| Per-app volume and mute | Slider from 0 to 200% per app, with a detent near 100%. A soft limiter works when the gain is above 100% or the equalizer is on. Each app can be muted. Helper processes (Chrome, Electron, WebKit helpers) are grouped under their app. Apps that have not played for 10 minutes and are not pinned collapse into “Not playing (N)”. |
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| Per-app equalizer | 10 bands (31, 63, 125, 250, 500, 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k Hz), each ±12 dB in 0.5 dB steps. 11 presets: Flat, Bass Boost, Bass Cut, Treble Boost, Vocal, Podcast, Loudness, Late Night, Rock, Electronic, Acoustic. |
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| Per-app balance | Left-right balance from -100 to 100 with snap-to-centre. Balance never boosts the other channel. |
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| Lower other apps during calls | On by default. Other playing apps play at 5% to 80% of their volume during a call (5% steps, default 30%) and are restored when the call ends. Triggered when a call app (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, Discord, Slack, Webex, Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram, system call daemons) or a listed browser (Safari, Chrome, Chrome Beta, Firefox, Edge, Arc, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) reports audio input in use. The calling app and communication apps are never lowered. Limit: a listed browser that uses the microphone for something else, such as dictation, also triggers it. |
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| Play Through (output per app) | Each app can play through “Same as the app (default)” or any output device; several apps can use different devices at once. If a device is missing, the app falls back to its own device, then to the system default. Not saved in volume profiles. |
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| System output | Device menu, format label (for example “48 kHz · 32-bit”), sample-rate menu from 44.1 to 384 kHz when the device offers more than one rate, and output volume from 0 to 100%. Devices without hardware volume get a software volume slider, remembered per device. |
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| Volume profiles | No built-in profiles. “Save current mix as a profile” stores per-app volume, mute, equalizer and balance (not the output device per app, not the call setting), with a choice of 10 icons. |
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| Volume memory | “When an app opens”: “Remember last” or “Always 100%”. Remembers volume, mute, balance, equalizer, output device and pinned state per app. |
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| Hotkeys | Global hotkeys without Accessibility permission: Control-Option-S shows or hides SoundDial, Control-Option-M mutes or unmutes all apps in the main list. Re-recordable, resettable and can be turned off. |
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| Shortcuts app actions | Set App Volume, Mute App, Mute All Apps, Apply Volume Profile, Set Output Device, Set App Output Device. |
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| URL commands | sounddial:// links for toggle, show, hide, volume, mute, unmute, toggle-mute, mute-all, profile, profile-save, output, route, eq, balance, output-volume, sample-rate and settings. |
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| Level meters | A level meter per row for apps that are adjusted or ducked. The setting “Show live meters for every playing app” is off by default; when on, it listens to every playing app only while the SoundDial window is open, and macOS shows its recording indicator. |
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| Guided setup | 6 pages; it verifies audio access with a real test. Settings → Setup & Help offers Check Again, Open Guided Setup, Email Support and Copy Diagnostics. |
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