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How to Use Your Mac's Media Keys to Adjust Speaker Volume on a DisplayPort, HDMI, or Thunderbolt Monitor

I'm on the fence about this solution, but I would like to control the volume from my Mac (as opposed to the speakers themselves).

I can control the volume output level of HDMI/DisplayPort audio without modifying Windows 10 from my PC. It works out of the box with the volume slider and volume keys on keyboard.
 
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falcn said:
There is a commercial remake of soundflower called Sound Control ($10)
Click to expand...
Looks promising, except the feature we are discussing here doesn't seem to work on Mojave yet?

Screen Shot 2018-12-03 at 3.13.56 PM.png
 
sonamo said:
Looks promising, except the feature we are discussing here doesn't seem to work on Mojave yet?
Click to expand...
I use it to control audio volume of external speakers connected to a 4k monitor over DisplayPort on a 12" Macbook running Mojave.
I think they meant that you can't route sound from individual apps to different audio outputs on Mojave, but I never used this feature.
 
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Hello All,

What is the difference between the 2ch audio and the 64ch audio on SoundFlowers Interface?

I do a lot of video editing and want to know what option would give me the best sound option.

Thanks!

Michael
 
Emanuel Rodriguez said:
Wouldn't touch this software with a 10 foot pole, considering it hasn't seen an update since 2014 (the release on github's title has been updated though), and I remember well having kernel panics, and other major issues, as a direct result of this software. This was awhile ago, so perhaps something changed when it was last updated in 2014? Who knows. I wouldn't trust it, personally.
Click to expand...

Yup, and it says "Signed Version for macOS Mojave (10.15) and earlier"

WTF...10.15


I tried to get this to work, it doesn't, at least not on my system.
 
I recently tried Soundflower to do this and while it worked well for iTunes I found when I play a youtube video in Safari the audio has horrible crackling and screeching. I couldn’t find a fix so I had to uninstall it.

2018 15” MPB on Mojave
 
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falcn said:
There is a commercial remake of soundflower called Sound Control ($10)
Click to expand...

sonamo said:
Looks promising, except the feature we are discussing here doesn't seem to work on Mojave yet?
Click to expand...

Wow, this is great! It's working for me to control the volume of my Sony TV connected via HDMI. And, unlike Soundflower, there's no sound delay. And, it works with the standard Mac volume keys. The only thing that's not perfect is the volume range. When it's at the lowest volume, it's not quite as low as I might want it. I can turn down the volume ON my external monitor, but of course that limits the max volume that I might want. But, still, it's pretty good and much better than Soundflower.
 
falcn said:
There is a commercial remake of soundflower called Sound Control ($10)
Click to expand...
Just installed this and it seems to be working well for me. As BobMcBob mentioned the volume control range is not as expansive as I would prefer, but volume control from my keyboard is back, so I am happy.

It is on sale at the moment so I bought a license after downloading and installing the trial version.

Thanks for the tip!
 
A similar problem is adjusting the brightness on an external monitor. The standard Mac brightness keys don't work. I installed Brightness Slider from the app store. It's not bad, but it doesn't use the normal brightness keys. You can set your own keyboard shortcut, but you can't use the normal brightness keys. Does anyone have a better solution for that?
 
BobMcBob said:
And, it works with the standard Mac volume keys. The only thing that's not perfect is the volume range. When it's at the lowest volume, it's not quite as low as I might want it.
Click to expand...

KennethS said:
Just installed this and it seems to be working well for me. As BobMcBob mentioned the volume control range is not as expansive as I would prefer, but volume control from my keyboard is back, so I am happy.

It is on sale at the moment so I bought a license after downloading and installing the trial version.

Thanks for the tip!
Click to expand...


Sorry for late reply, I don't visit macrumors often.
You can go lower than one notch of volume, hold Shift+Option+[your volume key]. It's stock Mac OS feature.

BobMcBob said:
A similar problem is adjusting the brightness on an external monitor. The standard Mac brightness keys don't work. I installed Brightness Slider from the app store. It's not bad, but it doesn't use the normal brightness keys. You can set your own keyboard shortcut, but you can't use the normal brightness keys. Does anyone have a better solution for that?
Click to expand...
I use free app called Lunar https://lunarapp.site
It works if your external monitor supports DDC (most of them do)
It mirrors your internal screen brightness level on your external screen, which is great if you have auto-adjust on.
 
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BobMcBob said:
A similar problem is adjusting the brightness on an external monitor. The standard Mac brightness keys don't work. I installed Brightness Slider from the app store. It's not bad, but it doesn't use the normal brightness keys. You can set your own keyboard shortcut, but you can't use the normal brightness keys. Does anyone have a better solution for that?
Click to expand...

The best way to do this is by using this great little app. It's amazing, works as advertised, I tested it over USB-C on several monitors.

https://github.com/KAMIKAZEUA/NativeDisplayBrightness
 
Thanks for this tutorial MacRumors!

Initially I was a little leery of installing this, but when I saw Soundflower was developed by Cycling '74 and that it's still maintained by the original author my concerns subsided.

It's always annoyed me that I can't adjust the volume on my keyboard when my Clarett thunderbolt interface is connected. Now I can! Thanks again : )
 
pizzapizza said:
SoundFlower works, but the sound quality was decreased with a lot crackling. So i uninstalled it.
Then I install Sound Control app (https://staticz.com/soundcontrol/) and this app works perfectly. I plan to buy a copy after 14 days trial.
Click to expand...

I don't think the sound quality decreased for me, but I started getting enough audio cuts and glitches that I decided to uninstall SoundFlower a few days ago. I tried Sound Control and it doesn't work for my interface. Hopefully Apple will get around to properly integrating this feature eventually!
 
WORKS GREAT
I wasn't able to control my Bose speakers, plugged in via aux to the back of my monitor, from my Corsair mechanical keyboard volume knob. This saved my life. I'm a developer, not an audio guy so I'm not sure if it messed up anything else as I'm only using Zoom and Spotify for sound TBH. Also, I'm using the 64ch setting because 2ch doesn't work for whatever reason.

Setup
LG 32UL950-W 4k USB C Monitor
MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro15,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Core i9
Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
 
The sound control app also allows control of the monitor speakers via keyboard keys - there is a free 2 week trial
 
I have a 2011 imac after update it dont let me use my mouse. I dont have real internet just blue tooth with my phone. I just got this a few days ago. My mouse was working fine. Keyboard shortcuts dont open my app up to fix it.
MacRumors said:



If you connect your Mac to an external display, you may find that the Mac's on-screen and keyboard volume controls are disabled. That's because HDMI, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt connections carry a fixed volume digital audio signal, so the external device (in this case, a monitor) controls the sound level.

mac-volume-disabled.jpg

This can be frustrating if the volume controls on your external display are concealed in the bezel or buried in a fiddly on-screen menu. Fortunately, it is possible to re-enable your Mac's native volume controls and use them to adjust the sound level coming out of your monitor's speakers. The steps below show how it's done, although you will need administrator privileges to follow them.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: How to Use Your Mac's Media Keys to Adjust Speaker Volume on a DisplayPort, HDMI, or Thunderbolt Monitor
Click to expand...
 
I used and appreciated Soundflower for years, but it quit working when I upgraded to High Sierra, and it doesn't appear to be supported anymore. I tried something called blackhole, but I couldn't get it to work, so I downloaded the 15 dollar sound control app mentioned by pizzapizza, and it works perfectly with my HDMI display.
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Being able to control the sound output from the keyboard controls is so obvious that it is impossible to understand why Apple seems to go out of their way to inhibit this.
 
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