Sound separation: external speakers VS system sounds

[OldCorpse]

I wonder if this is possible: to separate which sound comes out from where...

I'm on SL 10.6.8, and I have external speakers connected to my 2009 iMac through the headphone jack in the back of the iMac.

Problem: when I'm playing music through my external speakers, especially at a bit of a louder volume, I must be very careful with what I do on my iMac, because all the system sounds, such as emptying trash, come through my external speakers at huge volume, and it's quite jarring, not to mention interferes with the music.

What I would like: is it possible to have iTunes, music, film and all media, such as playing youtube videos etc., come normally through my external speakers, and at the same time any systems sounds, such as emptying trash, come out through the regular iMac speakers?

I can't find anything in Sound Systems Preferences, so either it's not possible, I'm not finding it, or there's something else that needs to be done.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MacFan782040]

Can't you go to System Prefs > Sound and under the drop down menu it gives you an option what to play out on? And then there is a slider you can choose the volume of the alert sound so that can be less than say iTunes.



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[OldCorpse]

Well, for me, the drop down menu gives only one option: headphones. Once I have external speakers plugged into the headphones port, that becomes the only option (if I unplug them, then it goes back to "internal speakers). What I would like, is to be able to select for headphones in "Output" and for "internal speakers" in Sound Effects".

 

[lostless]

There was an app that did this back in the day called detour. But when apple rewrote the sound core in 10.5, it stopped working and no replacement has ever come.

 

[MacFan782040]

Gotcha. There may be a way with extra hardware/software, maybe like a USB device or something that would work with iTunes and then connect your speakers to that. Like, at work, we have an AJA system that allows sound when using Final Cut to come through studio speakers and then all system sounds play through the internal speaker. Not sure if you can do that outside Final Cut tho...

 

[Knoodles]

Option click the built in sound menu or use SoundSource

 

[OldCorpse]

Option click the built in sound menu or use SoundSource

I just want to make sure I'm making myself clear. I'm not trying to switch from one to another - I'm trying to separate them. I want to be able to play music through the external speakers and at the same time be able to have all system sounds come out through internal iMac speakers, while the music is playing. Basically, I want to be able to work on my iMac while listening to music through external speakers and get sound notifications through the internal speakers so that they don't interfere with the music coming out of the external speakers. Right now my options are to have system sounds come out blaring through the external speakers in the middle of my music, or - which I'm doing right now - mute completely the system sounds, so that I get zero feedback. Not ideal. Again, what I want is separation. Will SoundSource allow me to do this?

 

[Knoodles]

SoundSource=Yes
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=313682&stc=1&d=1322256943

 

[OldCorpse]

OK, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I installed SoundSource and when I open it, it gives me only ONE option "Headphones" for output - there is no other option specified. The exactly same thing as in System Preferences -> Sound

This sucks.

 

[Knoodles]

Don't understand either why no option for internal speakers is showing up. Do you hear sound from the internal speakers? Maybe you have that problem with the headphone jack were it is always activated? Do you see a red light inside the headphone jack?

 

[OldCorpse]

When I look inside the headphone jack, there is no red light. When I remove the jack from the port, the "internal speakers" option appears immediately in both the SoundSource and System Preferences -> Sound (and is again, the only option). It's weird. It seems like the moment I plug in the external speakers through the headphone jack, the internal speakers are disabled. The speakers I have are self-powered and on an extension cord, and the speaker wire that connects the speakers and the iMac goes through the headphone jack, so when I switch off the power from the extension cord, there is no power at all going through the jack - and yet, even so, it completely cuts out the internal speakers. It seems like just having something inside that headphone port, even not powered (inert) is enough to disable the internal speakers. I don't get it. Is there a setting somewhere I can switch, or is my iMac defective? FWIW, my iMac is a late 2009, i7 2.8Ghz and still under AppleCare.