Your music is at a perfect level. Then a macOS alert sound fires — the "Funk" or "Tink" sound effect — and it's painfully loud compared to your music. Or the opposite: your alerts are inaudible because your system volume is low for quiet background music.
You want two separate volume controls: one for media (music, calls, video) and one for alerts and notifications. macOS partially supports this, but the full solution requires a third-party tool.
macOS's built-in alert volume
macOS does have a separate alert volume. Go to System Settings → Sound and look for the "Alert volume" slider. This controls the volume of macOS system sounds — error beeps, Trash emptying, screenshot shutter — independently from the main system volume.
You can also choose which alert sound to use and whether to "Play sound effects through" your selected output device or the built-in speakers.
What the alert volume controls
- macOS system alert sounds (Funk, Tink, Bottle, etc.)
- Finder sounds (Trash, file copy complete)
- Some built-in app sounds
What it doesn't control
- Slack notification sounds
- Discord notification sounds
- Teams/Zoom sounds
- Mail notification sounds
- Any third-party app notification sounds
- Browser notification sounds
Third-party apps play their notification sounds through their own audio engine — they're treated as regular app audio, not system alerts. The alert volume slider has no effect on them. This means the apps that make the most annoying notification sounds (Slack, Discord, Teams) are the ones that macOS's alert volume can't touch.
The real fix: per-app volume for notification apps
To truly separate notification volume from media volume, you need per-app volume control. Set Slack to 15%, Discord to 20%, and Mail to 10% — while keeping Spotify at 50% and your browser at 60%.
SoundDial gives every app its own volume slider. You can set notification-heavy apps to a subtle level that's noticeable but not jarring, while keeping media apps at a comfortable listening volume.
Example setup
Media apps:
- Spotify: 50%
- Safari/Chrome: 60%
- QuickTime/VLC: 70%
Notification apps:
- Slack: 15%
- Discord: 20%
- Mail: 10%
- Calendar: 25%
Communication apps:
- Zoom/Teams: 100%
- FaceTime: 100%
Save this as a profile and apply it with one click. The separation between notification and media volume that macOS doesn't provide natively — done in under a minute.
Available on the Mac App Store — Apple-reviewed, €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.