Application-specific volume control in Mac OS X?
It's not uncommon to start watching a video online and discover that its audio is quite quiet. This is not a problem in and of itself, as one can simply crank up the output volume. What is a problem, however, is a message then arriving in one's inbox and waking the neighbours!
This situation could be avoided if it were possible adjust the browser's output volume without affecting the rest of the system. As it is, though, one is forced to increase the volume of everything. Not ideal.
System Preferences > Sound > Application Volumes
Wouldn't this be nice? Many months ago I did some Googling to find out whether it's possible to control volume on an application-by-application basis in OS X. The closest thing to a solution was an X11 (read: ugly) app that kinda worked.
Apple, I don't bug you often, but here I will. Please build this into the OS and keep the neighbours happy. It'd be particularly sexy if applications such as iTunes which do currently grant the user control of the application's volume synchronized their volume settings with the ones in System Preferences. That is, adjusting the volume in iTunes would adjust the iTunes volume setting in System Preferences, and vice versa.
+1 in the comments if you'd like to see this feature implemented. :)
Update —
Hear offers this functionality, but isn't cheap. I hope Hear's developers decide to release a preference pane that provides the functionality of Hear's mixer pane and nothing more (I'm about to make this request).
Bonus titbit
While faking the drop shadow on the Sound window above I discovered a combination of drop shadow values which pretty much perfectly match those of an active window in OS X:
- shadow color
- #000000 (black)
- opacity
- 45%
- angle
- 90°
- distance
- 16px
- spread
- 0%
- size
- 32px
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Comments
Sexy dialog box, but I think the real solution here is to fix the problem - shitty internet video in shitty players (especially those with no/useless volume controls). Apart from that use case, I don't think there's any need to adjust, say, iCal independent of iPhoto. YouTube should probably normalise the volume automatically when people upload (maybe they do, as this seems to be improving).
Excellent point, Dave. I agree that the solution I've proposed is overkill. You're spot-on in saying that low quality uploads are the root of the problem; hopefully, as you suggest, this will become less of an issue over time.
this would be great
is there no 3rd party app to do this?
Nothing I've come across meets my requirements, although I've contacted the developers of Hear to suggest that they create a preference pane which functions exactly like Hear's mixer pane.
The fact that Hear is able to exert application-specific volume control indicates that this is possible using OS X's APIs, so there's nothing to stop another developer from meeting this need.
There is an application if you still run a power pc based mac with OS Tiger max.
it's called detour.
Thanks for the link. I'm on Snow Leopard, though, so I can't try it out.
Sorta odd how Microsoft Vista had this useful tool back in 2007 when it's been over 3 and a half years and OSX still doesn't have it.
Indeed! Chalk one up for Windows.
I would pay (but not much) for a JS app that elegantly adjusted drop shadows to look nice with the OSX theme.
If you want the ACTUAL drop shadow when you take a picture of a window, hit Command-Shift-4, then spacebar. The icon changes from a crosshair to a camera. Click on the window you want to take a picture of, and you're done!
Thanks, Josh! I didn't know this trick at the time; I wouldn't call it highly discoverable! It's very handy. In fact, I even take advantage of the predictable margins between the captured window and the image's edges.
img[src*="/windows/"] { margin: 3px -40px -29px; }
It's good to have the ⇧⌘4-then-spacebar trick documented here to enlighten others who stumble upon this page.
I've just been "upgraded" to Leopard (the repairers didn't have Tiger install disks). I'm really upset that Detour - which provided a great app-by-app volume controller - is no longer working, even though I have a G5 iMac.
For goodness sake, Apple - in this day and age, with iTunes, internet radio, computer alerts, incoming emails, YouTube - we really MUST have an app volume controller. If Detour could do it on Tiger PPCs, how difficult would it be for you to implement?
I just about crapped when I saw your volume control. I almost broke an arm trying to get to audio preferences too fast. IT'S NOT THERE!!!
That is exactly what I need. I want to have my Skype Incoming Call Ringer loud so I can hear it from another room but I don't want to here the noise my email checker makes every 10 minutes
Thanks for your comment, Bill. It brought a smile to my face. :D
This needs to exist!
imagine if you will - 11:00pm at night,
you've got your headphones on,
itunes app is open and the random selection is actually playing random music that you want to hear
your multitasking like a man:
Texas hold 'em in one tab,
something you're researching in the next,
and finally Outlook Web Access in the other.....
You've got the volume of the music at a high level..
THEN
BAM!
it's like your innocent child walks up behind you puts an air horn in your ear and pulls the trigger and says "Daddy what's this?"
The music is gone and all you hear is deafening noise! HOLLY CRAP!
Slap the headphones from your ears open your eyes from the shock.. What the crap?!?
it wasn't an air horn my daughter is asleep.. What was that? Why are my ears bleeding?
That was what it was like the first time I realized I needed application specific volume controls in OS X.
I looked in obvious places for the option to crank up the volume in itunes and turn down the volume in safari, but couldn't find anything. I asked google about it and it brought me here..
I second what Bill says!
If there is something developing slower than your needs you are spending to much time with it.
I have an amazing idea! Why doesn't some enterprising coder make a nice pretty Preference Pane to do this. I would but unfortunately i don't know Objective C.
P.S. I would PAY like up to $15 bucks for this^. P.P.S. Hear is great not only for the app specific volume controls but it just makes my music sound AMAZING.
I'd pay more than $15 for it, it drives me insane that mac doesn't it! I will actually use my old pc when it's late sometimes because i know that i'm not going going to get any surprises from it…
+1000 That would be amazing. Maybe even a fancy minimal menubar icon as well.