You're recording a podcast on your Mac. You need to hear your guest (via Zoom, Riverside, or SquadCast) clearly. You need to monitor your DAW's recording levels. You need Slack muted so no pings end up in the recording. And you need system notification sounds completely silenced — a macOS "ding" in the middle of an interview is unusable audio.
macOS gives you one volume slider for all of this. It's not enough.
The podcasting audio challenge on Mac
During a podcast recording session, you typically have:
- Communication app (Zoom, Riverside, SquadCast) — guest audio, needs to be clear
- DAW / recording app (Logic, GarageBand, Audacity, Hindenburg) — monitoring your own levels
- Notification sources (Slack, Mail, Calendar, Messages) — must be completely silent during recording
- Browser — might have show notes, research tabs, or a timer running
All of these at the same volume is chaos. Your guest is competing with system dings. A Slack notification could ruin a take. And if you need to adjust your guest's volume, changing the system volume also changes your monitoring levels.
The typical workaround
Most podcasters use a combination of:
- Focus mode (Do Not Disturb) to suppress notifications
- Manually quitting Slack, Mail, and other noisy apps before recording
- Adjusting the communication app's internal volume for the guest
This works, but it's error-prone. Forget to enable DND and a notification ruins your take. Forget to quit Slack and a call comes in. And you still can't independently control your guest's volume versus your monitoring levels.
Per-app audio for podcasting
SoundDial lets you build a clean recording environment by controlling each app independently:
Recording profile
- Zoom / Riverside: 80-100% — clear guest audio
- Logic / GarageBand: 60% — comfortable monitoring without fatigue
- Slack: muted — zero notification sounds
- Mail: muted
- Messages: muted
- Calendar: muted
- Browser: muted — no surprise auto-play
Save this as a "Recording" profile. Before hitting record, apply the profile with one click. Every notification source is silenced, your guest is at full volume, and your monitoring is at a comfortable level.
Editing profile
- Logic / Hindenburg: 100% — full monitoring for editing
- Spotify: muted — no reference confusion
- Slack: 20% — subtle notifications during breaks
- Browser: 40% — for show notes and research
Two profiles, two clicks, two completely different audio environments. No manually quitting and reopening apps. No forgetting to re-enable notifications after recording.
Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store — €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.