You may think that adjusting the volume on Mac is easy, but there are features that you may not know about some features that are helpful to make your life even more accessible. Here are a few ways that can be helpful to make fine-tune adjustments to your Mac’s audio volume.
You will find Mac’s audio settings in System Preferences. You need to go to the Apple menu available in the top left corner. Here, you will find the sound properties window.
Adjust Sound Effects Volume
When you go to the Sound Effects tab, you will find a list of alert sounds. These are the system sound, and you hear them in case of events like notifications, messages boxes, warnings, etc. You can change the notification sound for each event according to your preferences.
Keep in mind that there are two volume sliders and the top one is system alert sounds, and the bottom one is for audio volume. Some people want to be alerted about the events even if they are watching a video or listening to music, so they need a high alert volume to avoid miss notifications while something is playing.
However, some people don’t like system sounds and drag the Alert volume slider to the left and quieten them. You can make alert sounds completely silent, so your entertainment won’t get disturbed. You can drag the slider to the left and clear Play user interface sound effects.
Sound Controls Available in the Menu Bar
A tick box is available at the bottom of the preferences window used to hide or display the volume control in the menu bar. You may have noticed that clicking on the speaker icon shows the volume control. But do you know which one is that? The output volume or alert volume?
The output volume can be changed, and it doesn’t change the alert volume. However, in the old versions of macOS, users can access the speaker volume by clicking Shift + Click and changing the alert volume. This no longer works with the latest versions of Mac.
Sound Output Options
You need to choose the output device from the menu bar. You can go to System Preferences > Sound > Output.
You can choose the output device from this tab. Some people will only have internal Speakers as their output device. Still, many people will also have output devices connected like Apple TV, AirPods, HomePods, or maybe even third-party devices.
Audio Input Options
You will find Output and Input tabs in System Preferences. The Output tab is for the devices like earphones, internal speakers, Apple TV, and whatever output devices you have connected. However, the Input tab is for choosing the microphone and input volume. This is a live display, and you can check the input level by speaking to your Mac. Input volume can be adjusted from the slider.
It is pretty obvious that using these control and ambient noise reduction options is helpful to minimize background noise. However, you may not know that you can access the input and output devices list from the menu bar. It is a hidden feature. Hold down the Option / Alt Key and click on the speaker icon in the menu bar, and you will see a slightly different panel. It is a new hidden feature.
Options + click adds an input section to the menu. Many users only have the built-in microphone, but some may use alternative input like third-party microphones, which is a great way to select them.
Step the Startup Sound
Not all Macs offer startup sound, but if your device does and you get annoyed by it? You can turn it off. The best way to do this is with the help of a keyboard hotkey. This isn’t the same key on all Macs; thus, you need to look for the speaker symbol available on the function keys on the top row.
Moreover, you can also turn off the startup sound by going to System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects. Just uncheck the Sound on Startup Checkbox.
Experiencing difficulties with your Device, check out our “How To” page on how to resolve some of these issues.
