makecindy
Featured
cindy
Cindy is an open-source AI agent that runs locally on your machine, integrates multiple AI harnesses and models, and provides memory, skills, and automation to perform real work in your projects and apps.
AI repository intelligence
FR-AI / ANALYSISWhy it is worth attention
It addresses a gap in macOS by allowing independent volume control per app, and includes a live-updating list that identifies which app is making sound, solving a common annoyance.
Who it is for
- macOS users with multiple audio sources
- Professionals (e.g., developers, podcasters) needing fine-grained audio control
- Gamers who want to mute background apps without affecting game audio
- Anyone frustrated by the lack of a system-wide mixer on macOS
Use cases
- Mute a noisy browser tab or video call while keeping other apps audible
- Boost the volume of a quiet app beyond system maximum
- Quickly find and bring to front an app that is playing audio
- Adjust volumes of music player, communication tools, and games independently
Strengths
- Offers volume slider (0–2×), mute toggle, and jump button per app
- Auto-refreshes the app list while the menu is open, no manual refresh needed
- Open-source (MIT) and built transparently on GitHub Actions; users can inspect code
- Lightweight solution for a common missing macOS feature
Considerations
- Not signed or notarized (requires one-time quarantine flag removal via Terminal or system settings)
- Requires microphone permission (used for legitimate audio capture per Apple's API; no recording)
- macOS only; no cross-platform support
README quick start
Voulum
Per-app volume control for macOS, from your menu bar.
macOS lets you set one system volume — but not the volume of each app. Voulum adds the missing mixer. It also answers the daily annoyance behind it: "which of my thirty open windows is making that sound?"
Click the menu-bar icon and you see every app currently playing audio. Each one gets:
- 🔎 a jump button — bring that app to the front so you can find the sound
- 🔊 a volume slider — from mute, through normal, up to 2× boost
- 🔇 a mute toggle — silence one app without touching the rest
The list updates itself while the menu is open — no refresh needed.
Install
Voulum is not signed with an Apple Developer ID or notarized (that costs a paid Apple account). macOS therefore treats it as "unidentified" and will refuse to open it on the first try. This is expected — here's the one-time workaround.
-
Download
Voulum-vX.Y.Z-macos.dmgfrom the latest release and open it. -
Drag Voulum.app onto the Applications shortcut in the window.
-
Clear the quarantine flag so macOS will run it. Open Terminal and run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Voulum.app -
Open Voulum from Applications. Look for the 🔊 icon in your menu bar.
Prefer not to use Terminal?
Double-click the app. macOS blocks it. Then go to System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click "Open Anyway" next to the message about Voulum. Confirm once. (On older macOS you can instead right-click the app ▸ Open ▸ Open.) The Terminal command above is the most reliable method.
First use
- Audio permission. The first time you change an app's volume, macOS asks for permission to capture audio (that's how per-app volume works under the hood). Click Allow. Voulum remembers this — it won't ask again. You can review it later in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Microphone.
- Launch at login. Toggle "Launch at login" at the bottom of the menu to have Voulum start automatically. macOS remembers the setting across reboots.
FAQ
Is it safe / what's the audio permission for? Voulum uses Apple's official Core Audio "process tap" API to intercept an app's audio and play it back at your chosen volume. macOS classes that as audio capture, so it asks permissio
Description
Control each app audio/volume on macOS for free.
Related repositories
Similar projects matched by category, topics, and programming language.
Blaizzy
Featured
nativ
Nativ is a native macOS app that lets you run AI models locally on Apple silicon, offering chat, model management, performance analytics, and an OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible API server.
simonw
Featured
speech-analyzer-cli
A macOS command-line tool that uses Apple's on-device speech APIs to transcribe prerecorded audio into plain text, JSON, JSONL, SRT, or WebVTT.