App to hear ambient noise with headphones

[scharpe]

Hey guys, I am wondering if anyone knows of an app i can use on my mac to listen to music with my headphones at work, but i need to hear the phone ring or hear if someone needs to talk to me? but my colleagues don't want to listen to my music.

Thanks for you help!

 

[barkmonster]

Hey guys, I am wondering if anyone knows of an app i can use on my mac to listen to music with my headphones at work, but i need to hear the phone ring or hear if someone needs to talk to me? but my colleagues don't want to listen to my music.

Thanks for you help!

How could an App help with that problem?

It's not like there's something that could cut the sound out by listening for an increase in outside volume levels. A radio station would likely have a compressor on the output of the music with a sidechain input of the microphone so it ducks the volume of the music as someone talks down it. I'm completely unaware of any app that could manage that feat with playback of a music library purely in software.

 

[smithrh]

I know this was posted in the Mac App section - but there is just such an app for the iPhone - search for Etymotics and you should find it; it's called Awareness.

Be aware, to get full functionality you have to "prove" that you've purchased Etymotics headphones but have a look anyways if you have an iPhone.

 

[pitaya]

You just need an app that lets you monitor mic input. Garageband is kinda overkill for the task. Audacity would be OK. Look in the preferences under Recording and enable the Playthrough options, then go back to the recording window and select the right microphone input. Click the triangle under the Mic level meter and choose Start Monitoring, and adjust the levels.

There may be a simpler app. The MTCoreAudio framework comes with a simple looking AudioMonitor app, which might work for you. (I don't know if that's the most current/preferred/etc source).