Filed under: Mac 101
Mac 101: fine tune your Mac's volume


As an additional note, you can also hold down the shift button while pressing the volume keys to mute the "pop" that you hear when pressing the volume key. If you want to permanently silence the volume-adjust beeping, uncheck "Play feedback when volume is changed" in the Sound Effects preference pane and it won't bother you again (helpful for podcasting or other situations when you might need to adjust your volume on the fly).
[via Tekzilla]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
g0pher said 7:45PM on 4-13-2008
Doesn't work in 10.4.11 :(
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Blaktornado said 7:53PM on 4-13-2008
It's a new Leopard feature that wasn't mentioned anywhere. Probably one of those mysterious 300+ features, haha.
Still, it's a nice feature to have :)
Andrew said 6:16PM on 4-14-2008
In 10.4 couldnt you click on the volume icon on the menu bar and when the drop down showed up you could then scroll with a scroll wheel to move the volume level up or down???
I could have sworn it worked in the past but was removed in Leopard.
JosephMohmed said 12:43PM on 4-20-2008
@Andrew: Works for me in 10.5.2.
Thomas said 7:33PM on 4-13-2008
Never knew this. Very handy :)
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Chad said 8:00PM on 4-13-2008
nice tip, never knew it.
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Eric Beavers said 8:27PM on 4-13-2008
Is there any way to make this the default behavior? I know I'll forget the keyboard shortcut :P
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Artr said 8:56PM on 4-13-2008
There's probably a terminal command somewhere which can do it.
Either way, that's really awesome, saves having to do it in iTunes.
Caitlin said 11:25PM on 4-13-2008
Might be able to reprogram that key somehow.
Ryan said 8:30PM on 4-13-2008
nothing like macheist spam...
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dmccullum said 8:32PM on 4-13-2008
Well, seeing as I know only 1 other mac user, and they aren't interested, I have to find other ways... sorry if it offends you
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Quine said 8:39PM on 4-13-2008
Nice tip, didn't know this!
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Peter Zich said 8:41PM on 4-13-2008
Cool, and shift-volume toggles the feedback on volume change. And option-volume opens the sound preferences.
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sushant said 8:51PM on 4-13-2008
Does anyone know how to perminantly fine tune the volume adjustment?
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Neil said 11:41PM on 4-13-2008
to permantly change the behavior
you could re-program the volume key using some software, which im sure exists
make the program automatically press the option + shit keys when the volume buttons are pressed
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Karenaide said 1:45AM on 4-14-2008
Hello!
I'm something of a noob. Does anyone know how to stop the tone that plays when OS X boots up?
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gentlemanfinn said 6:48AM on 4-14-2008
Hold mute when you press the powerbutton, you can also mute the sound before you shutdown.
There is also software to completely turn the boot sound off for ever, can't remember names to any of them though.
THELIVINGCOLOSSUS said 11:12PM on 4-14-2008
Thanks, Finn!
chris said 1:23AM on 4-14-2008
i can't stress how useful this is. i've actually dreamed of a feature exactly like this. it is especially useful if you have amplified speakers connected to your mac.
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Don Holmberg said 12:08PM on 4-14-2008
I noticed that even though it doesn't work under 10.4, that keystroke *does* stop that annoying noise! Yes, I know I can disable or change that noise, but sometimes it comes in handy...so this is a nice work-around. Thanks!
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