How to disable audio ducking? Ducking not deactivating after Facetime call.

Question

Level 1

17 points

How to disable audio ducking? Ducking not deactivating after Facetime call.

I currently observe this behavior on Catalina but also in the previous system.

Audio ducking, a feature that kicks in when you make or receive a Facetime call, lowers the volume of other audio sources so that you can make that Facetime call without having to locate/deactivate the other sound.

However, in my case, sound ducking frequently, not always, doesn't deactivate properly after a Facetime call. The only way to reverse this issue is by restarting my Mac. To my great surprise, there doesn't seem to be any pref that lets me deactivate this feature.

I did read about buying some 3rd party apps to hack this issue. This shouldn't have to be hacked.

If anyone else is experiencing this issue, please indicate that with a simple +1.

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 11, 2020 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

davemartone

Level 1

14 points

May 4, 2020 4:53 PM in response to i_rina

This did not work for me and was unchecked from the beginning

Did it work for any of the others here?

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Answer 2

i_rina

Community Specialist

Apr 13, 2020 7:41 AM in response to current

Hello current,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

I understand from reading your post that you want to know if there is a way to disable audio ducking on your Mac. You've come to the right place for help and I am happy to provide to you how you can disable this feature.

Follow these steps:

Go > Utilities > VoiceOver Utility

Click Sound on the left side of the box.

Uncheck Enable audio ducking.

I also want to provide you with the article for VoiceOver Utility for future use.

Sound category, VoiceOver Utility on Mac

Let me know if that worked for you.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

May 21, 2020 5:46 AM in response to davemartone

Hi,

Don't know if this will answer your question but...

I'm in Mojave and unchecked all 3 boxes in the Voiceover utility "sound" preference, including 'enable audio ducking'. A couple of my guitar students are each separately in Catalina and Mojave and it worked for us for two different sessions, we can jam together with no noise gate/ ducking.

For some, or most, of my other students, this does not work.

***Apple, please, with so many online now, especially music lessons, make it easier for "crosstalk"/playing, jamming together in FaceTime! Cell phones can do this with towers miles away, so should a Mac and (FIOS) high speed internet!

Chris

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