Audio fades up after silence

[archetyped]

Whenever starting to play audio, or even after just a short silence (2+ seconds), the audio starts out low and slowly fades up to the actual set volume. This results in quite a bit of pumping and inaudible sections when listening to audio, watching videos, etc.

I've adjusted the different settings, such as changing the "Buffer size" (currently 512) and "Proxy device is active" (currently Always) options.

Any assistance in getting the audio volume to remain constant between periods of silence would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Details

• Device: Mac Mini M1
• MacOS: 12.6.1
• Proxy Audio Device: 1.0.6
  • Updated from 1.0.5 today in the hopes that this issue was not present, but the behavior is the same.

[briankendall]

That's very strange, and I cannot think of how Proxy Audio Device would be responsible for that. Do you have any software installed that is automatically adjusting your system volume? My guess is that the output device that you are proxying is having its volume automatically controlled by another third party app. I know that some voice calls apps will do this sort of thing.

[archetyped]

Do you have any software installed that is automatically adjusting your system volume?

No software controlling volume.

My guess is that the output device that you are proxying is having its volume automatically controlled by another third party app. I know that some voice calls apps will do this sort of thing.

No third-party apps controlling audio volume globally. The volume fading occurs for all audio in all apps, even MacOS system alerts (which makes them easy to miss if they are short in duration).

When any other device is selected (including the "native" device [monitor HDMI]) is selected as the sound output, audio levels are constant. Audio levels fade in only when the proxied device is selected as the output.

[briankendall]

Could you try the following:

1. Open the app Audio MIDI Setup
2. Select the device your proxying (not the proxy audio device itself)
3. Wait until the volume changes, and check to see whether any of the volume sliders displayed in Audio MIDI Setup are moving
4. If nothing is moving, try doing the same thing with the proxy audio device selected and see if any of its sliders move

Do the sliders move at all?

[archetyped]

Hi, no volume sliders move on either the original nor the proxy device when audio starts playing.

Note that the original device's volume sliders are disabled (which is the reason Proxy Audio Device is being used).

[briankendall]

I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to what's going on. I cannot reproduce this issue on any of my systems, and there's nothing I can think of in the proxy device itself that could explain this, as it has no function or facility for adding fades. It simply adjusts the audio's amplitude based on the system volume, and those volume levels are handled by macOS itself.

The best I can suggest is alternatives, and the main one I'm aware is SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba, which has an option to allow adjusting the volume of any audio device. (Note though that it is paid software, however.)

[archetyped]

Thanks.