Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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digid
Posts: 174
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:29 pm

Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by digid » Tue Jul 31, 2018 11:17 am

Usually the volume coming from Live is considerably lower than the volume when playing back sound files in Finder.

So, is there a way to make playback from the Finder lower - while still keeping the volume of Live the same level? Guess what I want is a "Finder mixer" of some sorts, where application volume and Finder volume can be controlled separately.
Listen to my lovely electroacoustics on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/digidada

Stromkraft
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by Stromkraft » Tue Jul 31, 2018 1:51 pm

The costly Loopback is unfortunately the only way that I think could tap individual applications and work without negative side-effects. That I know of anyway. It might also need some other audio settings to give you the control you want.
There are others too, but they tend not to work in current macOS versions, if they ever did. You didn't say which OS version you were running? I've used this for sampling other media and it works fine I think. Probably overpr iced.

Another possibility is Danté Via from Audinate. It's priced lower and there is a 30 day demo.

This is really a Mac question and not a Live question. Have you tried looking/asking at apple.stackexchange.com/?

The simpler way to solve this is use your audio interface for Live audio and System audio for some internal/other speakers. This how my studios are set up. Reminders and stuff never go out in the main big room speakers.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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scheffkoch
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by scheffkoch » Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:08 pm

...isn't it possible to adjust the level within "audio midi setup"?...
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Stromkraft
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by Stromkraft » Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:14 pm

scheffkoch wrote:...isn't it possible to adjust the level within "audio midi setup"?...
The audio level per each individual application? Really? I thought this was only about inputs and outputs. I'm on macOS 10.12. This is a 10.13 thing?
Last edited by Stromkraft on Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Stromkraft
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by Stromkraft » Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:54 pm

Sound Control has a 14-day demo, claimed to work up to macOS 10.13 and is $10. The track record of similar previous software doesn't look good, but it's not much money to risk solving a problem.
Make some music!

scheffkoch
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by scheffkoch » Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:21 pm

"The audio level per each individual application? Really? I thought this was only about inputs and outputs. I'm on macOS 10.12. This is a 10.13 thing?"

...i thought he meant the finder vs. ableton...afaik (i don't sit in front of a mac atm) you can set the levels for the system sound independently...
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Stromkraft
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by Stromkraft » Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:50 pm

scheffkoch wrote: ...i thought he meant the finder vs. ableton...afaik (i don't sit in front of a mac atm) you can set the levels for the system sound independently...
Well, this can be done, as I hinted before, with using an audio interface with Live and something else for System audio — basically the rest.

If you're only using native audio the only balance you have is the master output of Live as there is only a specific level for Alerts in the System Preferences, which isn't very useful here.

If I understood digid correctly Live was at an optimal level in this case. It's not clear to me if an dedicated audio interface is used. This would as you say allow a specific audio level for everything else but Live.
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H20nly
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Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by H20nly » Tue Jul 31, 2018 11:29 pm

depending on your audio interface and the drivers, you can set the volumes independently.

i have mine set to allow for system sounds through the built in speaker while Live's audio and iTunes will play via my Apogee Duet.

i am not at home right now, so i cannot confirm... but i believe there are some options when you open the AudioMIDI Setup application. There is a plus "+" sign in the lower left where you can add devices and tweak some settings to taste.

digid
Posts: 174
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:29 pm

Re: Different volume level in Finder and in Live?

Post by digid » Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:13 am

depending on your audio interface and the drivers, you can set the volumes independently.

i have mine set to allow for system sounds through the built in speaker while Live's audio and iTunes will play via my Apogee Duet.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I am using the Finder to preview audio files I might use in Live (the Live file browser is too inflexible for previewing files, I find), so routing Finder sounds through the internal speakers wouldn't be an option for me.
...isn't it possible to adjust the level within "audio midi setup"?...
Nope, you can't adjust the level for individual applications, unfortunately.

Anyways, I managed to google myself to Sound Control (but thanks for the suggestion, Stromkraft!), which seems to do the trick. I can set the volume for Finder lower than Live, meaning sound files previewed through the Finder can be "normalled" to the output coming from my Live projects ... and it's quite cheap.
Listen to my lovely electroacoustics on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/digidada

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