To turn one app down while everything else stays put, use SoundDial, a menu-bar per-app volume mixer for macOS. Open it, find the loud app in the list, and drag its slider down. That app gets quieter instantly while your music, calls, and other audio keep their own levels. It's the fastest, most reliable fix.
Why macOS makes this so hard
Here's the frustrating truth: macOS has no built-in per-app volume mixer. Windows has had one for years (right-click the volume icon, open the Volume Mixer, done), but on a Mac the volume keys and the menu-bar slider only control one thing: the master output. Turn it down and everything goes quieter together. Turn it up and the loud app is still loud, just louder along with the rest.
So when a game's sound effects are blasting, a browser tab is auto-playing an ad, or notification dings keep spiking over your podcast, your only native options are clumsy: mute the whole system, dig into each app's own volume setting (if it even has one), or quit the offender entirely. None of that lets you simply say "make this one app quieter and leave everything else alone."
The fast fix: a per-app volume mixer
A per-app volume mixer gives every running app its own independent slider. That's exactly the control you're missing. With SoundDial it looks like this:
- Open the menu-bar mixer. Click the SoundDial icon and you'll see a live list of every app currently playing audio.
- Find the loud one. The game, the browser, the video call, the notification sounds, whatever is drowning the rest.
- Drag its slider down. Set it to 40%, 20%, wherever it feels balanced. The change is instant and it only affects that app.
- Leave everything else alone. Your music player, your call, your other tabs, they all keep the volume you set for them.
You can also fully mute a single app with one click while others keep playing, or boost a quiet app above 100% if it's too soft. No restarting the app, no menu-diving.
Common cases where this saves you
- A loud game over background music. Drop the game to a comfortable level and keep your playlist at full volume underneath it.
- Browser ads and video that spike. Pin your browser lower so a surprise autoplay never blasts you.
- Notification dings over a call or podcast. Turn down the notification-heavy app without silencing the audio you actually care about.
- A quiet video call under loud media. Instead of turning the loud app down, boost the call above 100% so you can hear people clearly.
Set it once with volume profiles and auto-ducking
Fixing one loud app is nice, but you probably want it to stay fixed. SoundDial has two features that make this permanent:
Volume profiles let you save a set of per-app levels and recall them in a click. Build a "Gaming" profile where the game sits at 30% and music at 100%, and a "Work" profile where calls are boosted and everything else is toned down. Switch contexts without re-dragging sliders every time.
Auto-ducking automatically lowers other apps when a chosen app plays, then brings them back afterward, so a loud app never fully hijacks your audio in the first place. Between profiles, ducking, and quick output switching (jump between speakers and headphones without opening System Settings), you set your balance once and stop babysitting the volume.
How SoundDial compares to the alternatives
There are other ways to get per-app volume on a Mac. Here's an honest look:
- SoundSource (Rogue Amoeba, ~$39) is genuinely pro-grade: per-app EQ and full output routing on top of volume control. But it costs more than double, and it needs a separate download plus an audio-capture driver. If you want a studio-level toolkit, it's excellent. If you just want to turn one app down, it's more than you need.
- Background Music is free and open-source, which is great, but it can break on newer macOS versions, and it lacks volume boost, profiles, and auto-ducking.
- FineTune is a free open-source menu-bar app, and eqMac is a free EQ with a booster. Both are worth trying if free is your priority, but you're trading polish, reliability, and features for the price.
SoundDial sits in the sweet spot: €14.99 one-time, no subscription. Because it's on the Mac App Store, it's Apple-reviewed and sandboxed, and it installs cleanly with no DMG, no audio drivers, and no system extensions to approve. You get the features that actually matter for this problem, per-app volume, mute, boost, profiles, and auto-ducking, without a $39 price tag or a fragile free tool.
The bottom line
macOS won't let you turn down a single app on its own, but that's a gap you can close in seconds. Install a per-app mixer, drag the loud app's slider down, and the rest of your audio stays exactly where you want it. Save a profile and you'll never fight this again.
Ready to silence the one app that keeps drowning the rest? Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store for €14.99, one payment, no drivers, no subscription.