Chorus

Chorus is a menu-bar app that gives you real control over your Mac's audio. Group several output devices so they play as one, with a proper volume slider (something macOS's own multi-output tool cannot do). Pick your microphone, send individual apps to specific speakers, switch automatically when a device connects, and trigger any of it with a keyboard shortcut. Built for setups like two Studio Displays that should just work together as one sound.

Just download and open it. Every feature works immediately for 30 days, with no account, no card details, and nothing to fill in. If you decide to keep it, it is a one-time purchase of $9.99 with no subscription. If you don't, the trial simply ends and nothing is charged. There is no separate "demo mode" to worry about; the trial is the full app.

Download the DMG from theodorehq.com/chorus, open it, and drag Chorus into your Applications folder. When you open it for the first time, a small speaker icon appears in your menu bar. That icon is Chorus: click it to see the panel with your outputs, input and playing apps. There is nothing else to set up, and no restart is needed.

Chorus lives entirely in the menu bar, so it never appears in the Dock or in Cmd-Tab. This is intentional: it is a quick-access audio control, not a document window you switch between. Look for a small speaker icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen, usually near the clock. Clicking it opens the panel; right-clicking it opens Settings and other options.

Right-click (or Control-click) the Chorus icon in your menu bar and choose "Settings…" from the menu that appears. The same menu also has "Open Chorus" for the main panel, a Support submenu, "Check for Updates," and Quit. Settings itself is a separate window with tabs for General, Outputs, Inputs, Auto-Switch, Volume & Keys, Dictation, Shortcuts, Automation and About.

Chorus needs macOS 13 (Ventura) or later and runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, since it ships as a single universal app. Two features need a slightly newer system: per-app volume and routing, and the live level meters in the panel, both need macOS 14.4 or later, because they use a newer part of macOS's audio system. Everything else works from macOS 13 onward.

Chorus checks for updates automatically, roughly once an hour, and again shortly after it starts up. When one is found you'll see a Sparkle update prompt with what's new; approving it downloads and installs the new version for you. To check right away, right-click the menu-bar icon and choose "Check for Updates." Every future update is included at no extra cost, whether you're on the trial or have bought a licence.

Right-click the menu-bar icon, choose Settings, and open the General tab. Turn on "Launch at Login" and Chorus will start quietly in the menu bar every time you sign in, with no window popping up. This uses Apple's standard Login Items system, so you can also switch it off from System Settings, General, Login Items if you ever prefer to start Chorus manually.

Right-click the menu-bar icon and choose Quit, then drag Chorus from your Applications folder to the Trash. Chorus doesn't install a driver, a kernel extension, or anything else outside the app itself, so nothing is left behind that changes how your Mac's audio works; it goes straight back to exactly how it was before. If you turned on Launch at Login, that setting is removed automatically when you delete the app.

Open the panel and click the "New Group" button in the Output card (the small icon in its top-right corner). Choose the devices you want to play together, such as two Studio Displays, give the group a name, and save it. The group then appears in your Output list alongside your single devices, and selecting it sends audio to every device in it at once, in sync.

Yes. Once a group is selected, the panel shows a master volume slider for it, and your Mac's volume keys and menu-bar scroll both control that group directly. This is the main thing Chorus adds over macOS's built-in multi-output device, which plays to several speakers at once but gives you no way to control their combined volume at all.

Yes. Open the group in the panel and you'll see a separate slider for each device inside it, shown as a percentage, alongside the group's overall master volume. If one Studio Display naturally plays louder than the other, pull its slider down until they sound even, then leave the master slider for your everyday volume control. Balance settings are saved with the group.

Right-click the group in the Output card of the panel and choose Rename. A small box opens with the group's name; type the new one and press Return or click Save. Press Escape or click Cancel to leave it as it was. A group always needs a name, so Save stays off while the field is empty.

This works for any group at any time, whether or not it is playing. Renaming a group that is playing does not interrupt it.

Yes. Open the panel and every app currently playing audio appears in the Apps section with its own volume slider, going up to 400% for a real boost, plus a mute button. Changing one app's volume has no effect on anything else playing. This needs macOS 14.4 or later; on 13 or 14.3 the Apps section simply doesn't appear, since the underlying system support isn't there yet.

Yes, this is one of Chorus's core features. In the Apps section, click an app's device menu and choose where it should play, separately from everything else. Music can stay on your desk speakers while a call goes to your headphones, each at its own volume. Chorus remembers each app's chosen device, so it keeps routing there the next time that app plays sound.

Open the panel and the Input card shows your available microphones. Click the one you want, and it becomes your Mac's system default input straight away, the same as changing it in System Settings, only faster. If you don't see a microphone you expect, check Settings, Inputs to make sure it hasn't been hidden.

Yes. Auto-Switch lets Chorus choose your speakers, and your microphone, for you whenever something connects or disconnects. It is off until you turn it on in Settings, Auto-Switch, and Outputs and Inputs each have their own switch and their own list.

Each list is read from the top down, and Chorus uses the first entry whose devices are all connected:

• Rules come first. A rule says "when these devices are connected, use this group or device", for example "when both Studio Displays are connected, use my Studio Displays group".
• Your other speakers sit below the rules, and when a rule stops matching, Chorus switches to the first of them that is connected. Until you arrange them, your Mac's own speakers come first and AirPlay devices come last; Move Up and Move Down put them in any order you like.

A few things worth knowing:

• Order matters. The first rule that matches wins, and a new rule is added at the bottom, so put your most specific rule at the top, such as a headphones rule above a rule for your desk speakers.
• Chorus acts when your devices change, not all the time. If you pick something yourself in the panel, Chorus leaves it alone until a device connects or disconnects.
• A rule can name a device that is not plugged in right now. Chorus remembers the devices it has seen and shows them as "Not connected", so you can set up a headphones rule without wearing them.
• Each rule has its own switch, so you can pause one without deleting it. If you delete a group a rule uses, the rule shows "Deleted Group" until you point it somewhere else.

Yes. Open Settings and go to the Shortcuts tab, where you'll find every group, every output device, and every input device listed with a field next to it. Click a field and press the key combination you want; it works from any app, system-wide. You can also assign shortcuts for two general actions: showing or hiding the panel, and Mute Speakers, which silences your sound and leaves your microphone alone. To remove a shortcut, click its field and press Escape.

Yes. Your Mac's regular F11/F12 volume keys and mute key control whichever group is currently active, showing the same on-screen feedback you'd expect. This needs Accessibility permission, since that's how macOS lets any app listen for those keys. Settings, Volume & Keys shows whether it's granted, with an Enable button if it isn't yet. The mute key goes further than the volume keys: it silences everything your Mac can play through, including your main output and any app you've sent to its own speaker, and it stays muted until you press it again.

Two handy ones. Scroll up or down while your pointer is over the Chorus menu-bar icon to adjust the volume of the active group (or your default output, if no group is on) without opening the panel at all. Hold Option and click the icon to instantly toggle mute. Both are quicker than opening the panel for a small adjustment. While Chorus is quietening your audio for a dictation, the icon dims until your audio is back.

Yes. Open Settings, go to Outputs or Inputs, and switch off any device you don't want cluttering the panel or the New Group picker, such as a hub output you never actually listen through. A hidden device already inside a group keeps working normally, and a hidden input can still be used by an Auto-Switch rule; hiding it only tidies what you see day to day.

Yes, both are optional and live in Settings, Volume & Keys. "Show Volume HUD" displays a small on-screen overlay when the volume keys change a group, and you can choose where it appears from a 3x3 position grid. "Confirmation Sound" plays a short tick through a device the moment you select it, so you can hear which one you've just switched to. Turn either off if you'd rather have silence.

Yes. Chorus responds to a handful of chorus:// links that any launcher, automation app or Stream Deck can open: activate a named group, deactivate the active one, switch to a single device, set the volume, or toggle mute. Settings, Automation lists each command with an example, ready to paste into whatever tool you're wiring it up in.

Chorus steps aside and then brings your group back by itself. If headphones or another device take over the sound, Chorus lets them, and switches your group back on once they disconnect. If your group's speakers disappear for a while, which speakers built into monitors often do when the screens sleep, Chorus pauses the group and turns it back on as soon as a speaker returns. Turning a group off yourself always sticks. If you pick a different output in the Mac's own sound menu, Chorus leaves the sound there for as long as that device stays connected. To have a group take over whenever certain speakers are connected, add an Auto-Switch rule in Settings.

Here is how to make Chorus turn a group on whenever its speakers are connected:

1. Right-click the Chorus icon in your menu bar and choose Settings.
2. Open Auto-Switch, choose Outputs, and turn Auto-Switch on.
3. Click Add Rule.
4. Under "When these are connected", tick every speaker in your group.
5. Under "Then use this output", pick your group, then click Save.

From then on, Chorus turns your group on whenever all of those speakers are connected, including after your Mac or your screens have been asleep. To change or remove a rule later, click the ... button beside it for Edit, Move Up, Move Down and Delete.

If you also use headphones, add a rule for them and move it above your group's rule. Otherwise the group rule wins and Chorus keeps the sound on your group when the headphones connect.

Yes. Open Settings, Auto-Switch, choose Inputs and turn it on. Microphones work the same way as speakers: click Add Rule, tick the device that should trigger it under "When these are connected", then pick the microphone under "Then use this input".

For example, a rule for your headset means that plugging it in switches your Mac to the headset's microphone. Below your rules sit your other microphones, and when a rule stops matching, Chorus switches to the first of them that is connected. Until you arrange them, your Mac's own microphone comes first; Move Up and Move Down put them in any order you like.

The input list is completely separate from the output one, so a rule for your speakers never changes your microphone. A rule keeps working if you later hide its microphone in Settings, Inputs.

Normally the Chorus panel closes as soon as you click somewhere else, like any menu-bar app. Turn on Keep Panel Open in Settings, General and it stays on screen while you work in other apps, which is handy while you are balancing speakers or setting app volumes. Click the menu-bar icon or press Escape to close it.

Yes, and microphones too. Right-click any speaker or microphone in the panel and choose Rename, or open Settings, Outputs or Inputs and click the ... button beside it. Type the new name, such as "Left Display", and press Return or click Save. With a group playing, you can also double-click a speaker's name under the group.

The new name shows everywhere in Chorus, which makes two identical displays easy to tell apart. To go back to the device's own name, choose Reset Name from the same menu, or clear the name and save.

When you create a group, one speaker keeps time and the others stay in step with it, which is how Chorus keeps them playing together without drifting apart. The first speaker you tick becomes the clock, and the New Group screen shows which one it is under "Master (clock)". To choose a different one before you save, click the metronome icon beside it.

Any speaker works, and your main speaker is usually the natural choice. The clock is set when the group is created, so to change it later, create the group again and pick a different speaker.

When a dictation app like Raycast, superwhisper or Paraspeech starts listening, Chorus can pause, lower or mute your audio, then bring it back as soon as you stop. Open Settings and choose the Dictation tab to see the dictation apps on your Mac. For each one, Default follows that app's own setting, or pick Pause, Lower, Mute or Off to have Chorus handle it. Lowered Volume sets how loud your audio stays when an app is set to Lower, from 0% to 100%. Pause stops your music or podcast and carries on from the same spot when you finish. Your audio fades down and back up smoothly, and the menu bar icon dims while Chorus is quietening it. It works with groups and single speakers, and needs macOS 14.4 or later. If your dictation app isn't listed, use Add App.

Chorus recognises superwhisper, Paraspeech, Raycast, VoiceInk, TypeWhisper, Pindrop, Hex, Handy, Wispr Flow, MacWhisper and Monologue. Only the ones installed on your Mac appear in Settings, Dictation. For any other app that listens to your microphone, click Add App at the bottom of the list and choose it from your Applications folder. To remove an app you added, right-click its row and choose Remove.

Default does whatever that dictation app is set to do itself. Chorus reads the setting from superwhisper, VoiceInk, TypeWhisper, Pindrop, Hex and Handy, so changing it in those apps changes what Chorus does. Raycast mutes. For apps whose setting Chorus can't read, such as Paraspeech, Wispr Flow and MacWhisper, and for any app you add, Default lowers your audio. The button Default matches is shown with a light blue tint, so you can always see what will happen. Pick a different option to override it.

Pause stops what's playing, such as your music or a podcast, and carries on from the same spot when you finish. Lower turns your audio down to the level you set in Lowered Volume. Mute silences your speakers completely. Off leaves your audio exactly as it is. Whichever you choose, your audio fades down as you start dictating and fades back up about half a second after you stop.

Open Settings, choose Dictation, and move the Lowered Volume slider. It sets how loud your audio stays while an app set to Lower is listening, from 0% to 100% of your normal volume. At 0% your speakers are muted. The slider is greyed out when none of your apps will lower your audio, because it only applies to Lower.

Yes. With a group, Chorus handles your audio for every app, including those on Default. On a single speaker, such as your Mac's own speakers or headphones, Default leaves it to the dictation app, since those apps already handle a single speaker themselves. Any other choice you make, such as Pause, applies on every speaker.

Open Settings, choose Dictation, and turn off the switch beside Apps. Chorus then leaves your audio alone whenever you dictate, and your dictation apps behave exactly as they would without Chorus. Your choices are kept, so turning the switch back on picks up where you left off. To leave a single app alone, choose Off for that app instead.

The icon dims while Chorus has paused, lowered or muted your audio for a dictation, and returns to normal as your audio comes back. It's a quick way to see that Chorus stepped in, and that it will bring your audio back by itself when you finish.

Chorus is a one-time purchase of $9.99. There's no subscription, no recurring charge, and no separate fee for future updates; every version you'll ever get is included in that single price. A licence covers up to three Macs, and you get a full 30-day trial first, so you can try everything before deciding.

After buying, Polar shows your key straight away and emails it to you too. In Chorus, right-click the menu-bar icon, choose Settings, and open the About tab: under Licence you'll find Enter Licence Key. Paste it in and this Mac activates immediately, whether your trial is still running or has already finished. Keys look like CHORUS- followed by a string of letters and numbers, so paste rather than retype it to avoid a mistyped character.

Sign in to your Polar account with the email address you used to buy Chorus, and your key is right there. If you can't find your purchase confirmation email or the portal doesn't recognise your address, email support@theodorehq.com and we'll look it up and get it back to you.

One Chorus licence activates on up to three Macs at once, for your own personal use. If you regularly work between a desktop and a laptop, or have a home and an office setup, that's usually plenty. If you ever need a fourth, deactivating an old Mac you no longer use frees up its slot straight away.

Yes. Open Settings, Shortcuts, where every group, speaker and microphone is listed with a field beside it. Click a field and press the keys you want. Shortcuts work from any app.

• A group's shortcut turns that group on, and pressing it again turns it off.
• A speaker's shortcut sends your sound straight to that speaker, with a short tick so you can hear where it went if Confirmation Sound is on.
• A microphone's shortcut switches your Mac's input to that microphone.

There are also two general shortcuts: Show or Hide Panel, and Mute Speakers, which silences your sound and leaves your microphone alone.

A shortcut needs at least one of Command, Option, Control or Shift. If another app already uses the same keys, the shortcut may not fire, so pick a combination nothing else uses. To remove a shortcut, click its field and press Escape or Delete. Devices you have hidden in Settings are left out of the list.

Shortcuts also work with a Stream Deck: add a Hotkey action to a button and record the same keys.

Yes. Grouping, routing, auto-switch, shortcuts and every audio feature run entirely on your Mac and need no internet connection at all. The only time Chorus needs to be online is to activate a licence key the first time, and to occasionally revalidate it, which it does automatically. If you're offline when that happens, a bought licence keeps working for 7 days before it needs to check in again.

Once the 30 days are up, opening Chorus shows a simple screen with a Buy button instead of the panel. Nothing is deleted or reset: your groups, shortcuts and settings are all still there, waiting for a licence key. Buy whenever you're ready and everything picks up exactly where you left it, right down to your custom groups and shortcuts.

Because Chorus is digital and your key is handed over the moment you buy, checkout asks you to agree to that immediate delivery, which is standard for software sold this way. That said, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are always protected: if Chorus genuinely doesn't work as described, you're entitled to a repair, a replacement, or a refund by law. Email support@theodorehq.com explaining what's happened and we'll take it from there.

Open the panel and check which output or group has the tick next to it; that's what your Mac is currently playing through. If it's a group, make sure every device in it is switched on and connected. It's also worth checking that individual app hasn't been muted or routed elsewhere in the Apps section, since a per-app route overrides the system default for that one app only.

Yes. Chorus responds to links that any launcher, automation app or Stream Deck can open. Settings, Automation lists the main ones, ready to copy:

• chorus://activate?group=Studio Displays turns a group on, by its name
• chorus://deactivate turns the active group off
• chorus://single?device=AirPods sends your sound to one device, using the name your Mac gives it in its Sound settings
• chorus://volume?set=50 sets the group volume from 0 to 100, and chorus://volume?delta=10 or delta=-10 nudges it up or down
• chorus://mute mutes or unmutes your speakers

The volume links work while a group is on. There is also a link for one app at a time, on macOS 14.4 or later: chorus://app?bundle=com.spotify.client&volume=50 sets Spotify's volume, and you can add mute=1 to mute it, or device=AirPods to send it to one speaker.

To switch your microphone from a Stream Deck, give the microphone a keyboard shortcut in Settings, Shortcuts, then add a Hotkey action on the Stream Deck that presses it.

If a device is missing, check it's genuinely connected and check Settings, Outputs or Inputs to make sure you haven't hidden it there by mistake; hidden devices are switched off from that same screen. If instead a device you hid keeps reappearing, it's usually a USB or Thunderbolt hub reassigning that device a slightly different internal identifier on reconnect; Chorus recognises this and re-applies your setting automatically, but it can take one more reconnect to catch up.

The physical F11/F12 volume keys need Accessibility permission to work with any app, not just Chorus. Open Settings, Volume & Keys, and check whether it shows as granted; if not, click Enable and approve the system prompt. If you've reinstalled or updated Chorus and it was working before, macOS sometimes needs the permission granted again: open System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, and toggle Chorus off and back on.

If you've purchased Chorus, your licence key is stored in your Mac's Keychain rather than in a plain settings file, since that's the properly secure place for it. macOS asks you to confirm this the first time, and choosing "Always Allow" means you won't be asked again. During the free trial, nothing licence-related touches the Keychain at all, so trial users shouldn't see this prompt.

Per-app control needs macOS 14.4 or later; on 13 or 14.3 the Apps section doesn't appear at all, so check Settings, About for your macOS version first. If you're on 14.4+, an app only shows up while it's actually producing sound, so check something is actually playing. If it's still not appearing, quit and reopen the app in question: Chorus picks up newly launched apps as soon as they start playing audio.

Call apps like FaceTime, Zoom and Teams always play through a single real device tied to whichever microphone is currently selected, never a combined group; this is how macOS itself handles call audio, to keep echo cancellation working properly. So a call plays through whichever device your input is set to. If you want a call to come from a particular screen, switch your input to the microphone on that device in the panel first.

Yes, this is what macOS calls its audio-capture permission, and Chorus asks for it the first time you use per-app volume, routing, or the live level meters. It sounds bigger than it is: Chorus reads live audio only to measure its level or send it to a different device, and nothing is ever recorded, saved, or sent anywhere. You can see exactly this described in our privacy policy at theodorehq.com/chorus/privacy.html.

Yes. Accessibility is the standard macOS permission any app needs to respond to the physical volume keys, and it's the only reason Chorus asks for it. If you'd rather not grant it, that's fine: every other feature works exactly the same, you'll just use the panel, the menu-bar scroll, or your own custom shortcuts to adjust volume instead of the physical keys.

First check Auto-Switch is actually turned on in Settings, for the Outputs or Inputs scope you're expecting it to affect. Then check the rule itself: it only fires when every device it lists is connected at once, so if a rule needs two speakers and only one is plugged in, it won't trigger. Next check the order, which is the most common surprise: the list runs top to bottom and the first rule that matches wins, and a new rule is added at the bottom, so a broader rule above it can win every time. Use Move Up to put the more specific rule first, for example a headphones rule above a rule about your desk speakers. Auto-Switch also won't override a device you've just chosen manually, until something about your connected devices actually changes.

Right-click the menu-bar icon, open Settings, and go to About, where you'll find direct links to Report a Bug, Request a Feature, and our full FAQ and roadmap. You can also go straight to support.theodorehq.com/chorus, or email support@theodorehq.com. We read every report and reply from a real person, not a form letter.

Many dictation apps quieten other audio by changing the Mac's own volume or mute switch. A group plays through several speakers at once, and macOS doesn't give a group a single volume of its own, so those settings have nothing to change. Chorus handles it for you instead. Open Settings, choose Dictation, and make sure the switch beside Apps is on. With Default selected, Chorus follows your dictation app's own setting. You can also pick Pause, Lower or Mute for any app. This needs Chorus 1.0.10 or later on macOS 14.4 or later.

Pause works with anything that appears in your Mac's Now Playing controls, such as Music, Spotify, podcast apps and videos playing in a browser. It only pauses if something is actually playing, and when you finish it resumes that same app, and only if it is still paused, so music you stopped yourself never starts on its own. If Now Playing can't be reached, Chorus mutes your audio instead so you are never talked over. If Pause still does nothing, check the app shows in Now Playing in Control Centre.

That's deliberate. If you change the volume while Chorus has your audio lowered or muted, Chorus takes it as you wanting to hear it and steps aside until that dictation ends. The next time you dictate, it quietens your audio as normal.

Chorus waits about half a second after your dictation app stops listening, then fades your audio back up, so it doesn't flicker if you pause mid-sentence. For Paraspeech it waits about a second, because Paraspeech briefly restarts the microphone while you dictate. If a dictation app ever leaves the microphone open for more than ten minutes, Chorus brings your audio back anyway.

Chorus makes exactly three kinds of network request, and none of them is personal data collection: a check for app updates, licence activation and validation with our payment provider Polar (so we can enforce the three-Mac limit), and a small number of anonymous usage counts sent to a server we run ourselves. Nothing about what you listen to, your device names, or your identity is ever collected.

You can turn the usage counts off at any time in Settings, About, with Share Anonymous Usage. With it off, Chorus sends no usage counts at all; your licence and trial work exactly the same. If a count cannot be sent, for example because a network blocker refuses it, Chorus tries again a couple of times over a few minutes and then lets it go, so it never keeps asking.

No. When Chorus reads audio, for per-app volume control, routing, or the live level meters, it's only ever measuring the signal or sending it to a different device in real time. Nothing is ever written to disk, saved, or transmitted anywhere. This is the same for both the free trial and a purchased licence; the behaviour never changes. Dictation controls never listen to your microphone either: they only notice when a dictation app is using it.

Two, and both are optional. Accessibility lets your physical volume keys control an active group; without it, everything else still works, you just adjust volume from the panel or a shortcut instead. The audio permission lets Chorus read levels for per-app control and the live meters, and re-route audio between devices; it never records or saves anything. Chorus explains each one in the app the moment it asks for it.

Everything lives on your own Mac. Your groups, shortcuts, hidden devices and other preferences are stored in your Mac's local settings, and your licence key (if you've bought one) is kept securely in the macOS Keychain rather than a plain file. Nothing is backed up to a Chorus account or server, because there is no account; it's all local to the machine it's installed on.

No, and there never will be. You don't create an account to use the trial, and you don't create one after buying either; your licence key is all that's needed. The only email Chorus ever knows about is the one you used to check out with Polar, used purely to send your receipt and key, never for anything else.

No. Chorus never listens to, records or saves anything from your microphone. It only checks whether a dictation app is using the microphone, which your Mac reports without any audio involved, and needs no permission. To follow an app's own setting it reads that app's preferences on your Mac, and for Pause it uses your Mac's Now Playing controls. None of this leaves your Mac.