Amplify Quiet Videos and Podcasts on Your Mac

You turn your Mac up to 100%, and the interview is still a whisper. That's not your imagination. Audio is mastered at very different loudness levels: a webinar recorded on a laptop mic, a quiet indie podcast or an old lecture upload can be much softer than a professionally produced video. With the Mac already at maximum, there's no headroom left.

macOS has no built-in per-app volume mixer, and its volume control stops at 100%. Here's what you can try first, and how to boost just the quiet app.

1. Check the obvious volume controls

• The player's own slider. YouTube, podcast apps and most video players have their own volume control. Make sure it's at maximum, not just the Mac's volume.
• The output device. In System Settings > Sound > Output, make sure the right device is selected and its volume is up.
• Headphone safety. If your Mac shows a Headphone Safety option with Reduce Loud Audio turned on, it can cap your headphone volume. Check it if you listen on headphones.

2. Use the player's own boost, if it has one

Some apps can go past 100% on their own:

• VLC's volume slider can go above 100%, so for a downloaded video or lecture it's an easy fix.
• Some podcast apps have a voice boost or loudness option in their playback settings that lifts quiet speech.
• For browsers, some extensions add a volume boost for the current tab. Check each extension's reviews and permissions before installing.

The catch: each app works differently, many apps have no boost at all, and you end up configuring every app separately.

3. Boost one app above 100%

To make a quiet source louder than the Mac normally allows, you need software that applies extra gain to that one app. That's what a per-app volume mixer with a boost does.

SoundDial shows every running app in a menu-bar list, each with its own slider from 0% to 200%. Slide a quiet app above 100% and only that app gets louder. Your music, notifications or a call in another window stay where they were, so you're not blasting your whole Mac to hear one soft podcast.

Step by step

1. Install SoundDial from the Mac App Store.
2. Start playing the quiet video, podcast or lecture in whatever app you use: Safari, Chrome, a podcast app, VLC.
3. Click the SoundDial icon in the menu bar. You'll see a slider for each app you have open.
4. Drag that app's slider above 100%, in small steps, until it's loud enough.
5. Leave everything else alone. Only the app you boosted gets louder.

SoundDial works per app, not per browser tab. If you boost Chrome, every Chrome tab gets louder, so lower it again when the quiet video is over. You can also mute any single app with one click while the others keep playing.

More on this: boost one app's volume on Mac.

A word of caution on boosting

Boosting adds gain, and SoundDial has no limiter, so a loud source pushed too far can clip or distort. A very quiet, low-quality recording only has so much to give. If it starts to sound harsh, back off a little. On built-in laptop speakers, go easier than with headphones or external speakers.

Other options

• SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba costs $49 and is sold outside the Mac App Store.
• Background Music is a free, open-source app.
• FineTune is a per-app audio project many people find through GitHub.

For any of these, check its website for current features and price. If you only need one quiet app to be louder, a simple per-app slider is usually enough. See also boost quiet apps on Mac.

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.