
Background Music, an OS X audio utility - dhruvbhatia
https://github.com/kyleneideck/BackgroundMusic
======
Sidnicious
Off topic, check out the uninstall instructions. Uninstallation is bad on OS
X, and it would be amazing if someone could come up with a nice, general
answer (like Sparkle did for updates).

On topic, this is great work.

~~~
angeloashmore
OS X apps installed via Homebrew Cask can have a "zap" command defined that
will automate a deep uninstall:

`brew cask zap <app_name>`

It isn't an acceptable answer for the average Mac user, but it at least solves
the issue for a subset of users.

~~~
techdragon
The majority of MacPorts programs I installed over the years uninstalled
cleanly.

Also I could be wrong but isn't/wasn't the whole "fat binaries + static
binaries + app binary and its associated assets live in a magic folder that
the OS-X GUI displays as 'the app' \+ other past Mac app trickery such as
resource forks etc" all meant to make both app install and UN-install painless
and easy ?

I know and used a few commercial apps that were a damn pain to scrub
completely off the Macs I owned but that was expensive proprietary commercial
software that felt the need to take my money and also saddle me with DRM to
enforce their licensing.

~~~
pyre
Not all Mac apps are of the "drag to your /Applications folder" variety. Some
still come with an installer they expect you to run, and prompt you for admin
rights.

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paublyrne
A general mixer was the one thing I really missed from my windows machine when
I bought my first Macbook. I wasn't a programmer back then and assumed that
since there were practically no apps that allowed you to mix app volumes it
was technically very difficult to do on OSX.

I'll be interested to see how you develop this.

~~~
genmon
Rogue Amoeba do a good collection of audio apps:
[http://rogueamoeba.com](http://rogueamoeba.com) \-- it's possible to add
effects, mix, etc.

Nothing as simple + dedicated as Background Music tho.

~~~
themartorana
No, but I pair Audio Hijack 3 which is just amazing (Audio Hijack Pro was
great, the renamed "3" drops the "Pro" and adds gorgeous) with an external
Schiit Modi 2 DAC and Vali amp (and some nice Seinheisser headphones) and have
fantastic music for sub $500.

Background Music could totally slip into this setup!

~~~
voltagex_
What did you use Audio Hijack for?

~~~
themartorana
Mostly a series of equalizers, and volume control. The amp provides amazing
volume control (not much distortion even at high high volume) so I pull it
back a bit before sending it through. I have different equalizers so I can
turn on and odd discrete passes based on the music.

AH's ability to send the sound across multiple output paths is also really
nice and I use that (less often) as well.

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ngriffin731
Great work! This could be even better by quickly fading in the audio like iOS.
It a bit abrasive for it to just drop, especially on larger speakers.

And obviously having a dmg would be better too.

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chrissnell
Feature request: figure out how to make the pause button on my Mac keyboard
pause a YouTube video.

~~~
xemoka
Would someting like Streamkeys [
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/streamkeys/ekpipjo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/streamkeys/ekpipjofdicppbepocohdlgenahaneen)
] work?

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checker659
There's also Volume Mixer for Mac : [http://volumemixer-
app.com](http://volumemixer-app.com)

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yoavm
I've been using this GNOME extension for a while and couldn't be happier:
[https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/858/volume-
mixer/](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/858/volume-mixer/)

It's only the mixer though (with the volume boost) - no automatic pause or
recording system audio (not that I ever missed these).

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0x0
Hoping Apple would be sherlocking this for MacOS 12 :)

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Kequc
Surprised to just have realised this wasn't built into os x. I seem to
remember Spotify pausing itself when I received a Skype call. But maybe that
was just my imagination or a dream or something.

Felt like per app audio volume was standard in operating systems, I didn't
even think about it.

~~~
turshija
I'm 100% sure iTunes pauses itself when receiving Skype call, without any
custom software. Not sure about other players though.

~~~
conradev
It's also 100% possible that Skype is the one pausing iTunes in that case.

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aioprisan
Someone needs to build this into a DMG

~~~
explorigin
...or homebrew

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xythobuz
Woah. I've recently tried to do something similar in userspace, but came to
the conclusion that it's not possible without a kernel driver. I'm impressed,
and tempted to use this soon :)

~~~
checker659
It's possible. See Volume Mixer ([http://volumemixer-
app.com](http://volumemixer-app.com)).

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loktarogar
Looks great! Could be better with a "how it works" section, as it seems it
shunts things off into a background music channel?

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rosstex
Wow, thanks for this!

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BenElgar
Does anyone know of anything similar for Linux?

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herrvogel-
This is perfect and so easy to use. Thanks!

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KiDD
Would buy

