Chorus vs Sound Control: which one do you need?

The short version

These two apps solve different problems and charge in different ways, so the comparison is really two questions in one. Do you need to shape the sound with an equaliser, or do you need to combine and route the outputs you already have? And do you want to pay once, or keep paying for as long as you use the app? Neither answer is wrong, but they lead to different apps.

Chorus vs Sound Control at a glance

What Chorus is

Chorus is a native macOS menu-bar app for the devices already attached to your Mac. It groups outputs so several of them play as one, with a single volume that actually moves the sound rather than a slider that has quietly stopped working, and balance between the devices in the group so a quiet speaker can be brought up to meet a loud one.

Around that sits the rest of the job. You choose your input in the same panel. You send individual apps to different outputs, so a call can stay on your headphones while music plays across the room. You save the arrangements you use and switch between them with a keyboard shortcut, and your volume keys drive a whole group instead of one device. Chorus notices devices as they connect and disconnect and adjusts, which matters if you unplug a display at the end of the day. If you want to drive it from elsewhere, it automates through Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.

There is no driver and no kernel extension. Chorus uses the audio grouping macOS already has, so nothing is installed into the system and dragging the app to the Trash leaves your Mac as it was. It is $4.99 once, free for 30 days with no account and no card details, and one licence covers up to three Macs. It needs macOS 13 or later and runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon.

What Sound Control is

Sound Control, from Static Z Software, is free to download from the Mac App Store, with the full feature set behind a subscription: $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year. It gives you per-app volume and mute, so you can turn down one noisy app without touching the rest, along with priority device settings and an integrated control bar with hotkey options for quick access.

Its standout feature is the equaliser: 10-band or 31-band graphic EQ, with support for Audio Units plugins, so you can shape the actual sound coming out of your Mac rather than just choosing where it goes. That is a real capability, and one Chorus does not have at all. What is less clear from its listing is whether it is built to combine several physical outputs into one group the way Chorus is; its focus is per-app control and EQ, not output grouping, so that is not a claim worth making either way.

Where Chorus wins

• One payment, not a running bill. $4.99 once against $14.99 a year means Sound Control costs roughly $45 to $60 over three years while Chorus costs $4.99 total, however long you keep it.
• Output groups, with per-device balance. Several outputs playing as one, with a real volume and the ability to bring a quiet speaker up to meet a loud one.
• Setups on a keyboard shortcut. Save the arrangements you actually use, then switch between them with a shortcut, or from Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.
• It follows your desk. Devices are picked up as they connect and dropped as they go, so a group survives the daily unplugging.
• Nothing installed into the system. No driver, no kernel extension, and no trace left behind when it goes.
• Three Macs on one licence, and 30 days free before you decide.

Where Sound Control is the better buy

• An equaliser. A 10 or 31-band graphic EQ with Audio Units support, which Chorus has no answer to.
• Per-app volume and mute. Quiet down one app without touching the system volume for everything else.
• Free to try. It costs nothing to download and test before deciding whether the subscription is worth it to you.
• A control bar and hotkeys for quick access to per-app volume without opening a full window.
• If shaping the sound is the point, not just where it goes, the monthly cost buys something Chorus does not do.

So which should you pick?

The honest answer turns on what you actually want and how you feel about paying for it. If you want an equaliser and you are fine with an ongoing bill, Sound Control does something real that Chorus cannot: 10 or 31-band EQ with Audio Units support is genuine capability, and $1.99 a month is not a lot to a lot of people.

Pick Chorus if the job is output grouping and per-app routing, you have no interest in an equaliser, and you would rather pay once than watch a subscription renew every month for as long as you own the Mac. Over three years the difference is roughly $40 to $55 in Chorus's favour, and that gap only grows the longer you keep using it.

Pick Sound Control if shaping the sound itself, not just routing it, is what you are actually after. That is a feature Chorus does not offer at any price, so if you need it, the subscription is the honest cost of getting it.

For its current pricing and full feature list, see Sound Control's own Mac App Store listing.

Frequently asked questions