Chorus vs Sound Control: which one do you need?

The short version

These two apps overlap on per-app audio but are built for different jobs. Do you need to shape the sound with an equaliser, or do you need to combine and switch the outputs you already have? 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 $9.99 once, free for 14 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 sold two ways: a one-time $25 licence direct from Static Z, with a free trial, or a free download from the Mac App Store with the full feature set behind a subscription of $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year. The two are separate purchases. It gives you per-app volume, mute and balance, and can send each app to its own output device, 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 it does not advertise is combining several physical outputs into one group the way Chorus does; its focus is per-app control and EQ.

Where Chorus wins

• The lowest price. $9.99 once, against $25 once for Sound Control direct, or $14.99 a year on the Mac App Store, which comes to about $45 over three years.
• 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 14 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. The direct version has a trial, and the App Store version is free to download before you decide whether to subscribe.
• 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, it does something Chorus does not.

So which should you pick?

It comes down to what you want the app to do. If you want an equaliser, Sound Control does something Chorus cannot: 10 or 31-band EQ with Audio Units support, for $25 once direct.

Pick Chorus if the job is output grouping and per-app routing, you have no interest in an equaliser, and you want the lowest one-time price: $9.99, covering up to three Macs.

Pick Sound Control if shaping the sound itself, not just routing it, is what you are after. That is a feature Chorus does not offer at any price.

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

Frequently asked questions