My Macs are home to more audio recording, editing, and mixing apps than presidential candidates have stump gaffes. The latest is SoundBunny. This amazing little app does something that Apple should put into OS X. Individual audio controls for each app that uses sound.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this image of the SoundBunny control panel tells the tale.
What you see are the apps in OS X which use sound. SoundBunny gives you a volume control for each one. Set iTunes to be loud or soft. Set Mail’s incoming email notification sound to a lower volume, or mute the sound entirely.
You get the idea. Each app that uses sound can be individually controlled as to volume and mute. This functionality has purpose. Set the volume on Mail so it’s nice and loud and drowns out iTunes if you’re expecting important email to arrive.
Adjusting the audio controls is equally simple. Drag the control knob to the left to reduce the volume. Drag it back to the right to increase the volume. Click the sound button on the right of each slider control to toggle sound on or off.
SoundBunny does require a restart once you’ve installed the app. What’s missing? I would dearly love to see a few sound enhancement functions for each app’s sound, and perhaps an equalizer feature.
Otherwise, SoundBunny is sufficiently useful that Apple should have similar controls in OS X already.