store: try SoundDial.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.