Hey Product Hunt — I’m Chris, the maker of Auto Ducking. I built this because I kept running into the same small but annoying Mac workflow problem: I would be listening to music, a video, or ambient audio, then start dictating, recording, joining a call, or talking to an AI voice tool — and suddenly I had to manually lower the volume. Auto Ducking is a tiny macOS menu bar app that automatically lowers background audio when your microphone becomes active, then restores the previous volume when mic use ends. It supports ducking level, fade controls, restore delay, app trigger rules, presets, output device memory, manual ducking, and hotkeys. It does not record, transcribe, or upload microphone audio. It only detects microphone activity and adjusts system output volume locally. I’d really appreciate feedback from Mac users, podcasters, remote workers, people using voice dictation, and anyone talking to AI voice tools. What workflow should I optimize next?

Auto Ducking

Lower Mac audio when your mic is active

Lower Mac audio when your mic is active