You want to listen to music while talking to friends on Discord (or Zoom, or FaceTime). The music needs to be present but not overpowering. The voice chat needs to be clear and dominant. Simple request. macOS makes it impossible.
With one system volume controlling everything, you're stuck: turn it up for the call and the music is too loud. Turn it down for the music and you can't hear your friends. There's no built-in way to set these two things at different levels.
The in-app volume workaround
Both Spotify and Discord have internal volume sliders. In theory, you could lower Spotify's slider to 30% and keep Discord's output at 100%. This creates a 30/100 ratio.
In practice:
- You have to switch to each app to adjust its slider
- The ratio changes when you adjust the system volume (both scale proportionally)
- Not every app has an internal volume slider
- It's imprecise — small Spotify slider, no percentage displayed
- If you close and reopen Spotify, the slider might reset
The real fix: independent per-app volume
SoundDial puts both Spotify and Discord in the same panel with independent volume sliders. Set the ratio you want and leave it:
The golden ratio for music + voice chat
Based on how most people use this:
- Voice chat at 85-100% — always clearly audible, dominant in the mix
- Music at 20-35% — present but never competing with voices
The exact ratio depends on the music, your headphones, and personal preference. The point is that you can find the perfect balance once and keep it — instead of constantly adjusting.
Save it as a profile
Save your music/voice chat balance as a profile. "Gaming" profile: Discord 100%, game 50%, Spotify 20%. "Chill" profile: Discord 70%, Spotify 60%. Switch between them with one click.
Auto-ducking for calls
If you're listening to music and a call comes in, SoundDial's auto-ducking automatically lowers the music to your configured level. When the call ends, music comes back up. No touching anything.
The audio balance problem is something every Mac user faces the moment they have music and a call running simultaneously. It's a one-time €14.99 fix.
Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store — €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.