A slice of audio control heavenHello World of Apple readers, I am new to the staff and will be writing reviews on third-party software and hardware for the Macintosh platform. I switched to the Mac from Windows in May of 2007 and still remember quite vividly some of the initial things that I sorely missed from Windows as well as the solutions that I found. Of course, I am not suggesting that I missed Windows, simply a few features.
The first thing that really bothered me when I switched was having to go into preferences to make any changes to audio settings. Theoretically, that is the same concept as on Windows, but with Windows there is an audio icon in the task bar that provides a quick way to get there rather than having to take the extra steps to access the Control Panel. It baffled me (and still does) why OSX does not natively have this functionality. It also bothered me that my Mac seemed to ignore the fact that if I plugged in headphones, it was logical that I wanted to listen through said headphones. Additionally, I was slow to adopt a Macintosh keyboard, so that only added to my frustrations since I did not have volume controls on my keyboard. At that time I was using an Avant Stellar keyboard which is a modern duplicate of the legendary Northgate OmniKey “clicky” mechanical keyboard which I still believe is the best keyboard ever made; the IBM Model M coming in as a close! second. At my workplace, which uses Windows, I still use an IBM Model M. So at least on that point regarding my new Mac experience, I was not a happy camper.
Then I found this great free application from Rogue Amoeba called SoundSource which places an audio icon (pictured as a set of headphones) in the main menu bar which enables switching input and output audio sources (including settings for System sounds) without having to go into preferences, and glory of all glories, it had an option to “auto-switch to headphones” when they were plugged in. At that time, it had only one really obvious flaw (especially for someone who was not using an Apple keyboard); there were no volume sliders. So in order to change the system volume, I still had to go into preferences or add another icon to the menu bar to show audio output volume! . This too was not an ideal solution because the icon only provided quick access to audio output volume; not input or system sounds volume. Also, personally, I do not like extra icons on my menu bar when functionality should all be contained within one. It is a matter of principle!
However, the Apple gods have smiled upon us, and SoundSource has just been updated to version 2.0 which includes volume sliders! Happy, happy, joy, joy! I am not exaggerating in saying that this is number one on my list of must-have freebies and the first thing I recommend to new switchers. Do your switcher friend a favour: pass it forward.
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