macOS has no built-in per-app volume mixer, so you can't natively cap your game while keeping Discord loud. The fix is a menu-bar app that sets independent volume per application. Turn the game down to 40-50%, leave voice chat at 100%, and both stay balanced without touching in-game sliders.
Why this happens on Mac (and not on Windows)
If you've gamed on Windows, you know the Volume Mixer: right-click the speaker icon, and every running app gets its own slider. You drop the game, raise Discord, done. macOS simply never shipped that feature. There is one master output volume and a handful of app-level toggles buried in system settings, but no per-application level control for arbitrary apps.
So when a game's mix is mastered hot, its explosions, music, and gunfire come through at the same output level as your friends' voices. Some games expose a master volume slider, but plenty don't go low enough, and many launchers, browsers, and standalone titles offer no useful control at all. Discord itself only lets you adjust incoming users' volume, not the game competing with them.
To be honest, this is an OS-level gap, not a bug you can toggle away. Apple's audio stack routes everything to a single output stream, and there's no first-party UI to split it per app. That's why you need a third-party tool that sits between your apps and the output device.
The manual workarounds (and why they fall short)
Before reaching for software, it's worth knowing the free options and their limits:
- Lower the game's in-app volume. Works if the game has a master slider with fine enough steps. Many stop at 10% increments or bundle music and effects together, so you can't tame just the loud parts.
- Raise your friends in Discord. Right-click each user and boost their volume. This helps a little but tops out, and it doesn't touch the game that's actually the problem.
- Use headphones with a hardware volume knob. Only changes the overall level, not the balance between game and voice.
- Route audio through a virtual device. Tools like Loopback or BlackHole can split streams, but they're aimed at pros, take real setup, and are overkill for "make the game quieter."
None of these give you the one thing Windows users take for granted: a quick slider per app. That's the gap SoundDial is built to fill.
The direct fix: independent volume per app
SoundDial is a menu-bar per-app volume mixer for macOS. It shows every app currently playing sound and gives each one its own slider, exactly like the Windows Volume Mixer. For the game-versus-voice problem, the workflow is short:
- Click the SoundDial icon in your menu bar while the game and Discord are both running.
- Find the game in the list and pull its slider down to roughly 40-50%.
- Leave Discord (or Slack, Zoom, or your voice app) at 100%.
- Adjust on the fly during play — nudge the game down further in a loud firefight, back up during quiet exploration.
Because the levels are per app, you set them once and they hold. The game stays capped no matter how hot its own mix runs, and your friends stay clearly audible over it.
Boost, mute, and profiles for the rest of your setup
The same tool covers the adjacent annoyances that come with voice gaming:
- Per-app boost. If a teammate's mic is quiet even at Discord's max, you can push the voice app above 100% so it cuts through the game rather than getting buried.
- Per-app mute. Silence a background browser tab or a music app instantly without alt-tabbing or killing playback.
- Volume profiles. Save a "gaming" profile with the game at 45% and Discord boosted, then switch back to a "normal" profile for everyday use in one click — no re-dragging sliders each session.
- Auto-ducking. Have the game automatically dip when someone talks, so callouts always land on top of the action.
- Quick output switching. Jump between headphones and speakers from the same menu without diving into System Settings.
The mental model is simple: one slider per app, the way Windows has done it for years. macOS just never provided it, so a small utility restores parity.
What to expect honestly
A per-app mixer solves the balance problem cleanly, but set expectations correctly. It controls software output levels — it can't fix a game whose own audio is badly mastered, and it can't raise a signal that was never captured (a genuinely broken mic still needs a hardware fix). Boost adds real gain, so pushing a quiet source far past 100% can introduce distortion, exactly like turning any amp up too high. Used sensibly, though, a modest game cap plus a small voice boost is all most setups need.
SoundDial is sandboxed and installs straight from the Mac App Store — no drivers, no kernel extensions, no DMG to trust. It's a one-time €14.99 with no subscription, and it supports macOS volume control across 28 languages.
Stop fighting your in-game sliders. Grab SoundDial on the Mac App Store, turn the game down, keep your squad loud, and finally get the Windows-style volume mixer macOS forgot to ship.