A Quick look at Sound Preferences

In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at the sound options we have on the Mac through the Sound Preference Pane in the System Preferences.

Accessing Sound Preferences
To access the preferences for sound, you need to open System Preferences under the Apple Menu. In the window that opens, click on sound. At the top will be a tab with three options, Sound Effects, Output, and Input. Also at the bottom will be a slider for Output Volume, Mute, and Show Volume in Menu Bar. These last three options will show in al the tabs.

Sound Effects
With Sound Effects, we can set what the Mac uses as an alert sound. If you have speakers connected to your Mac, you can also set where the sound effects play through. There is also a separate volume for alert sounds and settings for if you want to play user interface sound effects and if you want to hear feedback when you change the volume.

Output or setting your Speakers
The Output section is where you set which speakers your Mac will use for sound output. You can also set the balance.

Input or setting your Microphone
The Input section is where you set which microphone your Mac will use for sound input. You can also set the level for the microphone.

Show Volume in Menu Bar
This shows at the bottom of the Sound Preference Pane and sets if you want to see volume as a menu extra. When this is selected, you can see the volume your mac is set to in the Menu Bar, you can change the volume from the Menu Bar, and select which speaker you want to use through the Menu Bar. If you hold down the Option key while clicking onto Volume Menu Extra, you can also set which microphone you want to use.

See this Lesson Action
To see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.