Mixquell
Mixquell
Set each app’s level, equaliser and output device from the menu bar. When a call starts, everything else steps down on its own.
macOS gives you a single slider for everything that makes a sound, and one output device for all of it at once. That is fine until a normal working afternoon starts — and then you are turning the whole machine down to hear one person.
Switch it and see the difference.
Every app can be sent to its own output device, at the same time. Not the whole system — that one app.
Zoom goes to the AirPods while everything else stays on the desk. Switch the whole system’s output in one click, or with a shortcut.
One shortcut silences your microphone across every app at once. Its own menu bar icon turns red so you always know, and it unmutes itself if Mixquell ever quits.
Thin podcast on the browser, heavy music in Spotify, and a call that needs neither. Drag the bands — the curve is live.
Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, Slack, Discord and Webex are recognised out of the box, and you can add any other app. The moment one of them makes or records a sound, everything else fades down to a level you pick, and fades back when the call ends.
Your microphone gets the same treatment: one shortcut mutes you everywhere, and its own menu bar icon turns red so you are never guessing.
Turn the browser down without touching the call. Mute a single app and leave everything else alone.
Music to the speakers, the call to your headphones, at the same time.
One shortcut silences your microphone across every app, and the menu bar shows when something is listening.
A 10-band equaliser per app, with presets. Switch it off and your curve is still there when you switch it back on.
Save the whole mix as “Office” or “Home” and bring it back from the panel or a shortcut.
No driver, no login item you did not ask for, no background service. Delete the app and your Mac is exactly as it was.
Other mixers ship an audio driver or a system component. Mixquell uses the audio interface Apple added in macOS 14.2, so there is no installer, no restart, and nothing left behind if you delete it. Your audio is processed on your Mac while it plays and is never recorded, stored or sent anywhere.
There are three ways to get per-app volume on a Mac. Only one of them leaves the system untouched.
| macOS on its own | Mixers built on an audio driver | Mixquell | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume per app | No, one slider for everything | Yes | Yes |
| A different output per app | No | Yes | Yes |
| Equaliser per app | No | Yes, often parametric | Yes, 10 fixed bands, ±12 dB |
| Music steps aside during calls | No | Sometimes, usually as a manual rule | Yes, automatically |
| Microphone mute with an indicator | Only inside each app | Rarely | Yes, one key, everywhere |
| Installs a system audio driver | Nothing to install | Yes, and usually a restart | No |
| What removing it costs | Not applicable | An uninstaller, and audio to check afterwards | Drag to the Bin |
| What it costs | Included | Often a subscription or a paid upgrade each year | $11.99 once |
Try everything for seven days. If you keep it, you buy it once and every update is included. No subscription.
No. Nothing is added to macOS and there is no restart. If you delete Mixquell, your Mac’s audio is exactly as it was before.
No. Mixquell applies a volume change to audio that is already playing. It has no effect you can measure on battery or on the fans.
Never. macOS requires an audio permission because that is the only mechanism Apple provides for adjusting another app’s sound. Nothing is written to disk and nothing leaves your Mac. Mixquell makes no network connections at all.
Those apps deliver protected audio that macOS will not let anything adjust. Mixquell notices, leaves them completely alone at full volume and tells you so, rather than silencing them.
Each app gets its own 10-band equaliser: fixed frequencies from 32 Hz to 16 kHz, each adjustable up to ±12 dB, with presets for voice, bass, treble, loudness and small speakers. It is not a parametric equaliser — the frequencies and band width are fixed — and it does not host Audio Unit plug-ins.
Yes. Anything macOS lists as an output can be chosen for a single app or for the whole system.
No, and no app can do that. macOS provides no per-app microphone control, so Mixquell mutes the input device itself. That mutes you in every app at once, which is what you want when you are on a call.
No. Mixquell unmutes your microphone when it quits, and if it is ever forced to quit it undoes the mute the next time it starts. It never begins a session muted.
Yes. One purchase covers every Mac signed in to your Apple Account, including family sharing.
No. You buy it once and updates are included. There is no account to make and nothing to renew.