At the top of SoundSource’s main window, you’ll find controls for your Mac’s default audio devices. Here, you can adjust settings for the default devices the system uses for audio output, audio input, and sound effects.

Output Device

By default, all audio on your Mac plays through the system’s selected output device. Using these controls in SoundSource, you can switch the specific device being used for output, and apply other adjustments.

The standard controls for the output device include the ability to adjust its volume level (including toggling its mute status), applying our Magic Boost effect, and switching the device being used.

Expanded Output Device Controls

Clicking the disclosure arrow at the right end of this section reveals additional output device controls. This includes sample rate settings, audio effects, a mute timer, and more.

The Options menu provides further controls:

• Show system output in menu bar: Displays the device icon in the menu bar, which can be clicked to mute and unmute.
• Meters: Toggle the output device’s level meter on or off. This will affect meters in the main window, as well as the menu bar, if enabled.
• Global Shortcuts: Assign keyboard shortcuts to quickly adjust the output device’s volume up, down, or mute/unmute.

Advanced options, including bypassing effects and resetting all settings to their defaults, can be found in the Advanced section.

Input Device

The system’s selected default input device is used to bring audio into your Mac’s apps. It will often be the Mac’s built-in microphone, but it can be set to an external microphone, or other external hardware featuring audio input ports. You can quickly set the device, adjust input volume, and mute the mic, all without expanding its settings:

Clicking the disclosure arrow at the right end reveals additional controls, allowing you to adjust the sample rate and other options.

Similar to the output device controls, the input device’s Options menu allows you to display the input device in the menu bar.

You can also control the display of the input meters. By default, SoundSource limits metering to a “Passive” state, which means levels will only display when the selected input device is actively being read by another application on the system. Other options include “Active” metering, which will check levels on the input whenever the main window (and/or menu bar item) is displayed, or “Disabled” for no level display at all. Any metering will cause the mic-in-use indicator for MacOS to appear.

There’s also support for quickly adjusting the input device’s volume level with multiple global keyboard shortcuts. And finally, there’s an option to reset any custom settings back to the defaults.

Sound Effects Device

Sound effects are a special type of audio played by applications on the Mac. They’re heard for events such as new emails arriving, messages being sent, and error warnings. You can opt to play sound effects through a secondary audio device, or match the system output.

This sound effects device offers similar controls as the default output device. In SoundSource, you can switch the specific device being used for sound effects, as well as its volume level and more.

← PreviousNext →Main Window OverviewApplications