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MasterHowl

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 3, 2010
1,052
161
North of England
Okay, I'm bouncing round the room with excitement about Lion, but I've just had a thought...

I've heard no mention of separate application volume control... A feature which I believe is reaaaaaaly important for any operating system!

Windows did it in Vista (ugh), and I'm really surprised that Apple never released and update for Snow Leopard adding it.

Domyou think they'll add if to the final version of Lion? Or will I have to find an app on the internet to do the job?
 

itickings

macrumors 6502a
Apr 14, 2007
947
185
Shouldn't that be the responsibility of the individual applications? All applications I can think of where it would be relevant already sport integrated controls for the purpose.

Do you have some examples for when it would be useful?
 

haravikk

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2005
1,499
21
I think the Apple philosophy is that any application that has need of volume control should add it itself, rather than the OS having to do the work for it.

As I understand it there is an API somewhere that makes it extremely easy to control the master output of your application, as a developer at least.


While I can completely understand why you'd want it, especially with badly coded apps that aren't very good with their volume at all, it does seem like something that the OS shouldn't have to do.
 

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,875
2,922
I never use individual volume controls, such as in iTunes, as it limits the maximum output volume. I only ever use the volume dial on my speakers. The best quality is achieved by having the system push the loudest possible volume and then your speakers will not need to amplify as much, which means less hiss and more analog resolution.

I don't listen to two things at the same time, but if I would, it may be useful to have individual volume controls. Say iTunes is on max volume and so is something playing in Safari, and I'm looking at iTunes and I want to make it louder than Safari. I would have to go to Safari and make the YouTube video (or whatever is playing) less loud, as I can't pull the iTunes volume any higher.

If there was a single place I could do this, it would make it easier, but I think that it's not very important and the implementation would be inelegant: you'd have to have a panel that constantly updates to keep track of all the apps that make sounds.
 

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
I think the OP is on about a feature that Windows has, introduced with Vista.
The-Windows-Vista-Volume-Mixer-3.png


I certainly would love this feature in OS X, moving from one app to another just to tweak volume is annoying, one place to control it all is far superior. I doubt that it will come in Lion though.
 

skate71290

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2009
556
0
UK
Safari is probably the only non-media dedicated application i would like to see this implemented in, i do remember seeing an Apple Patent for this, where's the implementation?! :mad:
 

MasterHowl

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 3, 2010
1,052
161
North of England
Do you have some examples for when it would be useful?

I play a lot of games, and I like to have my iTunes playing in the background. I know iTunes has volume control (obviously) and so do the games, but it would be so much easier to have it all in one place! Even if it wasn't enabled all the time... maybe a command + click on the volume slider in the menu bar.

It'd also be useful for turning down annoying applications like Skype. The sound when I get a new instant message is so annoying! I'd like it to be a little quieter, but not turned off.

My sister uses a Mac and she plays flash games all the time (she's 13) and she finds it annoying, with all the silly little flash sounds, when she's listening to her music at the same time.


While I can completely understand why you'd want it, especially with badly coded apps that aren't very good with their volume at all, it does seem like something that the OS shouldn't have to do.

I get what you're saying here, but I don't think Apple should rely upon the developers of the apps to include features like these, surely it's not so hard just putting it into the OS?

moving from one app to another just to tweak volume is annoying, one place to control it all is far superior.

This ^
 

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,875
2,922
It'd also be useful for turning down annoying applications like Skype. The sound when I get a new instant message is so annoying! I'd like it to be a little quieter, but not turned off.

My sister uses a Mac and she plays flash games all the time (she's 13) and she finds it annoying, with all the silly little flash sounds, when she's listening to her music at the same time.

^ These

I play Flash games all the time and most of them don't allow you to turn the sounds off, and I'd prefer to listen to iTunes music while playing.
 

MasterHowl

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 3, 2010
1,052
161
North of England
I mean, there's probably a third part app that does this job nicely, but I don't know... I try not to have too many third party apps like that running! I'm scared it'll slow down my Mac.

Also, I think there's just something about using Apple Software... it just feels so much nicer than using third party... or is that just me being a super massive fan boy?
 

CodeMe

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2013
10
0
Blackburn, England
Sorry to revive this thread!
However I feel this is a Great Question asked by the OP.

I Know myself I've been looking for apps like this & there are NOT Many for the Mac

1= SoundBunny Although NOT FREE However it's Not Exspensive Neither :D

which i use myself & it's real good App.
 
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