SOUND

SOUND is a free macOS menu-bar application that gives every app playing audio its own 8-band equalizer, its own volume slider, and its own choice of output device. It is built for Mac users who want finer control over the sound coming out of their machine than macOS provides by default, whether they are listening to music, taking calls, editing video, or running a live stream. Instead of applying a single curve to everything the Mac plays, SOUND treats each running app as something that can be shaped and routed on its own, with a System master available for anything that has not been individually overridden. Everything is controlled from the menu bar, audio is processed locally in real time, and there is no account to create. macOS ships with one volume slider and no equalizer at all. Every app that plays sound shares the same output, so turning music down also turns down the voice call, and there is no built-in way to add bass to a thin-sounding track or tame a harsh podcast. Users who want per-app control have traditionally had to install a virtual audio driver, which adds an extra layer to the Mac's audio stack, may require a restart, and changes how the system reports audio devices. SOUND exists to solve that specific gap: it brings per-app equalization, volume, and routing to the menu bar without installing a driver and without altering the machine's audio setup. The headline capability is the 8-band equalizer. Every app that is playing sound gets its own EQ covering 63 Hz to 8 kHz with plus or minus 12 dB of adjustment, so low bass, low-mid warmth, midrange presence, and treble can all be moved independently. Alongside the per-app controls sits a System master, which shapes everything that the user has not individually overridden. That combination means SOUND can work as a straightforward system-wide equalizer for someone who wants one curve across the whole Mac, while still allowing per-app exceptions whenever a single app needs different treatment — quieter speech, more bass, or a flatter response for critical listening. Volume control is handled per app as well. Each playing app receives an independent slider, so one app can be pulled down without touching the others: muting a noisy browser tab without disturbing a playlist, or lowering a meeting while background music continues. Output routing is the third pillar: any app can be sent to the system output or pinned to a specific speaker. That makes it possible to keep music on a set of good speakers while calls stay in a headset, or to send a video to a display's speakers while a separate app keeps playing elsewhere. Together these three controls replace the single shared slider macOS gives users. Presets make the equalizer quick to use. SOUND ships with Flat, Bass Boost, Vocal, Podcast, and Bright, and users can save their own custom presets. Custom presets sync across a user's Macs through iCloud, so a curve dialled in on one machine is available on another. The interface also visualises what is happening: a live spectrum glow and a BPM readout show what is playing in real time, and they stay quiet when nothing musical is detected. Finally, a single master switch turns processing off entirely, so every app plays untouched and SOUND steps aside completely. Under the hood, SOUND is built on the modern per-app audio engine inside macOS. It uses real-time per-process audio taps with an 8-band peaking-filter cascade, processed with Apple's Accelerate framework. Crucially, there are no virtual audio drivers and no kernel extensions, nothing new appears in Audio MIDI Setup, and no restart is required — when SOUND quits, the Mac's audio is exactly as it was. Because shaping another app's sound requires system audio capture, macOS asks for a one-time permission, granted once through the standard system prompt and used only to process audio in real time. All processing happens locally on the Mac: SOUND does not record, store, or upload what the user listens to, and there is no account to create. The result is a level of audio control that a Mac does not normally offer, without the usual trade-offs. Users can fix a track that is missing bass, make dialogue easier to hear, stop one loud app from dominating the mix, and keep different kinds of audio on different speakers — all from the menu bar, in real time. Because nothing is installed into the audio stack and nothing leaves the machine, the change stays reversible and private: quit the app and the Mac's audio is exactly as it was. SOUND is free to download and use, from the App Store or as a direct DMG, with no account and no email required. The site describes three concrete scenarios. Movie night: send the film to your good speakers while a call stays in your headset, so both run at once without interference. Focus calls: turn one too-loud meeting down without touching the music that is playing. Everyday music: add the bass a track is missing and then save that adjustment as a preset for next time. Beyond those, the per-app controls apply to any situation where several apps are producing sound at once — media players and browsers such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, Tidal, VLC, Plex, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Arc, and Brave, communication apps such as Discord and Zoom, and creative tools such as Pro Tools, Steinberg / Cubase, Audacity, BandLab, DaVinci Resolve, and OBS Studio. SOUND is aimed at Mac users who want more control over their audio than the system provides. It requires macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later, since it relies on modern system audio APIs and the current macOS design language; earlier versions are not supported. The interface is built with native SwiftUI using the macOS Liquid Glass design language, including accessibility fallbacks for Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast. Builds are signed and notarized and update themselves in the background, so users download once and stay current. SOUND is free, is available in 10 languages, and there are no current plans for iOS or Windows versions — it is built specifically for macOS. In short, SOUND turns one shared Mac volume slider into a per-app equalizer, volume mixer, and output router that lives in the menu bar. It delivers that control without a virtual audio driver, without kernel extensions, without a restart, and without an account, while keeping every bit of audio processing local to the Mac.