One app is too loud
Discord, too loud.
Or far too quiet.
Short answer
Check Discord's own controls first, in this order: the per-user volume (right-click someone in a voice channel), the output volume slider in User Settings → Voice & Video, the output device selection, and Automatic Gain Control. If Discord as a whole is still wrong relative to your other apps, that is macOS's missing per-app volume, and a per-app mixer is the only real fix.
Discord is the app people complain about most, and it is not because Discord is badly built. It is because Discord stacks four volume controls on top of each other — one of which is per-person — and then sits on top of a system that has no per-app volume at all. When something sounds wrong, there are five places it could be.
Work through them in this order.
1. The per-user volume (the one people miss)
Discord stores a separate volume for every individual person. If one friend is deafening and everybody else is normal, this is almost certainly it.
- In the voice channel, right-click (or Control-click) the person's name.
- Drag User Volume.
It persists per user, everywhere, forever — which is why a slider you nudged once during a noisy game two years ago is still quietly ruining that person's audio today. If someone is inexplicably inaudible, check this before anything else.
2. Discord's output volume and device
User Settings → Voice & Video holds the controls for Discord as a whole:
- Output Volume — Discord's own master. This is the right place to fix "Discord is too loud compared to my game," because it does not touch anything else.
- Output Device — Discord keeps its own device selection. If you switched headphones in macOS and Discord is still pointed at the built-in speakers, everything sounds wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with volume.
- Automatic Gain Control — this rides your input level. If your own voice is inconsistent to other people, turn it off and set input sensitivity by hand.
- Attenuation — reduces other audio when someone speaks. If audio around you keeps dipping unexpectedly, set this to 0% and take control of levels yourself.
3. Server-side and stream volumes
Two more that catch people: when you are watching someone's screen share or stream, that has its own volume slider separate from their voice, and Soundboard clips have their own level in Voice & Video. If "Discord is too loud" only happens during screen shares, that is the slider to move.
4. When Discord is right and everything else is wrong
There is a specific case none of the above solves. Discord is at a perfectly good level for voice. Your game is at a perfectly good level for the game. They are simply not at the right level relative to each other, and the only control macOS gives you moves them together.
The general fix: give Discord its own fader
Everything above is Discord fixing Discord. The reason you keep running into this is more basic: macOS has exactly one volume, and it moves everything at once. Windows has had a per-application volume mixer since 2007. macOS never shipped one, and it is not an oversight Apple is quietly working on — it is a consequence of how Core Audio was built.
What changed is that in 2024 Apple shipped Core Audio process taps as a public API, which lets a signed app capture and adjust the audio of one specific process in user space. No virtual audio driver, no kernel extension, no restart, and no swapping your default output device for a fake one. That is what MixPill is built on, and it is why the setup is a single macOS permission rather than an installer and a reboot. The longer version is in why macOS has no volume mixer.
In practice: every app currently making sound gets a row with a fader, a mute, a solo and a live dBFS meter. Set Discord to 40% and leave everything else alone. The level belongs to Discord and persists, so you set it once. Unity sits at 80% of the fader travel with up to +6 dB above it, so an app that is too quiet can be pushed up rather than only down — which is half the reason people go looking for a mixer in the first place.
All of that is free, for unlimited apps, permanently — no trial clock and no nag screens. Pro adds per-app EQ and a noise gate, per-app output routing, presets, and Auto-Ducking that drops everything else to 20% whenever a call takes hold of an audio input.
If you are also streaming or recording
Once a stream is involved, "how loud is Discord" splits into two questions — how loud it is in your headphones, and how loud it is in the recording. Those want different answers, and the answer is not the same fader. That setup gets its own article: routing game audio and Discord separately on a Mac, without a virtual cable.
Common questions
Why is one person in the voice channel far louder than everyone else?
Discord keeps a separate volume for each user. Right-click their name in the voice channel and drag the User Volume slider. It sticks for that person across servers and sessions, so one bad setting follows you around until you reset it.
Does Discord's Attenuation setting work on macOS?
The setting exists in User Settings → Voice & Video and is worth checking if audio is dropping unexpectedly when people speak. Its reach on macOS is more limited than on Windows, where the operating system exposes per-application volume for any app to use. If it is not behaving the way you expect, set it to 0% and control levels with a per-app mixer instead.
Why does my own game get quieter when someone talks?
That is attenuation doing its job, or Discord's automatic gain reacting. Both are in Voice & Video. Turn attenuation to 0% if you would rather set levels yourself.
Can I turn Discord down without turning my game down?
Not with macOS alone — there is one system volume. A per-app mixer gives Discord its own fader independent of the game, which is the whole point of the category.
Try it
Per-app volume, mute and live metering are free forever, for unlimited apps. No driver, no restart, one macOS permission.