[MlMt] Sound Device for MailMate Sound Effects

[Pierre Igot]

On 11 Apr 2021, at 1:09, Bob Stern wrote:

>> On 10 Apr 2021, at 2:06, Pete Long wrote:
>>
>> Have I missed a setting somewhere to make MailMate use the 'Sound 
>> Effects'
>> audio interface instead of whatever device is highlighted in the 
>> 'Output'
>> section?
>
> That's how Mac audio is supposed to work.  The output of all 
> application programs goes to the Output device, not the Sound Effects 
> device.
>

As far as I know, this is not correct.

There is nothing that prevents apps from using macOS’s Sound Effects 
output, if the sounds that they play are indeed sound effects. It’s up 
to the developer to choose which output he wants to use for which sounds 
coming from his app. In my experience as someone who has been using two 
different outputs for many years, some developers are careful about this 
and some developers are not. (And sometimes even apps that behave 
properly can break this during a routine update, and then one has to 
report the problem to the developer.)

That’s when a third-party tool like Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource 
becomes useful. It allows you to “fix” the output on a per-app basis 
-- until the developer does or if the developer ignores your reports.

However, it doesn’t help if you want SOME of the sounds coming from 
the app to play through the Sound Effects output and the other sounds to 
play through the main sound output. In that case, only the developer can 
fix things.

Since MailMate mostly plays sound effects (as far as I know), Benny 
should configure his app to play sounds through the Sound Effects 
output. (I use SoundSource myself, to make sure. The other nice thing is 
that SoundSource lets you set the volume level on a per-app basis as 
well.)

Pierre

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